“Nothing here,” a second voice muttered, sounding annoyed by the cold downpour.

“He probably took off toward the warehouses near the docks.”

“Keep looking,” the first voice ordered. “If Draven finds her first, we are dead.”

The footsteps began to move away, heading toward the concrete path that led to the canal.

I waited until the sound of the rain swallowed their footsteps completely.

My hands were shaking as I pulled my phone out again.

The warning message still stared back at me from the cracked screen.

*They know where you are. Run.*

I touched the hard shape of the flash drive through my coat pocket.

My mother had always warned me about the Draven name when I was younger.

Before she died, she had left me a box of old letters, mostly filled with receipts and medical records from her time as a private nurse.

One name had appeared in those records over and over: Elena Draven.

My mother had tried to protect someone.

She had written about a shadow inside the house, a threat that came from within the syndicate’s inner circle.