Keira ducked back into her bedroom for her handgun and came back out to find Rogue at the front door, struggling with the locks. She tucked the gun into her waistband and brushed Rogue’s hands aside to flip the levers. Before she pulled open the door, she brought out her gun.
“Ready?” she asked.
He nodded.
Keira stood to the side of the doorframe and pushed the door open, her pistol pointed outside.
From where she stood, she could see the rutted path that served as a driveway.
It was empty. Nothing moved in the shadows beneath the trees surrounding the cabin.
A persistent hum sounded overhead.
Keira glanced up to see a drone hovering over the camouflage netting. It moved toward the rutted path leading up to the cabin. Once again, Keira glanced around at the shadows cast by the trees and the netting.
“I’ll get it,” Rogue said. “Cover me.”
Keira aimed her pistol at the shadows and the path.
Rogue hurried out of the cabin, down the steps and followed the drone.
Once the drone cleared the netting, a cable descended between the trees with a sealed container attached to a hook. When the container touched the ground, the hook released, the cable retracted into the drone and the device disappeared over the treetops.
Container in hand, Rogue brought it up the steps and into the house.
Keira closed and locked the door and then turned to find Rogue pulling items out of the box.
“Royce sent a satellite phone.” He held up the device briefly and went back to the box for other items. One by one, he held up an encrypted laptop, two handguns, several magazines full of bullets, medical supplies, cash and a handwritten note from Royce.
Keira leaned over Rogue’s shoulder and read the note.
Situation is worse than we thought. Strickland has activated a manhunt for you, claiming you've gone rogue and kidnapped a witness. There's a kill-on-sight order. The current administration officially disavows SOS, but Senator Hartley and two other members of Congress are working with me. We're building a case, but we need hard evidence and witness testimony. Protect the witness. Get her story on record. I'll handle the rest. Stay safe. —R
Keira snorted. “He called me a witness. That’s new.”
Rogue spread the items out on the coffee table. “Royce thinks of you as a person, not a mission. He sent me out to find you with the intention of rescuing you if we were being fed lies and you weren’t actually the senator’s murderer. Like I said before, Royce is one of the good guys.”
“Are there any real good guys?” Keira asked.
“A few,” Rogue said. “We’re going to find the ones who aren’t.”
Keira’s laptop pinged with an incoming message. She hurried over to it, tapped the keyboard and read.
Jade: Training exercise, my first year. You helped me when I failed the sleep deprivation test. You told me Viktor was wrong—that I wasn't weak. You said, “Strength isn't about not breaking. It's about what you do after.” You never told Viktor I collapsed.
Keira’s eyes misted. “It really is Jade.” She turned the laptop toward Rogue. “I remember that day. She was a new recruit. I’d been there for a couple of years. I knew she wouldn’t last if she didn’t toughen up. She wanted what we all wanted. To prove herself. To belong.”
As she stared down at the message through blurry eyes, the computer pinged with another incoming message. Jade was there. Online. Now.
Jade: I want out. Like you. But they have leverage. They always have leverage. Can you help me? Please.
Keira’s pulse quickened. “How can I help her when I’m struggling to stay alive?”
“I’m here to help you stay alive,” Rogue reminded her.
“And you’re risking your life to do that.” She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Still, I have to help anyway I can.”
Keira: I’ll try my best to help. We need to meet. Face to face. Your terms, your location.
