“Jesus, that’s fucking scary. No wonder she makesRambolook like a soft bunny.”
“I’m grateful we’ve been given a little room to dig into what happened—but she needs time to heal,” Kawan said.
“Lucky for you, I’ve already called Brick,” Thor said. “The only thing keeping Specs from spiraling is being able to pound on the keyboard. If she tries to sleep, she panics. If Jupiter takes over, she’s bossing him around and losing her cool. She can’t go on like that, and I doubt Lark’s going to be able to cope. She lost everyone but Specs. If I were her, I’d already be in that fucking straitjacket.”
Kawan glanced back at the door. “She needs something more than any of us can give her. More than orders or the regulated duties of the military can. But it has to be her decision. You know Lark like I do. The moment she has to reconcile what’s clashing between her emotions and her intellect, her brain wins and a piece of her humanity goes with that battle.”
Thor huffed a quiet laugh. “Sounds familiar.”
“Watch it,” Kawan said, smirking. “You’re not exactly a team player yourself.”
Another voice cut in before Thor could respond.
“Mornin’ sunshine,” Jupiter said as he rounded the corner, coffee in one hand, his tablet in the other. He looked Kawan up and down. “Doesn’t look like you slept much, but it does look like you?—”
“Is there a reason you left Specs alone?” Thor asked.
Kawan usually enjoyed a little sparing, especially with his buddies, and Jupiter was always his favorite target, but for now, he was grateful Thor stopped it.
“She’s not alone. Both Lief and Sloan are with her in her room,” Jupiter said. “We got an encrypted message ten minutesago from Grady. At least, the signature matches what he used before.”
“And?” Thor asked.
“It’s not much, but the meaning is explosive,” Jupiter said. “The one line reads:They know. Not secure. Move now.Specs is still running forensics to make sure it wasn’t spoofed, but it looks legit. While we have no idea whotheyare, and we have no idea if we should trust Grady or not, both Specs and I agree that we should move locations.”
“I’m on board with that.” Kawan’s spine straightened. “Is there anything that you’ve found that points to Torin? Bretton? Or even Bradford?”
“Bradford had the AI, but before the chaos, I could’ve sworn he handed it off to Bretton. Or maybe Bretton took it. Hard to tell since my comms went in and out or were glitching,” Jupiter said.
Thor leaned closer to the monitor.“When the three men scattered, it appeared that Bretton and Bradford went in the same direction, but Torin went out from the other side, under that bridge.”
“That’s what little I have on the security footage,” Jupiter said. “But I don’t trust it. It was scrambled, and until I can study it more, I’m not willing to say anything one way or another.”
“I don’t trust Bradford. He’s a real piece of work. He proved that when he worked for the good guys. And now he’s in the private sector. I wouldn’t put anything past him,” Kawan said.
“Neither would I, Thor said. “But I don’t think he’s smart enough to pull something like this off. Not without help.”
“Whoever pulled the trigger on that ambush had no idea we'd been deployed. So why send us in?” Jupiter asked, holding up his hand. “We all got played.”
“Right,” Thor said. “The support part of the orders was vague and not fully understood until we got there, leaving no room forour team or Lark to leak that piece to anyone. Which means, someone knew this was probably going to go down this way.”
“So, why didn’t they stop it?” Kawan asked, but the second the last two words tumbled from his mouth, the answer rolled across his brain like a nasty rash that wouldn’t go away. “Shit,” he mumbled. “They couldn’t stop it without breaching some security or national protocol, so we were the best-case scenario for a lose-lose situation.” He rubbed his temples. “And we’re supposed to suck it up because not everyone died.”
“Something like that,” Jupiter mumbled. “Whatever the reason, Grady didn’t want Lorre to know he’d sent anyone. And now we’ve got Grady sending a message through a secure tunnel we haven’t used since before the op. That’s not a coincidence.”
Footsteps pounded from the side corridor. Kawan glanced over his shoulder.
Leif.
He skidded into the hallway, eyes wide, weapon already strapped to his thigh. “We’ve got company. Time to go. Now.”
Kawan’s blood iced.
“How many?” Thor asked.
“Four men. Military-type, tactical gear, moving like they’ve cleared buildings before. Just walked into the lobby like they own the place.”
Kawan turned and used his key card to open the hotel door. “Lark,” his voice was low but sharp, full of steel.
