Page 166 of Fractured Allegiance
I pull out my phone and open the encrypted app.
Text Tyler: Need eyes on traffic cameras near the Solstice Club. 5-6 PM today. Can you pull footage?
After about five minutes, three dots appear. Then: You know I'm not supposed to do this without a case file.
I know. But I need it now. Not tomorrow.
Longer pause.
Fine. Give me 20 minutes.
Thanks.
I sit in the car, staring at Lydia's dark window, waiting.
Twenty-three minutes later, my phone buzzes.
Tyler: Got it. Sending now.
A video file loads. Timestamp: 5:12 PM. Traffic camera, angle facing the club entrance.
There. 5:15 PM. Black SUV. Dom’s. Not surprising.
He opens the door. Lydia waits a while, looks like she was questioning him, but she gets in eventually. Her face is tight. Her eyes flick once toward the street.
Maybe she was looking for me.
I advance the footage. The SUV pulls out and takes a hard right.
I advance the footage. The SUV pulls out and takes a hard right.
I text Tyler: Need next camera. Follow that SUV eastbound.
Tyler: On it.
Another minute passes. Then: Here.
The next file loads. A few blocks down, from a different angle.
Nothing.
The vehicle just... disappears.
Literally.
Like the plates were scrubbed in real-time or someone spliced the feed.
I text Tyler: You seeing this?
Tyler: Yeah. That's not a technical glitch. Someone wiped it. Deliberately.
Only a few people in this city have that kind of access.
And two of them work for Drazen.
I quickly save the feed in my flash drive and lean back in the driver’s seat.
She’s not missing.
