Holmberg stared at him. “Get me a computer.”
Bear unclipped his seat belt and took a laptop handed to him by Hollace, who sat directly behind Ramon. He opened it on thetable in front of their captive and sat beside him, probably so he could see what Holmberg was doing the whole time.
“Make it fast, before someone out there in our escort gets an itchy finger.”
Bear had only just finished saying that when the whole plane shuddered again. Turbulence lifted the plane in the air for a second. If Ramon had been holding a drink, it would have spilled in his lap. Instead, all he could do was wait while Holmberg typed on the keyboard.
“There.” Holmberg sat back, defeat in his body language. “That’s the server where I keep all their financial information. It’s all there. Everything.”
All the secrets ofDominatus.Ramon wanted to snatch the laptop and get Maizie access to the whole cache of information in one go. Instead, he sat where he was, trying not to look like they had just gained a win. Given the squadron of fighter jets surrounding them with their missiles locked on, it wasn’t time to celebrate.
They weren’t out of danger yet.
“You think they’ll stand down?” Ramon asked Bear. “We can’t destroy the organization quickly enough to get these guys to back off in response.” He looked around, a plan coalescing in his mind. “With some supplies, we could make it look like Holmberg is dead.”
“They’ll still fire on you.” Holmberg lifted his chin. “They’ll just do it to ensure that I’m gone.”
“I’ll message them back. Attempt to negotiate.” Bear looked at Holmberg. “With this information, we can finally destroy them.”
“Congratulations.” Holmberg bit out the word.
Bear got up, taking the laptop with him. He passed it across the aisle to one of his guys. Hazel, their tech, was probably already looking at the information. Copying everything from theserver, just in case there was some kind of signal embedded in the log-in that Holmberg had used, which might initiate a program that would start destroying everything stored on the server before they could see it.
Ramon wanted to shake his head. At himself. He’d been hanging out with Maizie too much if he was thinking like this. There was no reason for Holmberg to do something like that, unless he planned to martyr himself, and either way, he figured MSI would be pulling the trigger. He’d given up hope, so what did it matter?
He looked at the other man. “You did the right thing.”
At least, he hoped Holmberg had actually given them what they needed.
“I’ll die with pride.” Holmberg lifted his chin. “Is that it?”
“Something like that.” Ramon looked at the planes out the window, again so tempted to pray that it seemed like the words settled on the tip of his tongue.
As he watched, the aircraft banked away from them and flew off.
“They left.” He looked at the other guys. “The ones on this side just flew away. How about that side?”
One of the men over there said, “The planes on this side did as well. They’re gone.”
He didn’t seem surprised.
Ramon frowned, which Bear caught when he exited the cockpit.
“It’s taken care of.”
Ramon stared at him.
“What?”
Holmberg said nothing. He just stared out the window. Did he know he’d been played?
Ramon had been played as well. “You needed me to act natural, so you didn’t let me know you had pilots on speed dial?” That, or this man would never see Ramon as one of them.
“Don’t take it personal.” Bear settled into his seat across the aisle. “We have what we came for.”
He didn’t mean Holmberg. He meant the information. “And the message board?”
“Hazel does good work.”
