A man in a heavy charcoal coat sat at the table next to him. He didn't order coffee. He just placed a folded newspaper on the table. The headline was about a Russian attache found dead in his hotel room that morning.
Beside each name was a date and a cause of death. Heart attack in London. Sudden pneumonia in Washington. Fall from a balcony in Moscow. Viktor’s own name wasn't on it yet, but he knew how the trail worked. He had read the accounts of diplomats and ex-agents who vanished into the headlines of newspapers, their stories dismissed as tragic coincidences.
As he stepped out into the Spanish rain, he realized the man in the charcoal coat was already gone. In his place was a small, white carnation—the signature of a silent goodbye.