Chapter 46: Double Game
The confirmation came just after breakfast. Katya entered the private study with a thin folder and the expression of someone who had already checked the information twice.
"The meeting was real," she said. "Mirsky sat down with a Sokolov intermediary named Denis Rublev. They spoke for thirty-eight minutes. No phones on the table. No assistants. Payment was not obvious, but Rublev left with a second envelope he did not arrive with."
Dmitri closed the report with one hand. "So he is already hedging."
"Yes." Katya glanced at Anya. "And he is doing it carefully enough that a casual investigation would miss it."
Anya leaned back in her chair. "He sat with us yesterday and talked about stability while shopping for a second option across town."
"That is the kind of man he is," Dmitri said. "He attaches himself to strength until he sees a chance to become necessary to more than one side."
The three of them spent the next hour breaking the problem into practical pieces. Direct confrontation was possible, but messy. Killing Mirsky too early would create political noise and leave the Sokolov connection intact. Ignoring him would invite a deeper betrayal at a worse time.
Dmitri’s decision was quieter and more useful.
"We give him something," he said.
Anya looked at him. "Something false."
"Yes. Controlled information. A route change that looks valuable. Enough for him to carry to the Sokolovs if he is truly playing both sides. If he keeps it to himself, we learn one thing. If it travels, we learn another."
Katya nodded slowly. "And in the meantime?"
"In the meantime, he remains useful on paper. Licenses. Quiet pressure. The appearance of cooperation." Dmitri’s eyes moved to Anya. "While we decide how hard the landing needs to be when he falls."
After Katya left, the study felt quieter. Anya remained seated, turning the plan over in her mind. It was clean. Patient. Typical of Dmitri when the target required more than force.
"You’re not angry," she said.
"I was angry when Pavel sold information about you." Dmitri poured coffee from the carafe near the window and brought her a cup before taking his own. "Mirsky is different. He is predictable in his disloyalty. That makes him easier to use."
Anya accepted the cup, her fingers brushing his for a second longer than necessary. "And when he stops being useful?"
Dmitri’s gaze held hers over the rim of his cup. "Then the double game ends."
The rest of the day moved on two tracks.
On the first, Dmitri arranged for Mirsky to receive a carefully constructed update about a southern transport corridor that would supposedly open under reduced inspection for seventy-two hours. It was the kind of information a man like Mirsky would find irresistible if he was already speaking to the Sokolovs. Valuable enough to trade. Specific enough to track.
On the second track, Anya took a meeting regarding the logistics acquisition.
Mikhail Sobolev had returned with conditions. They met in the same tired office above the vehicle bay, but the balance in the room had changed since the first conversation. He had tried to find another buyer. The attempt had clearly failed.
"I want guarantees for the senior drivers," Sobolev said, hands clasped tightly on the desk. "And I want the payment structured so it is not all delayed behind ’review periods.’"
Anya opened her folder. "The senior drivers stay under contract for twelve months at their current rates. After that, review based on performance. Payment is split in three stages. One on signing, one on transfer of licenses, one when the final accounts clear. No open-ended delays."
Sobolev studied her. "You speak like someone who has done this before."
"I speak like someone who does not like loose ends," she replied.
The negotiation stretched for nearly an hour. He pushed on the payment timing. She held. He asked for written protection against sudden restructuring. She gave him a narrower version of it. By the time they finished, the deal was no longer theoretical. It was close enough that only formal signatures remained.
When Anya returned to the mansion and reported the outcome, Dmitri listened with quiet attention.
"You didn’t overpay," he said.
"No."
"And you didn’t let him recover his pride by extracting something useless."
Anya set her bag down. "He needed to leave the table able to live with the decision. That doesn’t require us losing anything important."
A faint look of approval crossed Dmitri’s face. "You’re getting good at this."
"I have a strong teacher."
That earned her a low sound of amusement. He reached for her as she passed him, catching her wrist and drawing her in until she stood between his knees where he sat against the edge of the desk. His hands settled at her hips.
"Mirsky will move on the false route within a day or two if he is going to move at all," he said.
Anya rested her hands on his shoulders. "And if the Sokolovs react?"
"Then we have proof of the channel between them. After that, we decide whether Mirsky is more valuable ruined, replaced, or removed."
She looked down at him for a long moment. "You sound almost patient."
"I am patient when the ending is already decided."
He pulled her closer and kissed her, slow at first, then deeper as her fingers slid into his hair. The intimacy of it was unhurried and private, a brief return to something that belonged only to them between one calculated move and the next. When they separated, Dmitri rested his forehead lightly against her.
The quiet lasted less than a minute.
Katya’s knock came hard against the door. She entered as soon as Dmitri called, tablet already turned toward them.
"You need to see this now," she said.
On the screen was a short intercept summary. Mirsky had not waited a day. Within hours of receiving the false route information, he had placed a call to a number linked to the same Sokolov intermediary from the townhouse meeting.
Anya’s eyes lifted to Dmitri’s.
The double game had not only worked.
It had exposed the speed of the betrayal.
And that meant Mirsky’s time as a manageable problem was already running out.