– Serious enough to make Ivaylo risk everything to get them. And serious enough to put us in mortal danger while they're with us.
At that moment, Peter's phone vibrated. It was a message from a prepaid card. Anonymous. It contained only two words:
"The folder. Or your wife."
Peter's world collapsed. The threat was no longer abstract. It was direct, personal, and chilling.
Chapter 4
Sitting in the farthest corner of the small, almost empty café, I tried to calm my breathing. I ordered a cup of tea, which now sat untouched on the table, slowly cooling. My hands were still shaking slightly. The folder lay in my lap, hidden under my jacket, and I could feel its hard edge against my leg, a constant reminder of the absurd situation I was in.
I had to think clearly. First, returning to any station was out of the question. If Peter had been forced to break off the conversation like that, he must have been in danger or under surveillance. And if that man on the train had been looking for me, the station would have been the first place he would have gone. Returning there would have been tantamount to voluntarily walking into a trap.
Second, the folder. Whatever it contained was extremely important. Important enough for Peter to risk my safety, and important enough for them to send someone to follow me. It was foolish not to have looked into it thoroughly yet. My ignorance made me vulnerable.
I looked around cautiously. In the café, there was only an elderly man reading a newspaper and a waitress wiping the bar. I felt relatively safe, at least for the moment. I decided to act.
I took out the folder and placed it on the table, covering it with the menu. I opened it again. The pages were numbered. I started reading again, more carefully this time. The language was complex, full of legal and financial terms, but gradually I began to piece together the puzzle. It was about a tender for the construction of a huge shopping center. Peter's company, "Stroitelstvo i Bystveno", had participated. But another company had won - "Titan Group", whose owner, as indicated in the documents, was named Ivaylo.
The next pages were copies of bank transfers. Huge sums of money transferred from offshore accounts to the personal accounts of members of the committee that had evaluated the bids. Next came printouts of emails and messages arranging meetings and mentioning “commissions” and “thank yous.” The picture was becoming clearer. This was evidence of corruption on a massive scale. Peter had lost the tender unfairly and had collected evidence of it.
