Page 97 of At Midnight

“Part of the misdirection, I imagine,” Raphael said.

Basch stared at him through the screen. “And now you’re back.”

Raphael leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his desk and whispering into the microphone near his mouth. “That’s the longer story.”

“And you’re working with the Ilyin Bratva again.”

He nodded. “Reluctantly.”

“I can’t believe they didn’t shoot you on sight.”

“Yet.”

“Yet,” Basch echoed, picking up the sheet of paper again.

“Valerian Mirabaud is holding my wife and child. I need to get them out. There’s a situation in a few days where everything will break open again, just like last time. I need the safety of my wife and child to be your first priority.”

Basch squinted at him. “Why would the head of Geneva Trust have your family? They’re obviouslydirty, but none of the board was implicated during the Archangel raids.”

Raphael took a deep breath and let it out, stalling for these last few seconds of anonymity. “Because Valerian Mirabaud is my father.”

On the tiny phone screen, Basch reared back.“What!”

“I’m Raphael Mirabaud.”

“Oh, my God. Raphael disappeared the night of the Archangel raids. The official report says that he’s presumeddead.”

“I was resettled with the name Dieter Schwarz.”

Basch’s eyes widened further. “That’s how they got the Archangel code name. Raphael, an archangel.”

“Basch, I don’t have time to hash this out with you right now. People are watching me. I will text locations to you for the next shipment, but I need you to secure my wife and child first. If you don’t, Piotr Ilyin will execute them to makea statement, at the very least. It will probably be worse than that.”

“I understand.” Basch slapped his hands flat on his desk. Excitement ran through him, shivering him like an electrical current had arced through his flesh. If they had been at a poker table, Raphael would have bet that Basch was holding four of a kind or better. “I understand. Yes, we will secure your family and conduct theoperation. Jesus Christ, I’m going to conduct an Archangel raid. This is amazing. Everyone thought those days were over, but the Archangel source isback.”

“Likely for one operation,” Raphael told him. “My wife and child will need whatever support you can give them, whether it’s resettlement with new identities or just transport out of the region. I don’t know what my wife is going to want todo. I’ll use the same link that I used to contact you to send you the details of my will and trust that state who will be Alina’s guardians.”

Basch sobered. “Not your wife?”

“She’s not Alina’s mother, and the marriage was sudden and recent. I’m not sure what she would want, and we don’t have time to change the documents, anyway. In any case, the guardians are my wife’s brother and his wife,so they can make arrangements if they want to change them.”

“We’ll get you out, too. It’s the least we can do. We’ll get you and your family out and resettle you again.Jesus,Dieter. I still can’t believe that you’re the Archangel source.”

“Don’t keep saying that.” Raphael hung up.

Basch Favre always had been rather excitable before a mission.

During operations, though, he was rock-solid.Basch would get the job done.