“How the hell did Hyland get away with launching a drone in Scotland?” Jamie said. “Isn’t that an act of war?”
“He’s supposedly supervising a training exercise while he’s up here—the US military and the British Army. Maybe something to do with that?”
“Maybe... So this two-factor authentication. Will they change the password now we’ve been sprung?”
“Possibly, but they can’t be aware I’m in their files—they would have locked me out hours ago. They only know I accessed his email, which is separate.”
“What about the websites and stuff we’ve been to—can they track all that now? My comms with Angelito...?”
“Highly unlikely. I used secure software. Nothing’s infallible but...”
“So all we’re needing is this gadget.”
“You make it sound so simple. We can’t get it—he carries it with him.Onhim.”
“That’s about as simple as it gets. Is there any other way we’ll end this thing?”
“I’m going to blame the drugs because that’s crazy. We can’t walk up and steal it from him, right under the eyes of the diplomatic service. We’ll get arrested. Or worse. Probably worse.”
“You prefer to spend the rest of your short life like this? Waiting for his goons to catch up?”
“No, but—”
“While Tess rots in jail? With Charlotte in danger?”
“What the hell can I do about any of this?”
“We.”
“What?”
“What canwedo. We’re still in this together. Despite...” He stopped walking, holding out his arm to stop her, too. “We go up here.” He pushed past a weeping willow, then turned. “And Angelito and Holly will be in London by now. They can help. We’ll tell them to get to Edinburgh on the first train.”
“Great. So instead of two of us against America’s finest diplomatic service agents and Hyland’s goons, it’ll be four.”
“You see?” He resumed walking. “Doubling our chances. And Texas shouldn’t be far behind. Tripling our chances.”
“An extra three people does not triple our chances.”
“Texas is worth two regular people, at least.”
She threw up her hands. “Jamie, stop joking. We’re talking dozens of people—armed, trained, constantly on alert. Plus the Edinburgh police and possibly Scotland Yard and the British Army and US military. Your friends will take us from zero chance to zero chance.”
“There you go, overthinking it again.”
“Really.”
“Besides, you don’t know Angelito like I do. And Holly—she has a secret weapon. Sheisa secret weapon.”
“What the hell does that mean?” It was an effort to keep her voice to a whisper. “Can she make herself invisible? Because that’s the only thing that might help.”
“No, but she is kind of a shape-shifter.”
“A what?”
“You know, she can take on other forms. Well, just one other that I’m aware of. But it’s the form we’re needing.”
“You’re making no sense.” The drugs. Shit, how long had he been under the influence—the whole time they’d been together? Had he taken more than just the sedative? Did that explain his bravado? She wanted to rewind their whole relationship, replay every conversation and every interaction with this new filter. How much of what she’d seen was him and how much some chemical imbalance? Had she fallen for Jamie or for some medically altered version of him?
