Chapter 34

Zarek

The bar smelled of stale beer and sweat, the kind of place where time crawled and men came to forget their lives. Not my usual haunt, but I’d learned long ago that the best information didn’t come from gold-plated halls or clean conference tables. It came from the dirt. From those who lived with their ears pressed to the ground, waiting for someone like me to pay for their whispers.

I sat in