Page 132 of Shatter

Emil sits.

Tor stands at the head of the table and looks around the room, one face at a time, the way he did the night I carried her through the door bleeding.

"She walked into that drive with a knife in her back and a bookkeeper's brain." He says it slowly, so every man hears every word. "She sat in Vanir's room and handed us a pipeline running dope through my territory for almost three fucking years. A pipeline none of you found. She did."

Nobody moves.

"She's been at Aziza's ovens at four every morning and held Tindra's baby. She's eaten at this club's table and never once asked us for anything." Tor's eyes land on Emil and stay there. "And she walked out of here last night so none of us would have to bleed for her."

Silence.

"She's one of ours." Tor straightens. "Patch or no patch. We ride."

Rati lets go of me and slams his palm flat on the table.

The sound cracks through the room like a gunshot.

Then Gunnar's fist hits the wood, then Dag's and Oskar's, one after another around the table.

The room pounds until the framed photos on the wall rattle in their frames.

Emil looks at the table for a long moment.

Then he raises his fist and brings it down with the rest of them.

I stand there with Rati's shirt still knotted in my hands and my eyes burning, and I can't breathe.

"He wants the drive." Tor turns to me when the room goes still again. "Right?"

"He'll trade her for it." My voice has gone steady. "That's what she's betting on. He thinks I'll bring it."

"So bring it." Tor looks at Vanir. "How long to clone it?"

"Twenty minutes." Vanir's already pulling cables out of a drawer. "He'll get a perfect copy. We keep the original."

Tor nods and turns back to me.

"You go in the front door alone with the copy." He holds my eyes. "You keep him talking as long as it takes, until we're in position."

"Tor." Gunnar pushes off the wall. "He's a prospect. You want to send a prospect in the front door of..."

"I want to send the man she'll follow out." Tor doesn't look at Gunnar. "Because when we go through those walls, she's going to be scared and freeze. She won't move for any of us."

He looks at me.

"She'll move for him." Tor's voice goes rough.

Heat stings behind my eyes.

"Gunnar, you’ll take the water with Ulf." Tor turns to the map Vanir's pulled up on the screen, the satellite image of a spit of land with docks running off it into blue. "Grab a boat off the marina and come in along the docks. Rati, Emil, Oskar, you're with me on the back. Aren's got the road. The rest of you hold the highway and make sure nobody leaves who we don't want leaving."

He looks at me one more time.

"You don't touch Desmond until she's clear." His voice is iron. "You hear me? I don't care what he says or what he does. She comes out first."

"Yes, sir." I don't blink.

"Say it again." He leans in.