“She’s smart,” Jupiter said quietly. “Sees things others would miss. But no one prepared her for this part of the job.”
“As if anyone could have.” Pipe set down his tea. “Do you believe letting her stare at grainy video feeds would help?”
“No,” Jupiter replied. “Which is why I cut her off. Doesn’t mean she forgives me for it.”
“Don’t think forgiveness is high on anyone’s list right now,” Thor said, shuffling some papers around. “We’ve got more problems than we can count.”
“Which is what I’ve been working on.” Jupiter sat up and turned the laptop so everyone could see. A crude map popped up. Pins. Strings. Timestamps. “I’ve been trying to get a line on Bretton and Torin. So far—nothing. No chatter. No sightings. And not a whisper out of Sentarix on Bradford.”
Three men vanished into thin air. That didn't happen without help.
Kawan leaned forward, studying the map. “What about Lorre?”
“Clean as a priest’s browser history,” Jupiter muttered. “Too clean. He scrubbed something. I can feel it. The problem is, whatever went sideways with the AI, it went deep. I’ve been trawling secure channels, darknet watch boards, even pulling strings with a guy who owes me a kidney in Prague. Nothing.”
“And Grady?” Thor asked. “We’re sure that communication is from him?”
“All roads lead to him.” Jupiter's lips pressed into a thin line. “We had two comms before we got here, and then this last one. All on a secure, one-time-use server. He won’t talk directly to me. Not even over the most encrypted line I’ve got.”
“Wait.” Kawan crossed his arms. “If he won’t talk directly, why is he bothering to contact us at all?”
“Because he wants to see Lark. Implied it was critical. Says he’ll meet with all of us if he must—but he needs to talk to her. In person. When pushed for identifying information, he said I’d have to trust the information in front of me.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Pipe asked.
“Encrypted code. Messages inside his message suggesting that it’s him,” Jupiter said.
Brick exchanged a glance with Tonka. “Did he give a location?”
“No,” Jupiter said. “He knew trust was a commodity that was running thin and was willing to roll the dice and let me pick the place.”
Smart move. Or a desperate one.Kawan wasn't sure which yet.
Pipe leaned forward, tapping a finger on the table. “Then let’s do it right. Let’s control all aspects. We can take this on the far west side of the property, by the ravine. No guests wander out that far. It’s quiet, private. Open terrain. No angles for an ambush. We’ll have eyes on all sides.”
“No weapons,” Brick added. “That’s non-negotiable. He agrees to our terms, or it doesn’t happen.”
“And he comes alone,” Tonka said. “You don’t bring a dog to a peace meeting unless you plan on ordering it to bite.”
Jupiter nodded. “I’ll make contact. He’ll get the parameters by tonight.”
Kawan ran a hand down his face. “How the hell did we get here?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Thor shut the file. “But now we’re part of the committee.”
“What committee?” Kawan asked.
“The one tasked with recovering the missing AI software.” Thor looked between them. “Joint task force. Navy oversight. Two agents from Homeland Security and us.”
“A SEAL team? Working on US soil?” Pipe asked, incredulous. “To locate something a black ops task force lost in South America during… never mind.” Pipe shook his head.
“I’m just glad it’s my unit, giving us some leeway on how we do things,” Thor said. “They’re calling it military continuity presence—whatever the fuck that means.”
Kawan snorted. “I’ll give you the translation. Fall guys if shit hits the fan.”
“Well, that’s always the given,” Thor said with a grim smile.
Brick stood. “You’ve got us as backup.”
