Page 114 of The Lazarus Protocol

“Good to go.” He grabbed a ball cap out of his backpack and put it on backward, tucking the ends of his hair into it. The easy way he checked his gun, familiarity and intensity in his movements, told her he was at home in this position. Being an operator wasn’t just a job, it was who he was.

Something she couldn’t say about spy work.

Steph said, “If you fall over, I’ll find a wheelbarrow around here to lay you in so I can get you out.”

Adam chuckled. “Good to know you’ve got my back.”

He flung the trunk of the car closed, and she followed him across a grassy stretch to where the trees stood closer together. Ash and another man, a blond guy. Both of them had gear on and carried weapons.

Once they’d all been introduced, and Ash tried to hug her—which Adam intercepted—they headed for the fence line.

“You think your sister is right about this place?” Adam motioned up ahead about a mile, which they’d already scouted out. The fence wasn’t electrified, and in places it had fallen down entirely. Everything about this spot said it was rundown and neglected.

“I think she knows a lot more than she would ever say, in a million lifetimes. And I think she’s up to something.” Steph kept her eyes peeled on the trees, but aside from a wild animal she doubted they’d see a threat. “She didn’t sound her usual argumentative self on the phone, but who knows what she has going on right now. I usually try to avoid her and take jobs that keep me as far away as possible.”

Ash eyed her. “Not itching for some Cain and Abel type battle?”

Steph shook her head. “No way.” She lifted her chin to the two men. “Thanks for coming by the way.”

“Yeah, she wasn’t sure about going in with me all injured. I’m a liability.”

Steph shot Adam a look, but he just chuckled.

When they came to the fence line, Ash used clippers to cut them a hole. Part of of it had fallen over, a stretch about fifteen feet long, but it now sat in a pool of water that was who knew how deep. He pulled the fence back, and Kyle went in first.

She and Adam went next, and Ash came in behind them. “Now I’m doubting what she said, wondering if this whole thing isn’t a trap.”

Adam said, “I don’t see any guys with vans, or a helicopter, so I think we’re safe from Earthnet for now.”

“So then how is Kai here? Or any of your other friends?” Steph looked around and saw a gravel strip that ran between buildings. “This place looks like a base, not a tech company.”

The wind blew a paper toward a building to their right, and she spotted an old military bunker behind these buildings and what looked like a missile silo. Without going over there, she couldn’t determine if this place had missile ejection doors in the ground.

“Definitely a base,” Adam said. “Looks like it hasn’t been used for years, though. Probably not since World War II, and then it got repurposed during the Cold War and outfitted to launch ICBMs at the enemy.”

“Why did my sister send us here?”

Adam motioned with a tilt of his head. “Come on. Let’s check it out. She might’ve sent us here to give us a clue as to what’s going on.”

“More likely she wanted to go up against them with her people, without us getting in the way, and sent us here to keep us busy finding nothing.”

Kyle stopped. “If we’re supposed to be finding nothing”—he turned to them, his attention on his phone—“then why is this place emitting a satellite signal?”

Steph whipped around, looking at all the buildings for the communication equipment she’d seen on that boat, which would let her know they were using it for more modern means. “It could be a lab like the ship.”

“But is Earthnet really holding Kai and Dan here?” Ash asked. “If he escaped, they’d have gone after him and we’d see people all over the area. Maybe it’s deserted because they cleared out.”

Adam said, “Or this is the AI testing us, learning our decision-making patterns like it did in Argentina.”

If that was true, then it might not have been Vesper on the phone. It could’ve been the artificial intelligence spoofing her voice, the way it had done with Kai on the ship. Telling them all there was a bomb so they left quickly.

“I don’t like any of this,” Steph said. “What do they even want with us?”

Kyle said, “You wanna call the CIA, find out what they know?”

She shook her head. “I’ve been burned. I can’t call them. They’ll have erased the number they gave me from their system.”

“Right.” Kyle nodded, but she got the impression there was something he wasn’t telling her. She didn’t even know this man, so that made no sense.