the sniper missed, but he remained quiet. This wasn’t a two-way conversation.
“We pieced together all the surveillance footage of the area,” Zoey said. The large television screen flickered to life. Frames of still images appeared. “Some are pretty grainy, but HERA cleaned them up as much as she could. Facial recognition identified most people captured within them as local residents. Others were patrons of the nearby bars. We were able to track their movements and remove them from the suspect pool.”
“How many suspects were identified?” Gage asked. “Or did we get any?”
“We have a few unidentified people.” Zoey tapped a button and six images appeared on the screen.
Kristof stifled the curse rising from him and glanced at Maksim, who shifted where he still stood near the living room entry.
“You recognize someone,” one of the men said. “I’m Shep, by the way. The man beside you is Johnny. This is Cracker, Beast, and Thunder. We’re Addy’s team.”
Kristof nodded and memorized the names, matched the faces. “I appreciate the introductions. And, yes, I recognize the second man from the left. He’s a local merc. He wouldn’t have the skillset for the shot, but he was likely the wheelman or a lookout.”
“Name?”
“I only know him by Art.” Kristof glanced at Maksim, whose eyebrows furrowed.
“Artyom Alekhin,” Maksim supplied. “He works out of a club and has a few locals on his payroll. I can provide an address.”
Several eyebrows rose as they studied Maksim. Kristof offered an apologetic smile to his friend. The man hated attention.
“And the others?” Marshall asked.
Anger rose in Kristof as he peered at the screen. The man on the far right was someone he’d seen with Father on several occasions. He’d have to look at the records Maksim had gathered to get a name, but they couldn’t involve The Arsenal.
They couldn’t know about Kostya Sidorav, or that he was Kristof’s father. He couldn’t open that wound in Addy when it wouldn’t make a difference since they’d be gone in a couple of days.
Art was a well-known local merc, which meant they’d likely figure out who the man on the right was eventually. Stalling them was his only option, which meant a half-truth rather than an outright lie.
Fuck.
If Art was involved, that meant Father was likely behind the shooting. Why?
Father wouldn’t have ordered Ivan’s death. Would he?
“The one on the right. I’ve seen him around at a few of the auctions I’ve held, but I don’t know who he works for, or his name,” Kristof said.
“How can you not know his name if he was at your auctions?” Addy asked.
“We only pay attention to the buyers, not their staff.” Kristof shrugged. “I meet a lot of people and don’t bother remembering their names. It’s a flaw.”
“A convenient one,” Nolan commented.
“And you?” Gage asked as he looked at Maksim. “Do you know his name? And who the hell are you? You aren’t an attendant.”
“Maksim,” Kristof offered. “He’s more of an assistant than an attendant. He never attends my auctions, nor does he participate in my meetings or other business dealings.”
“Right.” Zoey’s gaze narrowed. “So? Do you know his name? I’m not sure why HERA isn’t getting hits on them. Or you.”
Maksim flinched at the latter. Kristof’s eyebrows lifted as he regarded his friend. They’d known The Arsenal would dig deep and had hoped his identity remained buried. So far it had.
“Not everyone is in a database,” Marshall said.
“If you give me a printout of them, I will see what I can find,” Maksim offered. “We likely have better contacts in the area than you.”
And they could control what intel was provided.
“We had a bit of luck with vehicles,” Zoey said. “Only two were identifiable from the plates. One was a light gray sedan. The other was a black Suburban.”
Pictures appeared on the screen.
“Are they trackable in other surveillance images?” Beast asked.
“HERA’s working on it, but I’m not holding my breath,” Zoey answered. “I’ll send their info to your phones so you can be on the lookout for them just in case, though.”
“We’ll need to change up a few things until the auction,” Addy said. “We’ll need a secondary team on my team’s six. Whoever tried to kill Kristof could either return or be following him.”
“And might therefore see us,” Thunder said.
“You’d spot a tail,” Zoey said.
“Addy’s right. My team can merge with yours until the auction. That’ll give us extra bodies and different vehicles to make sure we aren’t spotted.” Gage crossed his arms and glanced at Kristof. “You’ll need to bring additional