Page 105 of The Lazarus Protocol

Adam nodded, and Dan wandered off into the station office. When he turned to Steph, she had a curious look on her face. “What?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Maybe me getting my life back doesn’t matter. Maybe my dad’s fate is sealed, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Tears gathered in her eyes. “Everything I’ve been trying to do for years. All the good I thought I did in the world? Doesn’t matter. In the end, none of it matters. It’s all too little, too late.”

“If all I manage to do is convince you that isn’t true, I’ll be satisfied.”

“Why do you even care?” Steph raised her voice, almost yelling. Drawing some attention to them. “I don’t understand it.”

“I know what it’s like to be alone.” He stepped closer and took her elbow. “I know what it’s like to be trapped and at the mercy of someone stronger than you, unable to get out. I wouldn’t wish that fate on my worst enemy. It was beyond…”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“I’ve been where you are. No options. No way to fix what’s broken. Someone stepped in at that moment and helped me out. They saved my life and helped me save myself.” Adam touched her shoulder, then slid his fingers to the side of her neck, his thumb tracing the edge of her jaw. “I’d like to do that for⁠—”

Gunshots cracked across the platform.

A second later, chaos erupted as people ran screaming.

THIRTY-SIX

Steph spun, putting herself in front of Adam. He was injured, and even if she had no weapons on her⁠—

There.

She clocked the shooter down the platform, between bystanders running for their lives. Right away she knew who it was, and why they were here. She would know that ponytail and the set of his jaw anywhere.

“Come on!” Adam shoved her forward, and they joined the crowd heading for the main station building, a redbrick structure on the side of the road. A small mountain town surrounded by snow-covered peaks.

Any other time she might like to stay a few days. Relax in the solitude, or spend some time with a good man who came all this way because he didn’t like what his friend had done.

Too bad there wasn’t time to think about that.

She ducked inside the building, the crowd a bottleneck of people trying to get out the front doors. Behind her, she heard someone scream and the sound of another person falling. “We need to draw him away from these bystanders.” She dragged Adam to the ticket counter and kicked the door probably only meant for employees.

The wood splintered around the keypad lock, and the door flung open.

On the other side, two women and a man hunkered down under the counter, wide-eyed at the situation. Steph tugged on Adam’s hand, pulling him to a door at the far end.

Gunshots splintered the plastic window separating staff from customers.

She ducked her head. Adam slammed the door shut behind them.

“Someone after you, or are they after me?” he asked her.

“He’s CIA.”

“So either way?”

“Both. But I’ve worked with that guy before. He said his name was Jim, but it was years ago.” She raced down the narrow hall, praying there weren’t more shooters on the far side of the exit door up ahead. She glanced over her shoulder as she ran. “I’m guessing he’s after me because he heard I was cut loose.”

“Charming.”

Steph snorted, slowing at the end of the hall. “Got another pistol?”

“You’re assuming I’m carrying two?”

She stared at him for a second.

“Fine.” Adam drew a .22 caliber pistol from an ankle holster. “Here you go.”