We reached the chamber where the scaffolding had been erected, where three of our five cameras were situated. The air hung heavy with moisture, the smell of wet stone filling my nostrils. Camera two was mounted in a shadowed recess near the ceiling, aimed at the chamber’s primary entrance.
“Hold this,” I said, handing Percival the battery tester and my pack. I climbed onto a narrow ledge, stretching to reach the device. No damage, no sign of tampering. That was good. I removed the back panel and held the camera out to Percival.
He shone his light on the small device and placed the tester against the battery. “Dead.”
“Câlisse,” I muttered under my breath.HadI forgotten to check they were fully charged? “Pass me the spare. It’s in the front pouch.”
Percival dug in my pack and handed up the replacement.
I swapped the batteries, secured the panel, and checked the indicator light. Three steady blinks, then it went out. Operational. I pulled out my phone and connected with our comms experts for the op. “Drew, Huck, camera two is live. Confirm signal.”
Both men responded, “Confirmed.”
Once I had repositioned the camera, Drew added, “Video and audio are clear, too.”
“Copy,” I said, “moving to camera one.”
I hung up and jumped down from the ledge, taking my pack from Percival. As we continued through the tunnels, the walls narrowed, forcing us to stoop and move in single file at times. The stone floor was slick with moisture, treacherous in the limited light.
“You’re going to have to tell me what happened eventually,” Percival said.
I clenched and unclenched my fists. Percival had always been a talker. It had initially irritated the shit out of me, but I’d come to appreciate him on the long drives. He was always coming up with things to talk about, so I just had to answer his unending questions.
Unfortunately, it also meant he would keep asking questions today.
“We talked. That’s all.”
“About?”
“That day.” Before I could stop them, images flashed through my brain. Her smile. The gunman appearing at the window. My body moving before my mind processed. The searing pain of the bullets.
“About what you had for breakfast?”
I rolled my eyes heavenward, which he couldn’t see, since he was a couple of feet behind me.
“Oh, you mean about the whole incident? The gunfire and stuff?”
My throat tightened, but what was the point in hiding it from him? He’d been there. “That I spotted the threat too late. That I blamed myself for knocking over whatever bottle or jar the fucking Lewisite was stored in. That the chemical splashed her because of me.”
As casually as if I’d told him it was going to rain later in the day, he said, “That’s a lot.”
The words burned in my throat. “That I couldn’t face her afterward.”
He grabbed my arm to force me to turn and look at him. “Let me get this straight. Youstillthink you failed her?”
“I was looking at her instead of securing the room properly. Checking her position instead of the corners. If I’d been focused on the mission rather than her specifically?—”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it.” He raised his voice, almost startling me in the quiet, confined space. “We did a fucking perfect job clearing that entire building. The guy was hiding outside in some fucking shed.”
“I should have seen it.”
“You took three rounds meant for her. It would have been worse, but your plate carrier took another four. The chemical splash was collateral damage when one of the other rounds hit the shelf.”
“Your arm?—”
“My arm was my own fault for getting too close to where the splash happened without putting on my protective gear. How many times did Brooke remind us about the safety protocols?” He fixed me with a hard stare. “You didn’t cause what happenedto either of us, Rav. You prevented her from fucking dying, and I’ve told you all this before.”
“It doesn’t matter now.” I continued walking. “She forgave me, so it’s done.”
