“I’m going to take a blanket and go retrieve our rifles,” Carlton announced, as he, Annalise, and Nolan arrived back at their room. Annalise and Nolan made eye contact, but didn’t dare hold it too long. Things were tense, and they didn’t want to tip Carlton off that they thought he might be up to something, especially with night having fallen and the area around the resort pitch black. Anything could be waiting for them in the darkness.

“Sounds good. I’ll cover you,” Nolan said.

“No need,” Carlton insisted. “I can get there and back without being seen. Make this room defensible, I’ll do reconnaissance and bring back our extra firepower. Maybe check on Canaan, yeah?”

“Sure, good idea,” Nolan said. Annalise sat at the small table in the corner of the room, going over a map of the area that she’d picked up in the lobby of the restaurant.

Carlton folded a blanket from the closet in which to hide the rifles, and he slipped out into the night.

“What about Canaan?” Annalise asked. “What’s your gut say?”

“My gut says that we ought to leave him alone and a better allocation of our resources would be tailing Carlton,” Nolan replied. “If that ginger wanted to do harm to Canaan, then why give us anything? I haven’t figured her angle yet, but maybe he can. I’m going out after our friend to make sure he doesn’t disappear with all our extra firepower.”

“Be safe.”

“Clearly not a condition with which I’m afflicted,” Nolan said with a smile. He peered out the window at an angle, so as not to disturb the curtain, then quietly exited the room.

Carlton, meanwhile, had initially crossed the street, looking to anyone watching as if he were bound for the beach. In fact, he was looking for the man he’d confronted after dinner, the stranger who claimed to recognize him.

With Nolan staying in the shadows behind him, Carlton snooped and snuck his way around the front of the hotels and restaurants closer to the water, and then dipped into the forest, near where he and Canaan had hidden the guns.

Only when Carlton had disappeared from view did Nolan realize he wasn’t the only one with a vested interest in Carlton— a small figure quietly stepped out from between buildings and went into the woods a bit further down, nearer the beach.

Nolan drew his gun and moved quickly to the closest vantage point that gave him both a view of the woods and some cover; beneath a set of stairs leading to the second floor of the small hotel on the corner of the main street and the road out of town.

Carlton reached the rifles and brushed away the crude camouflage of branches and leaves with which he and Canaan had hidden them.

Everything was as he left it, and he set to bundling the weapons in a blanket when he heard something break behind him.

Carlton ignored the temptation to freeze or run or do anything else. He pretended not to have heard it, hoping to draw whomever was out there closer, where he could get his hands on them rather than have to make any noise. The pistol he carried had no silencer, and the rifles would be heard for miles if he discharged them.

Sensing the approach of someone or something, Carlton bent low and pretended to be busy tying the blanket. When he could stand it no longer, he rolled and pulled his handgun all in one motion, popping up behind a tree and setting his sights on… nothing.

He sat very still and scanned the area, slowing his breathing until he was sure he’d imagined the presence. He holstered his weapon and turned back to his work, until he felt the pressure on the back of his head. The pressure of the barrel of a gun.

“Please set your weapon down, Quintus,” a voice behind him said. He complied and turned, slowly, to find the man he’d had words with on the street earlier standing there with a weapon drawn, at point blank range.

“You Brentfords don’t know when you’re beaten, do you?” the small, wiry man asked.

“I’m afraid you’ve got me confused with someone else, friend,” Quintus/Carlton insisted.

“There’s no mistake,” the man asserted. “You’re Quintus Brentford, and your father ran one of the most dangerous criminal organizations on the planet, all while staying entirely off the radar. Well, almost entirely.”

“Mate, I wish I knew what you were talking about, but I’ve got no idea,” Quintus replied. “Shouldn’t you be off enjoying your pension somewhere, anyway?”

Stoichkov stepped back and motioned for Quintus to rise to his feet. “Up, up now. You won’t need those. Back out onto the street now. Quick, but not in a hurry. Understand?”

Just then, Nolan Weston wrapped an arm around the throat of the ex-KGB man, tightening his grip until he collapsed, unconscious.

“Who’s this?” Nolan asked Carlton, referring to the man he’d just snuck up on and choked out.

“Not sure, but he’s a pro. Snuck up on me like a bloody ghost,” Carlton replied. “Thanks for the save. He must be with QB’s people, reckon?”

“Whoever he is, when he comes to, we have a problem,” Nolan responded. “He must have seen the guns. Toss him.”

Carlton turned the old man’s pocket inside out and came up empty. All he had on him was the gun, which Carlton handed to Nolan for identification.

“MP-443 Grach,” Nolan surmised. “This is Russian, military issue. What the hell is that doing here and who is this guy?”

“It’s time to start tying up loose ends,” Carlton replied, drawing a knife he’d hidden in his boot. “I’ll cut his throat and leave him in the woods, drag him a hundred yards deeper in. He won’t be found until we’re long gone.”

Nolan had seen plenty of killing throughout his career, and participated in it when he had to, but Carlton’s tone and plan surprised him.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Nolan insisted. “Leave him. Grab the rifles. We’re going back for Canaan and Annalise. We’ll find a vehicle and we’re out of here. I need a phone I can use, and trust.”

Carlton shrugged his shoulders. “Have it your way. But keep in mind, I don’t recall putting leadership of our little band of fugitives to a vote. I’ll go along, but if I don’t see things happening soon that are going to get me home, I’m taking what I need and going my own way.”

“The sooner we part ways, the better, friend,” Nolan agreed. “But let’s not be stupid. This is a volatile situation. Once we get out of Bulgaria and I’m convinced we’ve lost QB and his goons, you go wherever you want.”

Carlton gave Nolan a stern look and grunted his accordance. The two men exited the forest and hurried back toward the Royal Sands.