Page 45 of Shadowfox

We reached the promenade above the Danube and slowed. The wind off the river cut sharper now, slipping through wool and bone. Will hunched his shoulders a little, and I had to resist the impulse to adjust his scarf for him. We weren’t alone, even when it felt like it.

“And the Soviets?” I asked.

“There were two of them. They watched from across the yard, pretending not to care until I walked up to him.”

“Did they approach you?”

“No. They stayed in place, though one shifted his hand to his rifle. He just rested it there, like some bad Hollywood warning.”

My jaw tightened. I hated this part.

The balancing act. The pretending. The not knowing until it was too late.

“But they let it happen.”

“I don’t think they knew what was happening. I was just another boring engineer talking about boring engineer stuff. If they had known . . .”

“Right,” I said, trying not to think of what would’ve happened had Farkas’s minders known what he now held.

We walked in silence for another block, our boots scuffing against frost-cracked pavement. The sky above the river had turned iron gray, and the lights across Budapest shimmered like reflections of another city.

“What happens now?” Will asked, glancing sideways at me.

“We watch the notice board on Váci utca,” I said. “Top-left corner of the Liszt Academy poster. If he tears it, we move to step two.”

“A torn flyer is the best we could come up with?”

I shrugged and returned his grin. “It works, and no one will think twice. Most of the crap on that board is already ripped apart.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Will was quiet a moment. “What if he doesn’t do anything?”

“Then he’s not ready.”

“Or they got to him already,” Will said.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t like speculating unless I had to.

He stopped walking then, turned to face me.

“What’s our plan if he refuses to come? Manakin usually has everything planned out to the second.”

I smiled. Manakin was a planner. “We have a different job if that happens. And yes, before you ask, Manakin briefed me on it. I haven’t told the team because I want all eyes focused on making this part work so we don’t have to . . .”

“What?” Will froze, his eyes boring into me. “What won’t we have to do?”

My gaze fell to the river. “Kill more people.”

Will blinked a few times, then nodded and let his own gaze follow mine. Water drifted by, dark and murky. It made me shiver—or maybe that came from our conversation. I wasn’t sure.

“If he signals, how soon do we contact him again?” Will asked, returning to the better option.

“The morning after. We’ll leave dead drop instructions at the base of the statue in Károlyi Garden, tell him where to meet, when, and what to bring.”

“And if someone else sees it first?”

“We’ll know,” I said. “We’ll have someone watching the drop.”

“So it’s a waiting game.”

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