Page 53 of Lethal Game

"I'll go with you," Savannah said.

As much as he wanted to go to the club himself, he was too well-known to Novikov and his associates.

"This is a good lead," Savannah said as Beck walked away. "We'll dig into Moldev this afternoon and see if we can trace any money exchange between him and Ilyin or others in Novikov's network. You need to focus on Alisa's connection to Novikov."

"I agree. I'll head back to the hospital and see if Alisa has gotten any more information from her mother."

"What about your former partner? Are you looping her in now?"

"No. But I don't think I can stop her from digging into things on her own. Stephanie's hate for Novikov knows no bounds."

"Well, she came up with a good lead, so she might be valuable. Or her CI might be if you can get her to give him up."

"That won't happen. But I'll give her an update and make her feel included, so hopefully, she'll come to me with any other leads versus chasing something down on her own. I'll check in with you later, Savannah." He got up from the computer, happy to take a break from looking at security footage.

When he got into his car, he gave Stephanie a call.

"Did you find Ilyin?" she asked immediately.

"No. But we spotted him coming out of the hotel last night with Pieter Moldev."

"Do you know where they went?"

"Not yet. But we'll find him. This was a good lead, Steph, but you have to stay out of this now."

"You need me, Jason."

"Actually, who I need is your CI."

"I can't give you that name."

"Stephanie, this person might be the only one who can get us to Novikov. The only one who can stop a mass catastrophe."

"My CI doesn't know where Novikov is, but if more information comes in, I will tell you. I won't sit on anything I learn. I'd like to be more involved, but you were right when you said the most important thing is getting Novikov."

"Exactly, and last time around, we moved too fast. We got ahead of ourselves. We can't take any tip at face value. We can't allow ourselves to be manipulated."

"You just said my tip was good. My CI wasn't setting up me or you. He knows what I went through three years ago. That's why he gave me the lead."

"Okay, let me know if you hear anything else."

"As long as you keep me in the loop."

"I will," he said, not sure if that was a promise he could keep, but he'd have to see how things went. Right now, he needed to get back to Alisa.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Alisa was going crazy. It was two o'clock on Friday afternoon, and she'd been stuck in her mom's hospital room since ten. After their one illuminating conversation, her mother had mostly been asleep, so she'd paced the room, driving herself mad with unanswerable questions. She was about to let go of her promise to stay under guard when Jason walked through the door.

"What's happening?" she asked. "I thought you were going to text me."

"It's been busy. How's your mom doing?"

"She's stable. Just sleeping a lot. I need to get out of this room."

"Let's go," he said, opening the door for her.

As she stepped into the hallway, she let out a breath of relief. "Can we get out of the hospital for a while? I need to talk to you, and I don't want to do it here."