He looked at me for a long moment. The study was very quiet around us, the sea outside a low constant sound, and the lamp on the desk throwing long shadows across the floor.
"Three years ago," he said, "Vasile and I had an arrangement. A significant one — the kind of operation that takes years to build." A pause, the breath careful again. "I burned it."
"You burned it."
"All of it. The accounts, the network, the supply chain. Eighteen months of his operation, gone in seventy-two hours."
I stared at him. "Why."
He met my eyes directly. "Because I found out what he was moving."
The silence stretched.
"It wasn't money," I said slowly. "It wasn't information."
"No."
"People."
He held my gaze. "Yes."
The word sat in the room between us and I understood, fully and completely, why a ma
