She dove into the biography of each of them. Ethan was amazed at the detail she knew about their lives. She knew about things no one else did.
“Then there was the time when Blayne and his friends hid behind a fence and threw snowballs at passing cars. It’s a good thing they ran when they hit the police car. That officer would have ruined all their lives forever. As for you, the only remotely criminal behavior I’ve found on you was the one incident when you were drunk and ran your car into the private school’s playground. Thankfully, your manager acted quickly and made a huge donation to the school on your behalf so they wouldn’t press charges. You also upgraded their equipment. The police never knew it was you because the security footage was conveniently lost.”
“No one knows about that. Not even anyone in the band…”
“There’s always a trail when you dig hard enough. One of the security personnel kept the footage. I can only guess that he planned on using it to blackmail you one day.” Ethan let out a garbled choke. “Don’t worry. That man’s computer crashed, and his cloud backup had several missing files, including that one.”
“So now you’re going to blackmail me?”
“Ethan, dear—”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Ethan?”
“Dear. I’m not your ‘dear’ anything.”
The woman made atsking sound. “And just when we were becoming such good friends.” She drew her face into an exaggerated pout. She moved on the couch and winced as she twisted her torso.
“You need to take one every six hours for pain.” Ethan tossed her a bottle of pills Arnold had left.
She grabbed the bottle out of the air and winced at the sudden motion. She looked down at the label. “Not even the good stuff.”
“Yeah, well…it’s hard to get the good stuff when you’re not supposed to be here.”
“Can I get some water?”
Ethan eyed her warily before standing. He backed his way into the kitchen, holding the gun at her. He opened the fridge and reached in to grab a bottle of water. The second he took his eyes off her, she sprung off the couch, over the kitchen table and stood before Ethan. She jabbed her palm into his chest. He stumbled backward into the sink. The gun slipped from his hand. She kicked the fridge door shut and snatched the gun out of the air. Ethan closed his eyes, waiting to hear the gunshot. When it didn’t, he opened one eye. The woman stood before him, her arms crossed, holding the gun with one hand.
“Honestly, I would have done it already if I had wanted you dead. Get that through your thick skull.” She turned around, walked into the living room and picked up the pills before coming back into the kitchen and grabbing the bottle of water that had fallen to the floor.
Ethan stood leaning against the sink, staring in shock. “How’d you—?”
“Ethan, dear,…oh, sorry about that. Old habits and all.” She sat at the table, popped open the pill bottle and swallowed a couple of pills before opening the water. “Ethan, you must know by now that I have a skill set you can’t possibly understand. I’ve been groomed my entire life for my job. You grew up in a world where you could flourish and decide your path. Call it child prodigy development. My skill set involves protecting this country and its values at all costs. Anyone or anything deemed a threat is liquidated. That’s our fancy term for killing or destroying someone or something. I don’t kill indiscriminately.”
Ethan pushed himself away from the sink and sat across from her at the kitchen table. “You act like you’re high and mighty, but you killed Cynthia and Daniel, blew up an airplane, blew up Stephanie’s house and shot Blayne, not to mention all the injuries you caused in that damn shootout of yours.”
She sat there in silence for a moment. She lifted the water bottle to her lips, then sat the bottle down without taking her eyes off Ethan. Just her unblinking stare was enough to cause Ethan to glance down at the table.
She let out a quick breath. “Cynthia was the target. Daniel was collateral damage. We had no intelligence that he was there. The plane was brought down because it was deemed the fastest way to ensure your phone was destroyed. You ran off to meet Blayne, which was unexpected. Stephanie’s phone also contained the same data leak from my organization. Blayne was a pure accident. He had your cell phone. We had no idea you two were conducting your own end run around the paparazzi, which was genius in its own way.”
“What was so important that you killed hundreds of people?”
“A highly detailed list of our operatives, both domestic and international. Cynthia Dunning was one of ours. She and an unknown accomplice had hacked into our system, which should have been impossible. If that data got into the wrong hands, it would topple governments and possibly lead to several international conflicts. So, you see, Ethan, stopping that data was paramount for the security of our nation and the world.”
Ethan sat back in his chair as a large, booming laugh burst deep within him. His entire body shook. His chest heaved as he threw his head back, and a loud, open-mouthed guffaw echoed through the room.
When he settled, the woman looked at him. “Are you done?”
“You expect me to believe that bullshit? I’m sorry, but that’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard.”
“And yet it’s all true. I have no reason to lie to you, Mr. Bond.” She drew out Ethan’s surname in a way that made the hair on the back of Ethan’s neck rise.
Dr. Hennigan
Dr. Hennigan narrowed her eyes at Ethan. She’d just told him more than she’d told anyone outside of The Foundation in her entire life. She wondered if she’d made the right decision to be honest with him. He could prove nothing she’d said, so The Foundation was still secure.
“As I said last night, none of what happened last month was personal.”
