“Water break,” she said. “Back in ten minutes.”
I read between the lines. We were going to the Quad, and I had exactly ten minutes to make my case.
CHAPTER 29
Code Word: Itchy
“So you think that based on the recommendation of a hostile TCI, who is, by the way, the lead suspect in yesterday’s theft, that we should … what?” Brooke just stared at me. “Go to the park? Take down Connors-Wright? It’s not like we have jurisdiction here. Not anymore.”
“And besides,” Tara said beside me, ever the voice of reason, “I’m sure our superiors are still keeping track of the remaining TCIs.”
“Like they kept track of Amelia so well that she ended up in my bedroom?”
“You should have incapacitated her.” Brooke’s tone was stony.
I gave her my best innocent look. “This operation was a Do Not Engage.”
“There is no operation!” Brooke was coming close to yelling, and even though the cheer-tone was still present in hervoice, the veins in her forehead were starting to pop out, just a little.
“There should be an operation.” I was implacable, or at least as implacable as I could be after the stunting torture I’d just been through. “Therehasto be one. You’re acting like Amelia just passed me this information, no strings attached. That’s not what happened. You keep talking about her ‘recommendation,’ but that’s not what we’re dealing with here. This is blackmail.”
“We have no way of knowing if this is a trap.” Chloe kept her voice calm, but I could sense the antagonism coming off of her in waves. “For all we know, Peyton put her up to this to confirm some suspicion they had aboutyou.”
I couldn’t miss the emphasis on the last word. Amelia had come to me. She had made me. She’d referred to the others, had alluded to our cheerleading outfits, but she hadn’t explicitly identified them.
“This isn’t a trap,” I said. “And I don’t think Amelia Juarez has ever really worked for anyone other than herself. She knows who we are. She could have gone straight to Peyton with it. She didn’t.” I looked at each person at the table. “And if we play her little game, she won’t.”
This was it. Either they believed me, or we were screwed.
“If she’s telling the truth about Connors-Wright having the nanobots—and I think she is—then we can’t afford not to go. Amelia’s playing a dangerous game, and I honestly have no idea what she’ll do with this technology, or who she’ll sell it to, if we don’t beat her to it.”
Absolute silence greeted my words. If Amelia acquired the nanobots and sold them, then virtually unstoppableassassination technology would be in the hands of terrorists. First they’d study it and attempt to replicate it, but eventually, they’d use it, and somebody important to our national security would die.
I looked around the table, willing the others to snap out of their horrified states and agree. When they all remained silent, I tried to prod them into talking. “Besides, what do we have to lose?”
Brooke snorted. “Says the girl who hacked into their system last night,” she said. The message was clear:Ididn’t have much to lose. “Do you have any idea how pissed they’re going to be about that?”
She was totally missing the point. Either we trusted that Amelia would play by the rules of her own sick little game, or we didn’t, and if we didn’t, we were beyond screwed anyway. “The Big Guys are going to be mad I hacked them? Allow me to pretend that I care.” I paused.
“Not very convincing,” Tara said mildly.
I shrugged. “That hurts, Tara. Right here.” I tapped my heart, and Tara stifled a giggle.
“Tell you what, Toby.” Brooke oozed condescension. “We’ll look into Connors-Wright’s father. I’d be surprised if he’s even stationed in Bayport right now.”
“And if he is?” I pressed.
“If he is, then we’ll see.”
At least she was saying “we” instead of “you.” That seemed to indicate that she hadn’t mentally kicked me off the Squad. Yet.
At the head of the table, Brooke typed in a few short commands and brought up the records for operative individualscurrently residing in or visiting Bayport, and as the names flashed across the screen, it occurred to me that the elder Connors-Wright wasn’t the only person we should be looking for.
“Whoever stole our target out from underneath us yesterday was good,” I said. “Operative-level good, and if it’s the same person, they managed to blow up Kann’s car without leaving much of a trail. If it wasn’t one of the TCIs, what are the chances that it was another operative?”
“A rogue operative?” Brooke was nothing if not skeptical. “You really think there’s a rogue operative in Bayport? And that this rogue operative somehow knew about the weapon, piggybacked on our mission to steal it, and then, out of the goodness of his or her heart, gave it to Anthony Connors-Wright so he could waste it on his father?”
“You got a better explanation?”
