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He clicks his tongue “Now, that won’t be helping you, little rabbit That’ll be sending both of us straight to a shallow grave”

3

Alex

The security team jumps to attention when I enter the base in the tech district of St Petersburg

“Anything?” I ask, loosening my tie as I walk down the aisle that separates the state-of-the-art workstations

Igor and Leonid tail uards the door With the measures I put in place, we’re safer here than anywhere, but there’s a weakness in the systes are fickle, and human nature is always an unreliable and inconstant variable in the equation

Like I explained to ry kitten on ranted That’s the only reason I’m not six feet under

The head of my security team, Pyotr Nelsky, waits at the wall- in a military pose with his arms plastered to his sides

“Nothing, sir,” he says when I reach him, an undercurrent of fear in his tone

I slide aze toward the flatscreens on the wall, which reflect the status of every workstation The results of the data each eet the hospital security tapes?”

“Yes, sir We’re going through them as we speak”

Going over to one of the monitors, I press the button to wake up the screen A ether These shots are freeze-fra out the patients who frequented Coney Island Hospital’s ER yesterday

At best, the ies are blurry In some of them, only the backs of the patients’ heads are visible

Frustration eats at ut “What’s the operation status?”

“We’re in the process of trying to identify all the patients and visitors ere present in the building yesterday,” Nelsky says to my back

I turn to face hi?”

“It may take us a couple of days” His Adam’s apple bobs as he ss “We pulled the records of the patients who signed in The staff aren’t a problem since they clock in and out for work It will be harder to trace the visitors and service providers, especially considering that there are camera blind spots”

“What are you saying?” I ask, druers on his desk

He fixes his gaze on a spot overme directly in the eyes “It will be ih the building in the span of twelve hours”