Albedo Castle. Stella Fracta

the bus hadn’t started shaking yet – and Dario decided not to move until the vehicle does. A neighbor’s shoulder would be a much more comfortable place to drop his head – because the resonance from the glass will be noticeable even through the baseball cap.

      He’s learned to sleep wherever and however – but he knew precisely how it is better to sleep in order to wake up feeling refreshed. He’s stopped worrying about what people would think of him; when the minutes came when he could read something, he’s started putting on his glasses – with thick round lenses – which he had stopped wearing as soon as he finished school. He always had bad eyesight – but he opted to squint and pretend that everything was fine.

      He had no idea how he got into MI6 – and he hoped that it wasn’t just because he had told the ophthalmologist the family recipe for biscotti.

      Dario tried to join a police academy, but they wouldn’t have him – not after high school, when he was still ungainly, struggled with pull-ups and push-ups, lost his breath during runs, nor when he had bulked and prettied up and stopped looking like a bookworm. Until he came of age, he kept working at the family grocery store and bakery in Canterbury, helping his father behind the counter, but he never left hope of fulfilling his dream. Just a year ago, he couldn’t have imagined travelling the world as a part of a champion racing team, undertaking secret missions and meeting so many interesting people.

      Dario Fisher – who used to not be Fisher at all – had always been a dreamer … He chose not to give up on his nature – since he knew it was impossible to change one’s ways – only to improve them. He was raised on adventure novels, detective stories, and science fiction, he believes in goodness and something more than a trouble-free routine life. He understood perfectly well that life was far from the poets’ idealistic images – but didn’t want to deprive himself of the pleasure of believing in an absolute and having a benchmark, something to measure up to.

      The bus purred, Dario shuddered in the seat, lay on his other side, making himself comfortable on the shoulder of the team’s physiotherapist Brad – who, upon hearing the story of how Richard escaped the hospital to get to Tokyo on his own, was genuinely horrified. He was somewhat similar to Dr. Bradshaw, who was unwittingly dragged into spy games.

      Adam Bradshaw, as far as Dario understood, decided to stay in Tokyo – if he, as it turned out, ended up in Japan completely legally … Richard seemed like a wizard to Dario, pulling documents and visas out from under the counter, arranging private planes and solving any problem as if he used magic, akin to the character from the novel ‘Cats Don’t Drink Wine.’

      The fact that the Russian writer was a Circus agent astonished Dario for the first hour. Then he accepted the incredible coincidences as a given – for with Richard Bateman accidents became deliberate, it was as if he was capable of predicting the future, constantly amazing with some trick or other.

      Richard could easily predict who and at what moment would enter the box, would drop a plate at the food stand, or call the coordinator’s name … At the recent weekend in Monza he warned Dario when an Italian seagull was about to poop on him: simply asked him to switch to the adjacent chair of an outdoor café.

      Richard explained why the stranger attacked him in Singapore, now the puzzle began to come together. Richard North is the name on the mission where he worked alongside Alexandra Stern; Richard North the actor often showed his face in the news and social media – and some old acquaintance recognized him and was threatening to expose him. Richard called the perpetrator Lion and Bear – Dario took note of that, too.

      Richard said that he intends to attend the tour to Nonoda’s office along with the entire team, somehow he explained his suspicious behavior and disappearance to the superiors, and come noon he promised to arrive at the hotel where the Bulls – ones who don’t visit home during breaks – would be staying for a week and a half – until the time comes to fly to Qatar, to the new Grand Prix.

      Richard said that the person who ordered the attack was connected to the head of the Innovative Research Excellence department, Yusuke Kuma – and, consequently, they’ll have to find a way to get closer to him. Until they find out whether Kuma is an ally or an enemy, they must remain unnoticed, and the role of a guest, a member of a Formula One racing team, is the perfect cover. They’re in team uniforms and baseball caps anyway, and if Lionbear knows that Richard works in Rote Stier, it will be an outright action.

      The riddle lifted Dario’s spirits – because the task looked like a real detective investigation, with the search for an unknown criminal with the available clues and puzzle pieces. It would have been more effective if he also had the explanation of what specifically they’d have to look for.

      When they arrived at the Imperial Hotel – ironically, with a heraldic lion emblem on the logo – after four hours on the road, Richard was already waiting on the first floor in the lobby. He had only a travel bag with him, he looked much better than on Thursday, when Dario saw him last. Colleagues, eagerly spilling from the bus, accompanied by typical chatter as they entered the hotel, greeted him and congratulated him on coming back, he was laughing off their concerns and insisted that had no intention of dying.

      They had half an hour to settle into their rooms before the whole team was scheduled to go for lunch. A structured daily routine with a schedule – with no need to make decisions independently – took the load off the already packed workdays, the weeks between racing weekends flew by unnoticed.

      Dario dropped his things right at the entrance of his room, showered and was knocking on Richard’s door a quarter of an hour later already. Richard opened almost instantly – because the stomping of his partner’s hurried footsteps could be heard from the far end of the corridor.

      “What’s the plan?”

      Richard let Dario in, closed the door and stepped back into the room.

      “For starters, I’ll tell you everything. This time, everything.”

      “Wonderful.”

      “Then you’ll act in plain sight, and I’ll have to keep a low profile. Only I will report to the Circus.”

      “Got it.”

      “I sent you a brief on Kuma. What do you say about him?”

      Dario curved his lips, shrugging.

      “A typical Japanese guy, a workaholic, a hereditary engineer, no family or kids, but nephews and other relatives, a perfect reputation and big ambitions – for making the technologies of the future.”

      “According to his social circle and the press,” Richard added.

      “I haven’t found anything suspicious,” Dario hemmed. “He works to maintain his image and stays in it.”

      “You’ll have to get more on him – who he is, what’s behind that image. As soon as we’re at Nonoda, we’ll come up with a plan to do that, on the spot.”

      Dario nodded. Richard pulled a phone out of his pocket, a few moments later he was showing Dario the screen, open to a browser page with an article about the German benefactor Moritz Baer.

      “And this one?”

      “This one’s dead,” Dario chuckled. “Kidding. An opportunist, seen everywhere, been everywhere, and when he found out that he’s got throat cancer, he shot himself.”

      Bear was lanky, dark-haired, with spirited features, he would have been forty-six by now.

      “He didn’t die,” Richard retorted. “He was a Russian spy in Germany for all the fifteen years of his career, and two years ago, after he was compromised, he fled and now lives under a different name.”

      Dario was looking at him attentively, astonished.

      “The working theory: Baer, also known as Bear, recognized me and used a mercenary to cause concern – but so he wouldn’t