Chapter 9 You've Just Become A Target

• Aleksander grabbed Rania's arm, pulling her up from her chair with a movement quick yet controlled, enough not to draw attention in the café now filling with evening customers. "This way," he whispered, guiding Rania toward a back door hidden behind the kitchen curtain, a route he seemed to have known from the start, as though he'd calculated a possibility like this even before they sat down.
• In another corner of the café, Lia, who had been pretending to be absorbed in her phone, looked up quickly the moment she noticed Aleksander and Rania's seats were empty. Her eyes swept the room, confused why the two had vanished so suddenly without saying goodbye, a departure too hurried to be mere coincidence.
• Her instinct pushed her to stand, walking slowly toward the café window facing the main street, trying to spot Rania among the crowd of pedestrians. But what caught her attention instead was a man in a gray jacket standing some distance away across the street, his phone raised high, its camera lens clearly aimed at the café's front door—the door Aleksander and Rania had just passed through before turning toward the kitchen.