Page 63 of Shadowfox

“Shadowfox will meet me in the secondary chamber,” I continued. “I’ll arrive ten minutes early. Egret will enter five minutes later, disguised as a bath attendant. Sparrow and Emu will remain outside.”

“Why you?” Will asked, a bit of his protective defensiveness poking through his question.

“Because he may or may not trust our message, and I don’t rattle easily.”

“If he betrays us?” Sparrow asked. “If he’s been questioned or warned . . .”

“We’re assuming he hasn’t been,” I said. “The tear on the flyer was deliberate, which means he wants to meet. He’s ready.”

“You don’t know that,” Sparrow cautioned.

“I know enough,” I insisted.

Will tapped the corner of the map. “The steam room? You think he’s going to have a conversation about extraction wearing a towel and holding a water bottle?”

I shrugged. “That’s the idea.”

“And if he brings someone?” Sparrow remained skeptical.

“Then I’ll walk out,” I said. “We don’t force it. This is still a probe. The real ask comes later, when we’re sure he’s not compromised.”

They didn’t like it. I could see that. Sparrow’s lips pressed thin. Will’s eyes narrowed. Egret didn’t move at all, which was how I knew he was listening harder than any of us.

Hell, it wasn’t as though I loved the plan, but we had to work the plan we had, not the one we wished for.

“And if they follow him afterward?” Sparrow asked.

“Then Egret intercepts.” I motioned toward the big man with my head. “Worst case, he pulls Shadowfox out, and we execute a forced extraction.”

“Shit,” Will said. “It’s a risk.”

“Everything we do is a risk.” I nodded. “But if we wait too long, we’ll lose him. This is our window.”

Silence hung over the table as the waiter delivered Egret’s food. The duck looked too elegant for the tension sitting between our shoulders. Egret raised a brow, muttered, “Fancy.” The moment the waiter stepped away, Egret dove into his plate like some starved wolf attacking a downed deer. The rest of us stared, unable to give voice to whatever fears raced through our heads.

“How does Shadowfox learn all of this?” Sparrow asked. “Surely, you didn’t have these details in his packet.”

“We wouldn’t know the timing, even if we had picked a location, not until he responded.” I shook my head. “I’ll signal Lark. She will arrange for the details to make it to Shadowfox without us poking our heads above the snow. We’re already too recognizable.”

Sparrow nodded thoughtfully. Egret chewed loudly. Will scratched his chin and kept his eyes on the window.

I took a breath, ready to go over the timetable again, to reinforce the drop signals, remind everyone how the next forty-eight hours would unfold, keep us pointed forward.

Then something in the street changed.

I didn’t hear it. Ifeltit—like pressure in the room shifted, and my body registered it before my mind caught up.

Will sat up straighter, his eyes boring holes through the glass of the window facing the street.

I looked up, past Egret’s shoulder, toward the window.

A man stood across the street.

His coat was too long, his hat too low. His face was shadowed and unreadable. He stood still as the stone buildings around him.

He wasn’t smoking, wasn’t waiting, wasn’t pretending to read a newspaper.

He was watching.

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