I could still feel Scarlett’s body thrashing against my restraining arms as she witnessed what she believed was her fiancé’s death. Her screams had carved themselves into my memory, along with the guilt of knowing I’d left my post.
The decision we’d all believed had cost Noah his life.
For two years, I’d carried that weight, watching her grief transform her. Only to discover he’d been alive the entire time, deliberately causing her pain, exploiting our team from the shadows.
I moved to my desk, pulling up the contact information for my Naples sources. This was what I was good at—gathering intelligence, assessing threats, protecting my team.
But Brooke…
I could barely breathe with her in the same room.
When I’d seen her at Mnemis, there had been an operation to focus on, an immediate threat to navigate. Now, with onlyplanning and coordination ahead, there was nothing to distract me from the reality of having her so close again.
Six years.
Six years of hearing her screams every night, even though my waking mind couldn’t find the memories of what happened.
Percival had told me about her injuries. He’d said I’d saved her.
All I could remember was the panic.
And making the wrong choice.
At Mnemis, I was my old self again for a few brief moments—moving through the server room with a team of operators, clearing corners, securing Brie, and getting her to safety. I’d been on the front line of eliminating the threat.
For the first time in years, I’d felt like the assaulter I used to be, capable and effective.
But a moment of competence couldn’t erase all my failures. Couldn’t change the fact that I’d been too much of a coward to face Brooke after I’d let her world crumble.
Chapter 3
Brooke
With Rav gone,I could be Dr. Brooke McAllister again. Not ‘the Canadian girl’ with butterflies in her stomach at the sight of a big, sexy operator. Let alone an operator who’d used her and discarded her when things got tough.
Percival said, “Our team will coordinate with Interpol, and if Naples is our target, the Carabinieri, as well.”
We’d return to DC, then fly out with our team. I hadn’t expected to have a target location so quickly, but it was a relief. With the formula destroyed, we were tracking down the last party who’d tried to grab it. Maybe the only party who’d been after it all along, if the hacker in Warsaw had been one of Fenix’s employees.
“Tell us more about the Greek Fire.” Brie shut off her display on the wall screen, and Will took the seat next to her, which Rav had vacated. She nudged her glasses up on her nose and tilted her head. “Fenix says they’re building something that will heal all disease, but they went after a bioweapon?”
Through her joint presentation with Will, the stress she’d been through faded from her features. I didn’t know the woman, but I recognized the way she’d closed her eyes when certainwords came up, or the slight tremble in her fingers. I’d seen those looks in my own mirror, years ago.
The details of our work pushed the bad things aside, providing clarity and purpose. It was what we both needed.
Percival leaned toward me. “If we fill them in, they may be able to help more.”
I tapped the keys on my keyboard. Pendragon had authorized me to share what details I deemed fit. And Percival was right. This team was far smaller than ours, but they had data we needed.
“May I?” I gestured toward the wall screen. At Brie’s nod, I connected remotely and broadcast a 12th-century image from the Madrid Skylitzes. In it, men sat in a boat, shooting fire out of a long tube toward another ship. “Greek Fire was what saved the Byzantine Empire. But it was so secret, it was passed down from emperor to emperor and eventually lost.”
Percival slid my laptop toward himself as I stood. When I reached the wall and turned to face the group, I couldn’t stop myself from looking through the glass walls. Where had Rav gone? Was he so disgusted by me?—
Stop it.
“Dr. Sayid Haddad stumbled across a parchment he believed changed the story about the chemical.” I gestured for Percival to advance to the next image, of the parchment. We’d found several images of it on the server he’d hidden in Mnemis. “It was a fragment from an ancient medical text, which hinted at Greek Fire being used for healing. Much like how a spear or a sword might be heated in a fire to cauterize a wound, the text seemed to indicate small and targeted quantities of Greek Fire could be regenerative. But as he got closer to recreating the compound, he discovered its destructive potential.”
“Like the dichotomy of the atom bomb,” Will said. “A spectacular energy source or a world-altering weapon.”
