Page 63 of Lay It Bare

Rei rubbed his hands together, nerves showing in the way the tendons flexed in the backs of his palms.

“Speak,” Sevastyan ordered.

“All the supports have to fall at once,” Rei whispered. “The Reevesworths’ influence isn’t enough. It has to come down all at once.” He swallowed. “One day. One sweep.”

Sevastyan pressed his hands together, looking at the map again with new eyes. The Merchari were so large it had never occurred to him to try for so much damage all at once. It was logical. The same way he would work himself, taking down a smaller cell. But Rei was thinking global.

“There are linchpins that have to be taken down first.” Sevastyan took one of Rei’s pens and added names to the map. “It has to be coordinated across agencies and countries.”

Rei reached for his tablet. “If these names lose their power, the Merchari will be finished.”

Sevastyan scrolled over the list. He knew every name. Had been in the room with most at one time or another.

“Bak Gyeong isn’t here.”

“He’s not a linchpin,” Rei whispered, curling in on himself. “Without the Merchari, he falls. He’s not important”

Sevastyan curled his finger under Rei’s chin, lifting the other man’s face so he could see his eyes. “It’s important to you.”

Rei gazed back. “If they fall, he will fall.”

Sevastyan nodded and let his hand sink back down to the table. “Let’s work.”

“You think . . . you think Richard will listen to us?”

“I know a way to make him listen.”

Rei looked at Sevastyan, eyes wide and asking. Sevastyan shook his head. It wasn’t something he could bring himself to say, not yet.

Ellisandre needed to drug him now.

Rei’s memory was a steel trap of details. His years managing the database had given him a familiarity with the technicals facts of the Merchari organization, while Sevastyan’s knowledge was personal. As they mapped out the fall points, Rei’s words came more smoothly, his focus on the work instead of Sevastyan. They met each other, point by point, the corners easier to see around with one reinforcing the other.

When this was all over, when the world came demanding Sevastyan pay for his crimes, Rei would survive. He was strong. He could adapt to anything. Had adapted to anything. He would make it through the end, to the life he deserved. To Jun and Yohei and Jaewoong and Geun.

Sevastyan would make certain of it.

Sevastyan

In the early hours of the morning, Sevastyan’s phone rang. He stood and went into the kitchen to answer it. It was Bai, one of the directors from Yadro.

“The bounty on your head has been removed.”

“I see. Thank you for the information.”

“The individuals responsible have been chastised. All contractors have been stood down. But they are asking for your presence in South Korea. The wife of the murdered client wishes to speak to you herself.”

“Is she the one who put out the hit?”

Bai said nothing.

Sevastyan sighed softly. “Is this an order, Director?”

“Not an order. Yet. Something that is being negotiated.”

“I see. Thank you for the information.”

Bai hung up. Sevastyan stood in the kitchen and stared at the wall. Sometimes, just sometimes, he wished that he had more power. Obviously the trail of bodies he’d left in South Korea the first time had missed a few imbeciles. And potentially grief-stricken wives with the power to drive others mad.