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“You keeping Leo out of trouble?” Fox asked, adjusting the camera to include himself properly in the frame.

“I’m trying.” The corner of her mouth lifted.

“So I see.” Fox’s eyes darted between her and Leo, his grin widening. “Interesting development.”

Leo exhaled through his teeth. “Can we focus?”

“Just saying hello to my favorite MI6 contact.” Fox smirked. “After the Dorchester, we had rapport, you know.”

Kat coughed quietly, covering her mouth.

Leo exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose. He loved Fox like a brother, but not in moments like this. “Eli. What do you have?”

Eli’s expression sobered. “Korolov’s phone.” He tapped a few keys. “Found something tasty. Buried deep in a ghost partition—took a bloodhound and my bodyweight in coffee to locate.”

The screen split—Eli’s face shrinking to one corner as data visualization filled the rest. A folder structure appeared labeled in Cyrillic.

“Project Nightshade.” Eli navigated through encrypted files. “Can’t access the technical specifications yet, but an operational timeline is clear enough.”

Kat leaned in, her shoulder brushing his.

Nightshade.That name again. Like poison in the blood. “Timeline for what?”

“Some kind of demonstration.” Eli highlighted a calendar entry pulsing in red. “Scheduled for Thursday at 06:00 a.m.” His voice was blunt. “That’s less than 72 hours from now.”

Shit.The pencil snapped between Leo’s fingers. “Location?”

“Coordinates only.” Eli pulled up a map of Europe. “London.”

“Can you get an exact location?” Leo asked.

“Already on it.” Eli’s fingers flew across the keyboard, the soft clicking sharp in the tense silence. “Translating coordinates now.”

The London marker expanded, resolving into a precise location. Kat sucked in a breath. “That can’t be right. The Royal London Hospital?”

Leo frowned. “You know it?”

“It’s an old MI6 black site.” Her voice dropped. “They shut it down after the Harding Hearings. Or said they did.

Skin prickled on the back of Leo’s neck. Black ops hidden in plain sight.

“A black site inside a civilian hospital?” Fox pushed back into the frame, his eyes dark. “Fucking unethical.”

“Perfect cover,” Kat said. “Medical equipment, restricted access, legitimate reason for unusual power consumption.”

“There’s more.” Any levity drained from Eli’s face. He pulled up a different screen. “I ran an analysis on the call logs and message timestamps.” He highlighted a series of entries. “The initial contact pattern is... unexpected.”

“How so?” Leo asked.

“First communication didn’t come from Korolov.” Eli’s voice sharpened. “It originated from Eldridge’s personal device. She approachedhimnine months ago.”

Kat tensed beside Leo. “She initiated contact?”

“Multiple times before he responded.” Eli expanded the timeline.

Leo exchanged a glance with Kat.

Her eyes had narrowed. Professional assessment overtaking the initial shock. “Financial records?”