Come to the abandoned farmhouse at 6 Seviere Drive in Brithswaite.
Tomorrow, hour twenty-two.
Thirteen
Jade hadn’t told Theo orCommander Matherson where she was going, or that she was even leaving base. Going through the gate wasn’t an option. She would have to check out with the troopers at the guard house, who would likely call Matherson for confirmation that Jade was cleared to leave. She most definitely was not.
Which was what led her to a shadowy corner of base away from populated areas. The only people who should be out at this time of night were troopers on guard duty, but she knew their posts and routes well enough to be able to steer clear of them.
The particular piece of wall Jade had chosen was near the base’s garden, away from the majority of security routes and far enough from any lights that it offered some darkness to help conceal her. The ten-foot stone wall loomed in front of Jade, but she had come prepared. She grasped the cool metal of asmall, foldable grappling hook she had procured from one the supply depot earlier that day.
Jade twisted a knob on the grappling hook, and the four sharp, curved prongs extended. A length of rope fell from a loop at the hook’s straight end, and Jade grasped it as she tossed the grappling hook over the wall, pulling it taut until it caught on the wall’s edge.
She couldn’t begin to count the number of times she’d used a grappling hook, training included or not. As an espionage agent, Jade had plenty of experience with the tool, and she pulled her small body up and over the wall with ease. Jade waited a beat to make sure no one had noticed her scaling the wall, and when no alarm came, she stashed the hook in her bag and dashed to the closest shadows away from base that she could reach.
Jade’s heart pounded fast and heavy, sending her pulse throbbing in her neck. Her assignments rarely put her nerves so on edge, but this was no assignment. She was sneaking out of base, using the skills instilled into her by the military to keep something from them. Guilt flooded her for a moment before she considered all she’d accomplished because of her informant—whatthe militaryhad accomplished as a result of her espionage. This wasn’t against them; this was for them. She just couldn’t tell them about it.
Yet.
The thought soothed her guilt and eased her anxiety. She couldn’t get caught up in those kinds of feelings when she was on her way to meet face-to-face with her informant. She needed a level head. While he’d never been anything but helpful to her, she didn’t know the man, his motivations, or where his loyalties truly lay.
Jade set out from base at hour twenty-one, expecting a full hour of walking to the address indicated by her informant four miles away. Curiosity pricked her at why he had chosen for them to meet at the abandoned farmhouse at 6 Seviere Drive. He couldn’t be staying there. Most of the abandoned farmhouses in Brithswaite had fallen into disrepair. Whilesquatters sometimes took up residence in them, especially in the colder months, troops would go through from time to time and clear them out. The homes weren’t safe to stay in, most of them in danger of collapsing at any time, so those seeking shelter would be asked to relocate.
The question about her informant’s choice of meeting spot was posed in tandem with how he knew to get the note to her on Ivanelli Military Base. How he knew her name. He must have been watching Jade much more closely than she realized.
It shouldn’t have surprised her, as her notes had shown up unexpectedly and in unlikely places. That alone spoke to him having close eyes on her.
But how close exactly? How much did he know about her? She shivered despite the warm night.
Sweat clustered on Jade’s brow and beaded on her back by the time she arrived at the driveway to 6 Seviere Drive an hour later. Her mind momentarily wandered back to base, wondering if anyone had happened to notice her absence. Technically, no one should be bothering her. Everyone except the highest ranks were supposed to be in bed, but there was always the chance something out of the ordinary had happened. Blazes forbid Theo actually came looking for her, tonight of all nights.
Bits of gravel occasionally crunched under Jade’s boots, most of it washed out of the driveway and overtaken by weeds and dirt. The house sat back from the road in an open field dotted with trees and overgrown with grasses, wildflowers, and a few surviving plants from its working days as a farm that had gotten out of control. Crickets, grasshoppers, and frogs filled the summer night with their song, and the wind rustled the tall grasses and leftover crops.
The informant hadn’t specified where Jade was to meet him here, so she continued her trek toward the house. Its gabled roof was missing shingles, shutters hung off the windows, and boards on the walls had rotted and left holes. Regardless, it wasn’t one of the worst farmhouses Jade hadseen. As a cadet, she had occasionally been involved in making sure the houses were uninhabited, and she’d seen some truly destroyed ones. Those in the roughest shape were torn down altogether.
Jade stuck out a boot and tentatively put her weight on the first step of the porch, which creaked underneath her. Going against her natural instincts to not trust the structure, she continued on, taking slow, careful steps across the porch that wrapped around to the side of the house.
Nature’s melody dwindled as Jade pushed open the old door and crossed the threshold of the house, the sounds outside replaced with the squeaking of the old floorboards and the steady thump of her boots. Her own heartbeat raged in her ears, her tension nearly palpable as she peered into the dimness for any kind of indication her informant awaited her.
Furniture remained in the front sitting room, tattered sofas and cracked tables and broken chairs. Paintings even hung on the walls, faded and spotted with mildew. Leaves and other debris littered the floor, scattered over a rug caked in dirt and stains. The only sign of life was a lantern on the mantle, the flickering flame turned low. This room could have been frozen in time if not for the decay and disrepair.
A board creaked under weight, and Jade’s head snapped toward the sound. There, leaning on his left arm against the doorframe to the next room, stood the dark figure of a man.
“Welcome, Captain Ni’ihm.”
Something in the voice was familiar and struck a recent memory. Jade’s mind buzzed too much with her anxiety and the man’s sudden appearance to recall why.
“Who are you?” She didn’t hold back the words that formed in her mind, the question she’d been wondering since first receiving a note six months ago.
The man’s face was too lost in shadow for her to make any determination of his expression or features. “We’ll get to that,” he answered,and his voice carried the hint of a smile. “First, I’m afraid we’ll have to change locations. It isn’t safe here in this house, as I’m sure you’re well aware.”
The intonation in his last words stuck a chord with Jade, as if they were spoken intentionally for her. Had he known she’d been involved with clearing out the old country houses years ago as a cadet?
Jade refused to acknowledge the hidden meaning. She would give this man nothing voluntarily. As much as she had trusted him over the course of The Claim, now that she was in his presence, she couldn’t decide if she felt the same way. He was, after all, a stranger to her, with access to inside information that she didn’t understand and a motivation he had never revealed.
“Where else would we go?” she asked, never taking her eyes off him. “The barn here isn’t much better, and there’s no other structure for miles.”
The man didn’t speak, but he left his spot on the doorframe and took a few slow steps forward. Jade stood her ground, though her mind screamed at her to back away. The lack of light in the farmhouse still obscured his features, sending a bolt of nervous energy into Jade’s limbs.
