Page 103 of The Game

“Don’t thump my motherfucking seats,” the cabbie says.

“I knew. I fucking knew Konstantin Lebedev was dangerous as soon as I found out that information about the camps. I fucking told her not to go out there. Why the hell did she go? Fuckity fuck fuck.”

What?What the hell’s been going on? “You were looking into Anna? And you warned her? Who’s Konstantin Lebedev?”

“He runs all the tennis academies in Russia. He’s a crook, a pedophile. An extremely creepy guy.”

“God, I hope Anna’s okay,” I start to say, and, oh Christ, I haven’t messaged her!

“Fuck knows what they’ll do to her if they’ve done this to Adam,” Fabian says, slamming his fist into the seat again.

“Don’t hit my fucking seats!” the driver shouts again.

But I’m already fumbling with my phone, and I fire off a message.

We’ve got Adam. Found him unconscious, but alive. Thready pulse. We have no idea what’s wrong with him. Anything you can find out would be a bonus.

Then for good measure, I add:

If you need leverage, threaten them with someone hacking into their systems.

“I don’t know if she’s even with them. They’re eight hours ahead, I guess. She said she was getting a flight back tonight.”

Just as the words leave my mouth, my phone rings in my hand and Fabian’s head snaps around.

“Anna,” I say, and Fabian takes the phone right out of my hand.

“Anna. This is Fabian. Put Konstantin on.”

How does he know she’swiththis guy?

He listens for a beat. “I don’t care. Put him on.”

Another pause. “Anna, just put him on.”

There’s a few seconds of silence while he drums his fingers on his thigh.

“Listen up, asshole. You don’t know me and you never will, but I’m someone you don’t want to be on the wrong side of,” he growls. “I can hack into anywhere, find anything, and Adam Miller is a friend of mine. If he doesn’t survive whatever you’ve done to him, you’ll never be able to get any technology to work again without me taking it down. If you touch one hair on Anna Talanova’s head, then your organization will go down … for good.”

Hehangs up.

“Didn’t we need to talk to Anna?” I say.

“I don’t give a fuck about that.”

“Are you going to take his systems down?”

“It’s already done.”

“What?”

“How did you know she was with him?”

“Probability, man. She’d call you as soon as she found out something was wrong, wouldn’t she?”

The Christmas tree in Madison Square Park appears over his right shoulder outside the car window.

“Why the hell were you looking into this Konstantin guy?”

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