Gilbert, Julian, and Nate arrived at nine, right on time, folders and coffee in hand. Arianne had the dining table cleared already, Lexx down for his morning nap, the twins at school. This was the first time all five of them had been in one room since the news broke.
"Let’s start with the folder," Franz said, once everyone had a seat.
Nate slid it across the table. "Same registered agent. Three different clients. Dominic’s shell, the Conway holding company, and now the Summers-Blackwood partnership, before Rafael shut it down. Ten years, at least, maybe longer."
Franz read through it slowly, page by page. Nobody rushed him. When he finished, he set it down and looked up.
"This is real," he said. "Not a guess. Not a maybe."
"It’s real," Gilbert agreed. "The question is what we do with it."
"We go after the agent," Julian said. "Now that you’re back, there’s no reason to wait any longer."
"There’s still a reason." Gilbert’s voice stayed calm. "If we move too fast, whoever’s behind this agent finds out we’re looking. We lose the best lead we’ve had in years."
"We’ve been careful for years," Julian said. "Careful got us here. I want to know if careful can get us the rest of the way, or if it’s time to push."
"Both of you make a fair point." Arianne looked between them. "So let’s not choose blindly. Nate, what happens if we pull the agent’s records right now, today?"
"Best case, we get a name," Nate said. "Worst case, the records get wiped before we even open the file, and whoever’s behind this knows we’re close."
"And if we wait?"
"We keep watching. We don’t say a word to anyone. We risk losing nothing new, but we also don’t gain anything new until the next mistake gets made."
Franz sat back in his chair. "Then here’s what I think. We don’t move on the agent yet. Not until we have a second piece of proof that doesn’t depend on that one document alone. If something happens to it, we don’t want our whole case standing on a single sheet of paper."
"That could take weeks," Julian said.
"It might." Franz didn’t back down from it. "But it also might not. Nate’s already found three matches without even trying that hard. Give him more time, and I think he finds a fourth."
Nate nodded slowly. "I can dig. Carefully. No one has to know I’m still looking."
"Then that’s the plan." Arianne looked around the table. "We wait on the agent. We keep digging everywhere else. And we don’t take any action that could tip our hand until we’re standing on more than one document."
Julian didn’t look happy about it, but he didn’t argue either. "Fine. I’ll help Nate dig, then. Two of us will move faster than one."
"Just don’t get sloppy because you’re impatient," Nate said. "I don’t need help that costs us more than it saves."
"I know how to be careful, Nate."
"I know you do. I’m just saying it out loud so it’s on the record." Nate almost smiled when he said it, the tension from earlier finally easing off his shoulders.
"Good." Gilbert closed the folder. "Now, the second thing."
"Rafael," Arianne said.
"Rafael," Gilbert repeated. "He asked for a meeting. Arianne already agreed to it. Franz and I were both in the room when she decided. Thursday, at the Wexford."
"You’re really doing this," Julian said, not quite a question.
"I decided days ago." Arianne folded her hands on the table. "Franz and Gilbert were there for that conversation. You two weren’t, so you’re here for the plan, not the argument."
"Then what’s the plan?" Nate asked.
"Gilbert’s in the building. Franz stays close enough to reach me. I go in alone, on ground we chose, and I find out what he actually wants instead of guessing at it from a folder." She turned to Nate. "Anything in what you’ve found that changes what I should expect from him?"
"Nothing that changes the meeting itself," Nate said. "But he’s methodical. If he brings something up, it won’t be by accident."
"Good to know." She looked to Julian. "That leaves you."
"I still think somebody ought to be closer than ’close enough,’" Julian said. "But I’m not the one walking in, so I’ll settle for something useful instead. What do you want from me while it’s happening?"
"Help Nate keep digging on the agent. One thing at a time."
"Fine. I’ll behave."
"Come back exactly as you went in," Franz said, the first thing he’d added since the subject came up, low enough that it landed harder for the restraint in it.
"That’s the plan," Arianne said, and meant it.
"And if he asks for something you’re not willing to give him?" Gilbert asked.
"Then I say no, the same way I’ve said no to every executive who’s called me this week." She said it plainly, no hesitation in it. "I didn’t agree to this meeting because I owe him an answer. I agreed because I’d rather hear the question in person than spend months guessing at it."
Nate closed his own folder and stood, stretching after being in one seat too long. "Two big things settled in one morning. Not bad for a Tuesday."
"Don’t get used to it," Gilbert said. "Most Tuesdays aren’t like this one."
"I’d like most Tuesdays to go back to being boring, actually," Julian said. "Just for a while."
"You’d get bored of boring within a week," Nate said. "You always do."
"Maybe. I’d still like the chance to test that theory again sometime soon."
Before he could reach for his coat, Arianne caught Nate’s arm gently. "How’s Mikaella?"
He stilled for a second, the question landing somewhere he hadn’t braced for. "Dr. Osei confirmed a date. Next Tuesday, in Rohan. Mikaella flies out Friday, once the transport paperwork clears on our end."
"And the surgery itself?"
"Osei says her odds are good. Better than good, if you go by the numbers she quoted me. She’s not the type to soften a number just to make someone feel better." Nate rubbed the back of his neck. "I keep waiting for something to go wrong before it’s even that simple."
"Let yourself have this one, Nate. Not everything needs a catch attached to it."
"I’m working on it." He almost smiled. "Mikaella asked about you, by the way. Said to remind you she still hasn’t forgotten that blanket you brought her in the hospital. Fifteen years, and she still brings it up every time your name comes into a conversation."
"Tell her the blanket was never something she owed me for." Arianne’s voice softened around the memory. "Tell her I’m glad she’s finally getting the surgery she should have had years ago."
"I’ll tell her." Nate finally reached for his coat. "I’ll call you both the second she’s out of surgery. Either way it goes."
"Either way," Arianne agreed. "You’re not carrying that call alone."
Nobody argued with that either. Arianne stood and started gathering the empty coffee cups, waving off Franz when he moved to help her with them. "Sit. You’ve been traveling for two days straight. Let someone else carry a cup for once."
"I can carry a cup, Aria."
"I know you can. Sit anyway." She smiled at him over her shoulder, the first easy moment either of them had allowed themselves all morning, and the five of them sat there together a while longer, the two hardest decisions of the morning already made, the rest of the week waiting for them whether they were ready for it or not.