Page 422 of Black Reign

Xavier's mouth moves slightly.

Senior looks between us.

“What are you proposing?”

“We give him something worth moving for.”

The trap takes four hours.

Most of that is arguments.

Senior wants Glinchesvsky detained immediately.

I refuse.

Xavier agrees with me.

Senior hates this.

I enjoy marriage more every day.

We create a false ARGUS event showing the second key has successfully unlocked Papa's entire archive.

Then another.

A transfer authorization.

Physical custody moving to a secure site outside Monaco.

Not real.

Nothing leaves this room.

But the sleeper credential sees enough to believe the evidence Glinchesvsky has spent decades trying to erase is about to leave his reach.

Then we wait.

Ten minutes.

Twenty.

Nothing.

Senior begins pacing.

Xavier doesn't.

He stands behind my chair, one hand resting lightly against the back.

I feel him there without looking.

Thirty-seven minutes.

The credential wakes.

I sit forward.

“There.”