AllFreeNovel Stories worth discovering

The Bratva’s Secret Heir

Page 131

by Leona White

Dima’s voice comes through Abramov’s radio. “The boiler-room camera caught one man burning papers. I’m outside the lower passage.”

Dmitri drops his cigarette into Kirill’s coffee.

Kirill stares at him. “What the hell?”

“It was cold.”

“That doesn’t improve it.”

Dmitri checks the pistol beneath his jacket and heads for the door.

“Dima, enter through the lower passage,” I say into Abramov’s radio. “Abramov, put another team at the stairs. Don’t leave him an exit.”

Dmitri opens the door. “If it’s Anton, he won’t burn anything else.”

He leaves before anyone answers.

Twenty minutes pass before the communications-room door opens hard enough to strike the wall. Dima walks in with blood across one sleeve. He carries two evidence bags, one holding a partly melted phone and the other a burned work order.

“We found him,” he says.

“Anton?” Abramov asks.

“Yes. He was burning a contractor work order and a copy of the north-gate duty list.”

Dima drops the evidence bags onto the table.

“Anton admitted to putting the photo at the north gate and pulling the breach footage,” he says. “Both orders came through the burner phone.”

He taps the burned work order. “Three days ago, they sent him to the chapel to pick up a sealed envelope hidden behind a loose panel. Tonight, they told him to pull the footage, send it through a link, and destroy the phone.”

I look at the courtyard photograph on the screen. “So someone inside got this picture, printed it, and left it in the chapel for Anton.”

Abramov folds his arms. “Then we still have another traitor in the house.”

“Check every printer,” I tell Yuri. “Start with security, staff offices, and maintenance.”

Yuri turns back to his keyboard. “If they used a printer connected to our system, I’ll find the time and the machine.”

“And if they used a private printer?” Leonid asks, closing the file in front of him.

Yuri looks over his shoulder. “Then we search the house until we find it.”

Leonid turns toward Dima. “Why did they choose Anton?”

Dima taps the burned work order. “He handled repair requests and visitor passes. He could bring workers inside without drawing attention.”

Petrov slides Anton’s payment record across the table. “He also had gambling debts. Someone paid them for him.”

“So they bought him,” Leonid says, looking down at the payments.

Dima nods. “First, he approved the plumbing crew and cleared their visitor passes. Later, they ordered him to carry the envelope.”

I look at the listed repair.

“Anton let them in,” I say. “The foreman took our guard to the water controls, leaving the second worker alone at the open wall.”

Kirill points to the transmitter inside the evidence bag. “The second worker used that time to hide it behind the wiring.”