“Okay,” Davey said at last. “We’ll deal with that later.”
“Generous of you.”
“Don’t push it. Tell me about the vault. Tell me about Praetorian’s play.”
Dom sat down at the room’s small table, and the chair creaked alarmingly under his weight. He walked Davey through everything. Raines. The job. Villa Pandora. The Lazarus Protocol. The flooding sublevel. Stavros’s ultimatum. The furnace.
Davey was quiet for a long time after he finished. “You destroyed it? Tell me that was the right call.”
“It was. Praetorian couldn’t have it. Nobody could. It was too dangerous.”
“Okay.” A beat. “Okay. Where’s Sabin now?”
Dom looked at Vivi. She was watching him with an expression he couldn’t quite read.
“We don’t know,” he said. “Praetorian still has him, and now we’ve blown the job, so—” He stopped.
“So they have no reason to keep him alive,” Davey said flatly.
“They might,” Dom said, though it cost him something to say it with any conviction. “With his skills, he’s still a potential asset.They might try to convert him like they did Cade. Get him to switch sides.”
“That’s a thin thread to hang a man’s life on.”
“I know.”
Vivi stood abruptly and walked back to the window with her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. The late afternoon light cut across her sideways, catching the gold in her hair.
Even upset and stressed, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He was an ass for hurting her, and a fool for letting her walk out of his life without a fight.
If she ever forgave him, he’d spend the rest of his life making it up to her.
“Dom.” Davey’s voice pulled him back. “We’ve been tracking you since you disappeared. Daphne’s been working around the clock. She narrowed it down to Naxos this morning, so we’re already en route. We’ll hit Athens in about nine hours. Less than twelve till we’re on the island.”
So that background hum wasn’t at HQ, after all. It was the company jet.
Some of the tension eased out of Dom’s shoulders. Of course Daphne had found them. She was the best for a reason.
“Good,” Dom said. “That’s good.”
“Sit tight.” There was a pause, the sound of Davey speaking to someone else, then: “Anything else I need to know?”
Dom hesitated, thinking of Stavros’s words. An army of soldiers whose consciousness can be transferred. Leaders who need never die. “Yeah, but not over this line. Just... tell Daphne to dig into Heinrich Strauss. Everything she can find. It’ll help us understand what we’re up against.”
“Will do. And Dom? Don’t do anything stupid before we get there.”
“Define stupid.”
“Anything that ends with you dead.”
“Aw, you’re no fun.”
Davey gave a short, rare laugh. “It’s good to hear your voice, little brother.”
“Likewise.” Dom swallowed. “See you soon.”
He ended the call and met Vivi’s eyes. “Cavalry’s on the way. Twelve hours.”
She released a shaky breath and nodded. “Okay.”
