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Zaven’s le of warehouses, wheredocks The stone walls looh above the narrow streets, so tall they alrayly through the fuan to feel wary Before yesterday he’d never walked alone in a city, and he didn’t knohich sorts of neighborhoods were safe and which were not

He cae to check Zaven’s , Alek noticed a figure out of the corner of his eye

The wo black robes, her face covered by a veil She was hunched with age, and a few silver coins were sewn into her headdress He’d seen plenty of desert tribesmen like her on the streets of Istanbul, but never a wo alone before She stood,down at the cobblestones

When Alek had passed that building a o, she hadn’t been there

He quickly folded the ain A lanced backward

The old wo had she been there?

He chewed his lip as he walked He was close to the address Zaven had given hiht to his new allies Istanbul was full of spies and revolutionaries, and of secret police as well

But surely he could outrun an old woher, Alek quickened his pace He let hi the coe cover

And yet when he looked back, his pursuer was still there, gliding gracefully across the paving stones, her robes rippling like waves of black water

This was no old woman, perhaps no woman at all

Alek’s hand went to his belt, and he softly swore He was arht at the Grand Bazaar thatIts curved steel blade had looked exotically lethal laid out on red velvet But its edge hadn’t been sharpened yet, and Alek had never trained to use a weapon of its kind

He rounded the last corner, almost at the address on Zaven’s ht for ainto the entrance of an alley

"Shush," he breathed through the birdcage’s cover The creature ain, but fell silent

Alek placed the cage carefully on the ground and peeked out

The dark figure appeared,dock on the other side of the street Alek saw the symbol painted on the dock, and frowned

It was the saantly on his map

Was this a coincidence? Or had this pursuer already knohere Alek was headed?

The black-robed figure ju that this was no woman The man backed into the shadows, but his robes were just visible, billowing softly in the breeze

Alek stood there in the alley, his back pressed hard against cold stone Thanks to Eddie Malone, he was already half an hour late If he waited for his pursuer to give up and go away, it es more What would his new allies think if he arrived at their secret ht theht be soed Gero train behind it - the perfect cover Alek knelt and spoke softly to the birdcage "I’ll be right back Just stay quiet"

"Quiet," the creature o train was lu past, between him and the otherbehind the train, then slipped between two cars and across the street

His back to the stone warehouse wall, Alek inched his way toward the loading dock The long, curved knife felt unfamiliar in his hand, and he wondered for a moment if the man had spotted him

But it was too late for doubts Alek crept closer

Suddenly afrom the alley where he’d left the beast!

Alek froze Was it in trouble?

A ure juhter, crossing the street to peer into the alleyway

Alek saw his chance, stealing up behind to press his knife against the e"

The ht - and quicker He whipped around within Alek’s grip, and suddenly they faced each other

Alek found hilets of black hair This wasn’t a irl said in perfect Gere, and looked down

The tip of her knife was pressed against his sto what to do But then the door to the loading dock began to rise, rattling with the clatter of chains and pulleys

Both of them looked up, still locked in their lethal e down at them

"Ah, Alek! You’re finally here And I see you’ve hter!"

Chapter Twenty-Six

"You should have let hter said as they climbed the broad staircase inside the warehouse

The creature giggled frootten into it

Zaven clicked his tongue sadly "Ah, Lilit You are yourto a reporter!"