Caesar's POV
I stood beside Hawkins, watching him dial.
He put it on speaker.
The voice that answered was a woman's—clipped, no warmth to spare.
"Speak."
Hawkins didn't miss a beat. "Sis, you free? I need a favor. One of my people's been looking for someone since noon and we're coming up empty." He glanced at me sideways. "Dr. Lockwood—the physician treating his mother—got hit in a car accident near the district building this afternoon. She vanished. Can you put some ears to the ground?"
I kept my eyes on the phone and said nothing.
We'd torn through half of Lakeside City since noon. Every trail went cold. Every contact came back with the same answer—nothing. I'd pushed harder than I should have, called in favors I'd been sitting on for years, and still—nothing.
T
