Page 79 of Black Reign

My fingers stop over the keyboard.

Blackwell.

The name sends an entirely different current through me.

That company has been sitting at the edge of my life for years.

Its servers.

Its executives.

Its secrets.

The things Papa knew.

The things someone buried after he died.

And somewhere within this wedding is Ghost.

Maybe one of Haverhill's college friends.

Maybe an old Royal Oaks connection or an employee

Maybe a security consultant or an employee of Blackwell who has infiltrated into an inner social circle.

Maybe somebody none of the public photographs bother naming.

The invitation didn't tell me any of that.

Ghost made sure it couldn't.

Smart.

Infuriatingly smart.

I look at the date again.

Twenty-two days.

Enough time to cross an ocean without leaving the kind of trail an intelligence service could follow comfortably.

Enough time to build an identity.

Enough time to learn the estate.

Enough time to arrange a way in that has absolutely nothing to do with the credential Ghost expects me to use.

Because I may trust Ghost with parts of myself I have never trusted to anyone else.

That does not mean I walk blindly through a gate he chose.

Not even for him.

Especially not for him.

I open NULL one final time.

VESPER: Your invitation is irritating.