Chapter 3 - The Secret in the Lining
As Elara devoured a plate of roasted chicken and potatoes, Silas ordered his lead tactical commander, a scarred ex-Marine named Thorne, to inspect her ruined winter coat. Thorne handled the garment with gloved hands, sweeping it with a portable scanner.
"Boss," Thorne called out from the adjoining room. "You need to see this."
Silas left Elara under Bane’s watchful gaze and stepped into the hallway. Thorne had cut open the inner lining of the coat. Embedded deep within the insulation was a high-capacity encrypted flash drive, wrapped in waterproof tape.
"She didn't just wander here," Thorne muttered, holding up the drive. "She was a courier. Whoever sent her knew that no one would search a starving six-year-old girl. And they knew she had the one failsafe to get past your perimeter."
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Silas stared at the drive. The syndicate had enemies everywhere, but this level of calculated desperation pointed to only one faction: the Volkov Bratva. They were the ones who originally bred Bane. They were the ones who had recently been making aggressive moves on Silas’s ports on the East Coast.
"Plug it in on a closed network," Silas ordered, his jaw clenching. "I want to know what’s on it before sunrise. And double the perimeter guard. If the Volkovs realize she made it here, they won’t send a diplomat. They’ll send an army."
