These people had saved her life tonight, and none of them seemed to have thought twice about it. They were her colleagues. Her teammates. But they were also her friends, and it was that connection KC had to ask herself to trust right now.
“When I built it, I was following Dr. Brown’s orders. He said we had authorization for a black op, top secret to all but a few people, and what happened in Toronto was supposedly a controlled demo. Authorized. He said it went all to shit and he got hurt and had to go underground, but he looked perfectly fine at Mirabel’s.”
KC glanced at Yardley, worried that she’d be angry. She’d been so passionate when she insisted at the safe house that KC keep these secrets.
But Yardley was twirling a strand of black hair around herfinger, her head tilted at a considering angle. When their eyes met, she smiled just enough to sink double dimples into her cheeks. “I believe you,” she said.
Her faith strengthened KC’s resolve. With a deep breath, KC plunged back in. “I thought I was doing the right thing, and I won’t apologize for that,” she said. “I am sorry I didn’t push him harder when I figured out how much harm the device could do. It wasn’t designed to be a weapon, but I did come to see that it could be used as one. That was the point when I should have put everything on the line to stop it.”
A deep sigh escaped her lungs. Confessing all this to two veteran agents was intimidating no matter how much she told herself she had to do it.
“Anyway, I wanted you to know before you included me in any next steps,” she said. “In case you need to put it before the director and he yanks me out of the field and locks me up for the sake of national security.”
Atlas rubbed their fingers over their chin. “Thank you for your honesty,” they said. “I don’t see the need for this intelligence to go beyond this room at the moment. Gramercy?”
KC’s handler crossed his legs, drawing her eye to the fresh shine on his wingtips. “No. I believe your assessment is correct, Atlas.” He turned to KC. “Yours, however, requires adjustment.”
“Sir?”
“When we spoke at Evenes, I told you Dr. Brown sequestered you to make himself look good. One consequence of that behavior is that he didn’t give you an opportunity to participate in this agency in a way that might have impressed upon you what the most essential component of this work is.” He lifted one dark eyebrow at KC.
“Information?” she guessed.
“Relationships,” he said. “Nothing we do is possible without human connections. If you’d had more people in your circle of trust, you would have been able to make better decisions in the situation you found yourself in. Including the decision to stand up for your beliefs.”
It was a solid perspective, to be sure. KC tested it out against her memories, asking herself what she might have done if she’d been able to trust Gramercy enough to go to him for advice. Or if she’d been able to confide in Yardley.
Her guilt washed away in a rush of indignation at what Dr. Brown had decidedforher, followed immediately by relief that she still had decisions left to make.
“I understand,” she said. “Thank you.” The next breath she took was her first in a world in which she no longer had to drag the weight of Dr. Brown’s treachery and her own guilt behind her. “I’m very keen to get our hands on the stolen drive,” she said. “What’s our intel?”
“There isn’t any.” Atlas sipped something from a giant Pokémon mug.
“Nothing back from my net,” Yardley said. “I even recruited a few folks at the party to pitch in, since their fun was cut short. That Harry Davies on Mirabel’s security team really likes you, for example.”
“Whitmer does have a plan,” Gramercy said. “I’ve lost track of what letter it is. Plan D? F? Where are we at?”
“Let’s hear it, then.”
“London, baby,” Yardley said. “We’ll head out as soon as MI6 gives us the go-ahead.”
“What’s in London?”
“Miller.”
KC tapped her chin, reaching to remember where she’d recently heard the name. “Didn’t you mention him when you were trying to keep me off the mission in front of the president?”
Now that she understood the game better, she couldn’t hold Yardley’s attempt against her, although KC did make a mental note to add that conversation to her “later” list.
She was looking forward to it.
“Miller is an agency deep cover embed with a gentlemen’s club that counts major politicos among its members,” Gramercy said.
“He does almost nothing but drink scotch and gossip,” Yardley said, “but I’ve never been let down by his intel on a brush contact. He’s our Obi-Wan Kenobi on this one, because Dr. Brown’s his handler.”
“Our only hope?” KC clarified.
“Is a middle-aged white guy. Absorb the irony. However”—Yardley turned in KC’s direction—“the fun part is thatTabascowill get to decide what to do with Miller’s intel. I hope it involves a near-orbit space plane. Or parachutes. Maybe a very fast car where I am in the passenger seat while you make improbable maneuvers through narrow streets.”
