She typed blindly, her fingers cramping as she struggled to hit the right keys. The message didn’t need to be long. Just a single line of code embedded in the body of the email—the modified virus that would slip past the kill switch and burrow into WATCHDOG’s core.
Send.
She felt the slight vibration as the email launched, and then she let the phone slip from her fingers, nudging it back toward where it had been resting.
“—tell her I’ll deal with the Chinese personally once we’re airborne,” Webb was saying. He turned back toward Elena and picked up his phone, barely glancing at it as he tucked it into his jacket pocket.
Elena kept her expression carefully blank, but inside, her heart was singing.
It’s done. The virus is sent. The moment anyone on WATCHDOG’s network opens that email, the system will start dying.
And Webb had just put the delivery mechanism in his pocket.
“You look pleased about something,” Webb observed, studying her with narrowed eyes.
“Just thinking about how badly this is going to end for you.”
Webb laughed. “I admire your spirit, Elena. I always have. It’s one of the things that makes you so valuable.” He glanced toward the cockpit. “We should be taking off any moment now. I suggest you get comfortable. It will be a long flight.”
Elena settled back in her seat, forcing herself to relax despite the zip ties cutting into her wrists. The virus was sent. WATCHDOG was doomed. Even if she never saw Reed again, even if Webb kept her locked in his Eastern European facility forever, she had accomplished her mission.
I did it,she thought.It’s over.
But even as relief washed through her, she felt the sharp ache of loss. Reed. His brothers. The future they might have had together. She’d sacrificed all of it to destroy WATCHDOG, and she didn’t regret the choice, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
I love you,she thought, sending the words out into the universe and hoping somehow they would reach him.I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye.
The jet’s engines roared to life, and Elena felt the aircraft begin to move. Through the window, she watched the tarmac slide past as they taxied toward the runway.
Then she heard something that made her heart stop.
Gunfire, distant but unmistakable. The sharp crack of rifles and the deeper boom of something heavier.
Webb straightened in his seat, his expression shifting from calm to alarmed. “What the?—”
The jet lurched to a sudden stop, throwing Elena against her restraints. Through the window, she could see vehicles converging on the runway—black SUVs moving at high speed, figures in tactical gear pouring out of them.
Reed.
Hope exploded in her chest, so intense it was almost painful.
“Get us in the air!” Webb shouted toward the cockpit. “Now!”
The engines screamed as the pilot tried to comply, the jet accelerating down the runway. But the SUVs were keeping pace, and Elena could see one of them pulling ahead, angling toward the aircraft’s path.
Then she saw him.
Reed was standing in the back of one of the vehicles, a rifle braced against his shoulder, his face set in an expression of absolute determination. As she watched, he took aim and fired—not at the jet itself, but at the tires.
The aircraft shuddered as the front landing gear blew out, sparks flying as metal scraped against asphalt. The pilot fought for control, but the jet was already veering sideways, momentum carrying it off the runway and onto the grass.
Elena braced herself as the aircraft ground to a halt, her body jerking against the restraints hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs.
“Get her to the backup vehicle!” Webb was shouting, already moving toward the rear exit. “We’re not losing her now!”
The guards descended on Elena, cutting her ankle restraints and hauling her to her feet. But before they could drag her toward the door, it burst open from the outside.
Walker came through first, his rifle sweeping the cabin with lethal precision. Two guards went down before they could even raise their weapons, their bodies crumpling to the floor.
