Chapter 36
Mikhail had clearly spent the night in a restless mood. The city's pale, mist-shrouded dawn had not yet fully broken, but he'd phoned someone early—so hastily that his voice was sharper than usual. There was no pleasantry in this summons, no hesitation. He had simply said,
"We need to meet now. Same place."
He rode his motorbike to a corner of an old cargo dock—a part of the city the police rarely patrolled, and that ordinary folk seldom visited. The air there was a mix of salt water and the smell of rusting iron, and it was that very solitude that made it Mikhail's preferred spot—a place where he could stay out of sight when needed.
A few minutes later, the sound of a car in the distance caught his attention. A black SUV slowly approached, each move calculated. As soon as t
