Page 71 of The Lazarus Protocol

“I can’t leave.”

“It might seem like that, but you can. We can go together. I’ll take you back to your family.”

He shook his head. “They’re dead, and no. I can’t leave.” He pulled up his pant leg so she could see the tracking device on his ankle. “If I step off the ship, this thing will kill me.”

Steph set the gun on the floor and took a look at it. “Are you sure it’s not just a tracker, like an ankle monitor?” If they’d lied to him about his family, then they’d probably lied about a lot of things.

He tucked his leg back under the desk. “I have a lot of work to do.”

“What are you working on?” She went to the window and looked out, running her thumb across the grip of the gun. Thinking. Needing him to talk while she figured out what this was. “Are you controlling the drones outside? They’re hurting people, Sebastian. I know that’s not what you do. It isn’t something you’d ever be a part of.”

“We’ll be getting underway soon, so I’m sure you’ll be here long enough to see what they have downstairs. It’s amazing really.”

Steph turned back and spotted Dan at the door, his back to her. Standing guard. She thought about putting her earbud back in but wasn’t used to working with constant chatter, and the conversation was a distraction she didn’t need right now. “Sebastian, who are you working for?”

It would take time to convince him to go with her. Faster probably to knock him out and have Dan carry the doctor over his shoulder, off the ship.

The distant sound of gunfire on board told her that Jay and Adam had met resistance.

She faced Sebastian. “Will they come back?”

He shook his head. “They only come to bring me meals. Other than that, they leave me to my work.” His tone indicated she should do the same.

“So we have time for you to explain this to me.”

A shadow crossed his expression. “I’m sorry, but I’m unable to do that.”

Steph went to the door. “Dan.”

He turned just slightly, only a fraction to let her know that he was listening—and watching the hall. “We need to go search downstairs.”

“It’ll take too long to unscramble what he believes.” For all she knew, whoever took Sebastian had tortured him for days before bringing him here. “We need to subdue him and get out of here.”

She’d spent weeks talking to him, cultivating the asset. Now she had swooped in and undone all that work, leaving him with no free will and even less hope that his situation would ever change. Later she could cry over the unfairness of it, but that sentiment had no place in the job she did. This had to be Vesper’s doing.

Steph said, “Sebastian, you can’t stay. We have to get out of here.”

Dan turned to her, stepping into the room. “Okay, here’s what⁠—”

His eyes widened. Steph spun, but it was too late. Sebastian snatched the gun from her hand. She tried to keep hold of it and wound up in a tangle that twisted her index finger. She wasn’t sure who squeezed the trigger, but it went off, the barrel angled to the underside of Sebastian’s chin.

His head flung back, and he fell to the threadbare carpet, dragging her with him. His life splashed around him. His eyes were unseeing now, and his heart would eventually be cold. He would never know that his family were alive and waiting for him.

Steph let out a cry.

Dan wrapped one arm around her waist and dragged her back, tucking her against the wall beside the door. He spoke, but she didn’t understand the words.

She wasn’t supposed to care about assets. But then, every rule they’d taught her she wore like ill-fitting clothes. All of it not quite right. A bargain she’d never wanted, and a life she had to live regardless.

Maybe it was just her that didn’t fit.

Dan jostled her against the wall. “Put your comms earbud back in.”

Steph did as he ordered, trying not to look at the body on the floor. She dug in her pocket, stuck the earbud in, and broke away from Dan.

“…almost there.” That was Ice.

“Wherever here is,” Adam replied. “I’m heading down to a lower level, but it’s sealed with a polycarbonate door and a keypad. Looks like a lab.”