Page 85 of Redline Communion

Nobody follows me out of the house.

For the first time since I came here, I leave because I said I was leaving.

I make it halfway down the drive before I realize I still have one page from the folder clenched in my hand.

I don’t remember taking it.

Under the gate lights, I unfold the paper.

Six cities.

Four countries.

My name running through all of them.

Marazul is circled, with Liore next in the sequence, and beyond that are Ravello and three branches I have never heard of.

At the bottom, beside a date six weeks away, someone has written a single word in red.

TRANSFER.

I stare until the letters stop looking like language.

Then I start walking again.

Epilogue

Rafe

Dominic sends the message at 2:07 in the morning.

I’m awake, which feels important, though I’m not sure why.

Dominic: Need amended report. Discrepancies.

I read it twice.

The apartment I keep across town, the one Dominic pays for and I pretend isn’t his, is dark except for my phone and the streetlight cutting through the blinds. Lorelei isn’t here. I know that, but I checked twice anyway, which is a bad habit.

I sit against the headboard and type back.

Me: what discrepancies

The typing bubble appears, stops, then appears again.

Dominic: Villa. Subsequent activity. Drug use.

My stomach drops slowly, not because they know but because I don’t know how they know.

I left out the cocaine, Kiwi’s call, the name Lark, the hallway we disappeared down together, and most importantly, myself. The report said she attended a private gathering, there were no security concerns, and she returned safely.

I made the night clean enough to disappear.

Apparently somebody put the dirt back.

Me: source?

Dominic ignores the question.