“I know the kind of people Voss uses.”
“You knew them three years ago.”
“Organizations change. Methodology doesn’t always.”
“What methodology?” Eli asked.
Darla turned slightly toward him.
“They watch first. They don’t rush unless they think the target is about to become inaccessible. They learn routines. They look for pressure points.”
Eli thought of the burner text.
“Whoever warned us changed their timing.”
“Yes.”
“Is that good?”
“No,” Darla said. “It means everyone is improvising.”
Raina glanced at her in the mirror.
“How many people would Voss send for you?”
“If he wants information, as few as possible. If he wants certainty, more.”
“That’s still not a number,” Eli said.
Darla almost smiled despite everything.
“No. It isn’t.”
The compound was visibly different when they arrived.
The gate opened before the truck reached it. Men stood in places Eli had never seen them stand before. Not brandishing anything, not performing threat, simply positioned. The usual looseness of the yard had tightened into structure.
Doyle met them before the engine shut off.
He leaned toward Raina’s window and spoke quickly.
Eli caught only fragments.
“Confirmed.”
“Three.”
“Presser.”
A name he did not know.
Raina got out.
“Long room. Everyone who matters.”
The closed meeting room at the far end of the main building had always carried a gravity different from every other door. Eli entered it for the first time that afternoon.
He chose a chair along the wall rather than the table. Nobody instructed him to. He understood that the table belonged to patched members and people being formally heard. Darla sat beside him.
Raina took the head chair.
Doyle sat to her right. Boon, Trace, Garrett, and several others filled the remaining seats. Hargrove sat near the far end with two members of his chapter.
He looked worse than he had three days earlier, exhausted enough that fatigue had moved beyond appearance and become part of posture.
Raina did not waste time.
“Tell me exactly what you know.”
Hargrove placed a folder on the table.
“The network Darla worked for did not disappear. It fractured. Most of it collapsed after the federal cases, but one financial branch rebuilt under Victor Voss.”
Darla’s expression hardened.
“Victor’s still alive?”
“Yes.”
She breathed out slowly.
Hargrove continued.
“For six weeks we’ve been tracking activity that looked connected to him. Three people are now confirmed in Ridgerest County. Two are local hires. Surveillance and transport. The third is Carl Presser.”
Hargrove slid a photograph across the table.
Eli could see it from the wall.
Medium height. Gray at the temples. Blue jacket. A face that looked ordinary enough to be useful.
“Presser came in four days ago,” Hargrove said. “He has authority to make decisions without checking every step with Voss.”
“Why didn’t you tell me six weeks ago?” Raina asked.
“We did not know the surveillance was focused on Darla.”
“You knew the county was being watched.”
“Yes.”
“And you made a strategic decision not to involve me.”
“Yes.”
“You were using the situation as bait.”