Page 35 of The Ghost

“I did,” she replied.

“And?”

“They’re still reading the scans,” she answered. “Why? Did you hear anything?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “There’s definitely something there. We need to get you down to Med Lab and light a fire under them.”

“What about me?” Lukas asked, offering me his hand.

I shook it, nodding gravely. “All the New Dawn agents had them.”

“We’re not New Dawn agents,” Clark corrected me.

“Sorry.” I gave her an apologetic smile. “Ashcroft implanted them.”

“All right, let’s go,” Lukas said, agreeing easily now that he had the whole story.

“Wait.” I held up a hand, passing the phone over. “This is Regg’s. I pulled the coordinates for the New Dawn headquarters off it, but there may be more information.”

“I see you didn’t bring him back with you,” Lukas observed.

I looked at Clark, who knew exactly what I was thinking. “The situation got out of control, and I had to handle it,” I remarked.

“What did he say about New Dawn?” Lukas asked.

“He said there are nuclear weapons all across the world, and that Clark holds the key,” I reported.

“What?!” she gasped.

“Literally,” I explained. “That thing in your shoulder is a digital key. They can’t set off the fireworks without it.”

Clark gave me a stunned look. She had been a walking detonator all this time without knowing it. No wonder Ashcroft wanted her to get in the helicopter. He probably wanted to kill her so that he could take control and level the planet. Training her to become an assassin, when he originally implanted the device, he might have imagined that she would be easy to keep tabs on. She would come when he called and submit to whatever procedure he required. Only that’s not how it worked out.

She had her own mind and had gone off to pursue her own life. When she became involved with the CIA, there were layers of security he had to go through to reach her. I wondered if that wasn’t part of the reason he left town. Maybe he thought he could get to her easier if he was off the grid.

“So it’s not a locator?” she asked.

“No,” I informed her. “I don’t think they know we’re here. Not on the basis of that technology, anyway.”

“What else did Reginald say?” Lukas wondered.

“Not much else,” I admitted. “We were a little pressed for time.”

“Okay,” Lukas said with a sigh. “Let’s get down to Med Lab.”

“Right,” I agreed.

“You stay here,” Lukas commanded, blocking my path.

“Why?” I snapped.

“Because you can’t help us down in Med Lab. You need to let everyone else know where we stand.”

The thought of conducting a briefing while my girlfriend went under the knife was outrageous. There was nowhere else I wanted to be than by her side. I nearly told Lukas to shove it, but Clark reached out and took my hand.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she said reassuringly.

I shook my head. “I need to be with you.”