The message arrived without warning, as Shirin's communications always did.
She had forwarded the intelligence herself. There had been a sighting. Benjamin Nystrom and Wren Baek in Shen Zhou. She had sat with the report for a full day before sending it, turning it over in her hands, considering its uses. The mission was reason enough to pass it along. But she was curious, too. Charles had been accommodating lately. Compliant in the way of a man who had made peace with something. She wanted to know if that peace was real.
She gave the instruction to her man quietly. "Keep an eye on the prince and the doctor. If they act out of order — have the doctor killed."
Then she waited.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Charles received the news mid-morning, in the middle of a briefing he would not remember the contents of.
He read it once. Then again.
