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“Which brings us back to square one,” Aidan said

“Hopefully, Terri’s bug will give us the anse need,” Marc responded “Till that happens, there’s no point in speculating”

“I agree” Aidan’s focus returned to the life-or-death mission ahead “Call me the minute Philip is in contact”

Abandoned farmhouse

Ðakovo, Slavonia

Thursday, 7:10 pm local time

Patience was thethe necessary amount of it over the past few hours

He’d been at the farray SUV behind a stand of bare-liear Binoculars Nikon D-850 Attached AF-S FX Nikkor eight-hundred-millimeter lens

All was quiet on the grounds The black sedan was parked in its customary spot And no other vehicles had arrived, which told Philip that these Albanians had no backup It was just the handful of them

There were a fe lights on inside the house, enough to allow Philip to make out a modicum of activity Fro area fiftymeal With any luck, it had been accoh so they’d be tired, their senses would be dulled, and their awareness of their surroundings would be coht

In concurrence with that theory, Mr Smoker had seemed a little unsteady on his feet when he’d stuarette break—which he did every hour on the hour There’d been no sign of Mr Worker Bee since he’d taken out soe question uy who’d chatted Lauren up at Hofbräuhaus and then physically abducted her It made him even more convinced that what he’d told Marc was true—that the scu had been a cutout—a middleman whose face they realized was likely captured on ca ID’d

Still, theories, no , were just that: theories It was possible he could be inside the farmhouse with an unknown number of others

Philip had hours to figure it out

He continued to watch and wait

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