Petra closed her eyes. “Of course not. I know you’re doing your best. But we can’t afford to lose another chance.”

“We’ll find them.”

“We found Chang and McKitrick and Thomas, too,” she reminded him.

“I meant alive.”

“Have you heard from Stepka?” Petra asked.

“No. You want me to call him?”

“I’ll do it.”

She hung up. Stepka’s role in the operation was that of technical support. Dombrovski himself had ensured that Stepka got the best training available. Something the young man would undoubtedly use to make millions once their mission was finished. He was based out of a Moscow apartment. A significant amount of their funds had been used to equip the space with the best computers and communications gear.

Petra calculated the time difference. Moscow would just be waking up, which, knowing Stepka, meant he was starting to think about going to bed. She made the call.

“Yes?” Stepka said in typical hurried fashion.

“It’s me,” Petra said.

“Hold on.” The delay was only a few seconds long. “Where are you?”

“Los Angeles. Heading to the address you found for Winters.”

“Excellent.”

“Have you made any progress on the other matter?” she asked.

She had tasked Stepka with trying to find out who had been hired to erase the people she and her team had been trying to find. If they could figure that out, they might be able to get one step ahead of them. That could very well be the difference between failure and success.

“I’m still working on it.”

“Work faster,” she told him. “We need to know.”

“I’m doing what I can,” he insisted.

“If Winters and Moody are dead, too, then the only lead we’ll have left is whoever’s doing the killing.”

“I know!”

“We can’t afford to-”

“Petra,” Kolya interrupted.