Hazel glanced at Hollace, who nodded slightly. “It’s been a puzzle, that’s for sure. Don’t get me wrong, he gave us so much.” She waved a hand at the screens, as if the rest of them knew what they were looking at. “But it’s all in code. It’ll take time to crack it.”
“Maybe you should reach out to Maizie,” Ramon suggested as casually as he could. “Collaborate and see if you can figure it out.”
Hollace shifted his weight. “Let’s go, Ramon. We can continue our tour.”
Hazel looked almost sad.
“Nice to see you.” Ramon was surprised Hollace didn’t grab his arm and drag him out.
In the hall, he forgot to temper his frustration.
“What is your problem?” Ramon didn’t bother holding back his irritation. “You could get all this done faster if you ask for help, but you’ve got Hazel in there carrying the weight of all this on her shoulders. If you reached out to Banbury Investigations and let them help you, I wouldn’t have had to dig up your team and force myself in.”
“You think you found us?”
Ramon frowned. “You can’t expect me to believe you let me in.”
Hollace said, “I don’t have to prove it to you.”
“You should tell Kenna what you’re doing.” Ramon wasn’t going to back down from that.
“You might think she can do anything, and she might be your boss, but she doesn’t need to be a part of this.”
“Why?”
“Because the whole point of it is to keep her out!” Hollace’s face reddened with anger. “I just buried a guy I’ve known for decades. You think I’m going to bring in a pregnant woman and put her life in danger? Watch her get cut down? No one here is going to bring her intoanything.”
“And that prohibits you from passing on information. Or status updates? You’re working with the enemy!” And Ramon had just ruled out any shot he had at sneaking around to finda phone or computer. They knew the second he had access to either, he would contact Kenna as fast as he could.
Let her know they were working with the president.
“Things are happening,” Hollace said. “You have no idea what is going on.”
“Then I guess I’m the one who needs a status update.” Ramon folded his arms. “Because you obviously have something going on.”
“You think we need help? Or you wanna keep criticizing what we do here?” Hollace clearly didn’t like that.
Ramon wasn’t used to people criticizing his behavior. Usually, they just labeled him a murderer and went on with their lives. Why did he even care what these guys thought? “You were supposed to be good guys. Now you made a deal with the wrong side. I just want to understand why.”
“Things are far more complicated than you know. Kenna has work to do, and no one wants to see her hurt.” Hollace sighed. “Thegoalis to fix this situation once and for all. To get the right person in charge ofDominatus. We all thought that Kenna could take them down, but who’s going to ask a pregnant woman to fight that battle?”
“What right person?” He’d been under the impression, from Kenna herself, that a woman couldn’t be in charge ofDominatus. So that ruled out the president, thanks to evil organization misogyny. Who was left? “The accountant?”
That whole situation had been beyond weird.
They hadn’t fought anyone. They’d been caught in a couple of traps and lost a man. But in the end, their target had effectively turned himself over to them.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you.” Hollace’s expression had hardened. “Now keep walking.”
Ramon shook his head. He didn’t need to win this guy over, and he probably couldn’t convince him to say more than heshould. It wasn’t like he could torture the guy, persuade him, or hand over a bribe.
His thoughts spun, and he slammed against the wall.
“Careful.” Hollace grabbed his arm and dragged Ramon outside. Across gravel to another door on the far side. “Let’s get you somewhere you can lie down. Get a drink of water. All that. Sound good.”
“I’m not an invalid.” His head hadn’t cleared, though. He felt like he was swimming in his own mind. Trying to surface.
Dehydration. Exhaustion. Hopefully, nothing worse than that.
