Gone Before Goodbye

Late at night, an alarm startles Sharon while she reads. She checks her laptop and discovers that someone attempted to delete the griefbot app from Maggie’s phone—something only Sharon and Maggie together can do. Sharon realizes that her sister is in danger.

In Russia, Brovski demands that Maggie hurry. She claims she needs to grab clothes and will meet him downstairs. The griefbot provides an emergency phone number and reveals that Marc has been to Ragoravich’s house before. With her battery at 4%, Maggie throws on a sweatshirt and climbs out of her third-floor window onto the snowy roof.

She moves toward the back of the estate, trying unsuccessfully to get a cell signal. When Brovski calls from the window, she lies flat on the roof. Two armed guards patrol below, and she senses someone behind her. She climbs down a fire ladder and sees CinderBlock above, pointing a gun at her. He fires without warning. Maggie pushes off the ladder as the bullet passes her leg.

Landing in the snow, she feels her military training activate. She hides behind firewood as CinderBlock calls for backup and then makes her way to Oleg’s car showroom, which he showed her on the tour the day before. As she goes, she attempts to call the number the Marc griefbot gave her, but she still doesn’t have any service. She hits the lights and activates the massive garage door, which opens slowly. The guards hesitate to shoot inside, apparently unwilling to damage the valuable vehicles.

Maggie gets in the Ferrari that Oleg showed her with particular pride the previous day. Two guards grab the car door. She releases her grip, causing them to stumble, then strikes one in the groin when he grabs her hair. She starts the engine, shifts the manual transmission, and crashes through the partially open doors. She hits send on her phone again, attempting to make the call, but cannot see if it was successful.

Bullets shatter her windows as a black SUV pursues her up a hillside road. A shot destroys her tire. She feels a bullet graze her upper back. The Ferrari veers off the road and slams into a tree. Without a seatbelt, Maggie flies through the shattered windshield and loses consciousness in the cold.

At 8 am, Sharon spreads printouts across the bar at Vipers for Bikers. She explains to Porkchop that her app tracked Maggie to a hidden estate in Russia using satellites. Someone broke into Maggie’s phone and tried to delete the app, and then a call was made to an untraceable Lithuanian number before the phone was destroyed.

Porkchop and his associate Pinky follow Dr. Evan Barlow from his Manhattan apartment to his office. In the lobby, Porkchop confronts Barlow and punches him hard in the solar plexus. When a security guard approaches, the winded Barlow claims he slipped and gets passes for Porkchop and Pinky.

In Barlow’s office, with Pinky guarding the door, Porkchop demands that Barlow call Brovski and get Maggie on the phone. Barlow dials, and Ivan Brovski answers on speakerphone. Porkchop recognizes the voice, but Brovski refuses to put Maggie on and hangs up. When additional calls go unanswered, Porkchop reveals that Maggie’s phone has been destroyed.

Barlow confesses that this job was unusual: He typically recommends surgeons, but this time the client specifically requested Maggie McCabe. It was not the oligarch who wanted her, Barlow explains, but his lover, Nadia.

Maggie dreams of sitting with Marc at a vineyard table. As she holds his hand and begs him to stay, he fades away. She wakes to find Charles Lockwood, the doctor from Ragoravich’s ball, watching her. He explains that she called his emergency line, and he rescued her after the car crash. She has been unconscious for two days. Her injuries include a bullet graze on her upper back, frostnip, and a concussion. The two men in the pursuing SUV are dead. Lockwood assumes that Marc gave her the number before he died, and Maggie does not correct him.

Trusting Lockwood because Marc had trusted him, Maggie explains that she was hired by Barlow to perform breast augmentation on Nadia and facial surgery on Oleg Ragoravich. Lockwood reveals that he works for an intelligence agency and was undercover at the ball, investigating Ragoravich. Before Maggie drifts off to sleep, he asks about Trace Packer, saying that Trace is missing and may be searching for Marc.

When Lockwood returns later, Maggie demands to know what he meant. He explains that Ragoravich used a front, the Kasselton Foundation, to launder money through WorldCures Alliance, giving the nonprofit money that it then used to purchase overpriced goods and services from companies he controlled. When Marc and Trace tried to leave WorldCures, Ragoravich threatened them by dangling Trace from a helicopter over an abandoned mine. Marc became Lockwood’s informant to help take down Ragoravich.

Lockwood presents three theories about Marc’s death: he was a random casualty of war, he was murdered by Ragoravich, or he faked his own death to escape. Lockwood admits that the third theory is unlikely but explains that if Marc had staged his death, both he and Maggie would be safe from Ragoravich. Maggie agrees to help find the missing Trace. Lockwood says they will leave the next day for somewhere warmer.

On the plane to Dubai the next day, Charles Lockwood briefs her: Her cover is a concierge surgeon for a retail magnate, and her mission is to find Trace Packer. He provides two passports—her own and an alias, Emily Sinclair. Lockwood reveals that Ragoravich’s plane is in Dubai, and Nadia was recently spotted at Etoile Adiona, the exclusive nightclub where she and Oleg met. Dubai was also the last place Marc and Trace were seen before their final mission.

Maggie and Lockwood arrive in Dubai. Maggie is escorted by Bob, a former soldier who drives her in a $4 million Bugatti Tourbillon to the Bugatti Residences. The car rises via elevator into a spectacular penthouse with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the futuristic cityscape. Bob takes her phone and warns her not to try to contact anyone.

Despite the warning, Maggie asks Bob about nearby bars so that she can find a phone to use. He directs her to the tower’s private club. Inside, she meets Alena, a young Ukrainian woman who explains that guests’ phones are confiscated for privacy. Alena offers to help and orchestrates a scene, telling Maggie to meet her in the bathroom. 

Bob joins Maggie at the bar, explaining he was sent to monitor her. Maggie goes to the bathroom, where Alena meets her with a phone she stole from a distracted patron. In the bathroom, Maggie uses the borrowed phone to call the payphone at Vipers for Bikers. Porkchop answers immediately and tells her what he learned from Barlow: Nadia specifically requested her for the surgery—it was not Barlow’s recommendation. 

When Maggie explains Lockwood’s theory that Marc faked his death to protect them from Ragoravich, Porkchop’s pained reaction makes her realize the cruelty of the theory, and they both affirm their belief that Marc is dead. Maggie returns the phone to Alena, who cleverly stages finding it and returns it to its owner. Maggie returns to the bar, finishes her expensive bourbon, and tells Bob she is ready to review the patient files.