Page 30 of Until the End

She quickly described the massacre and the fire at the Lair she’d seen on the news, changing one tiny detail. “I got one backup hard drive that has some of what they worked on.”

No need to mention she had three drives. He’d never get his hands on any of them.

His disposition softened a fraction like he believed her. “Where were your friends murdered?”

She spouted the NoMa address off First Street.

“The police and FBI are crawling all over that case. Did you see what’s on the drive?”

“I decrypted a video of a guy in a ski mask gloating about how no one was safe, not even this country’s untouchables. That they deserved Z-1984 and how it was a fitting end for them. There were subtitles in English across the bottom of the screen. He was speaking Arabic, which I suck at. I’m better with Neo-Latin, Indo-European languages. The video was set for a time-delayed release.”

“To release when?”

“Eight days from now. On the fourteenth.”

“That’s Columbus Day. I wonder if there’s any correlation. Finally, a concrete lead.”

If she was their only concrete lead, her leverage quotient had just increased exponentially.

“That’s all I know,” she said. “I was afraid to spend too much time in public hacking into the rest of the drive.”

“You’re a loose end. That’s why they want you dead. You need to give us the hard drive.”

She shook her head. “There’s sensitive private data on it.” Ever Shield happened to be on Lincoln’s drive. The government would destroy the program if they got their hands on it, erasing the Outliers’ legacy. Or worse, use it for their benefit as a weapon. Ever Shield had been the team’s greatest achievement and it was all she had left of her friends. Letting the government get their hands on it wasn’t going to happen. Besides, those hard drives were her only leverage to get herself out of Spookville. “I’m not turning it over.”

How could he possibly think she was that naive to give up her only insurance?

“You’re too stubborn for your own good.” He shot her a ferocious look.

As if she’d buckle. She crossed her arms. “I’ll transfer all files related to this”—whatever the heck this nightmare was—“onto a new drive, which I’ll hand over.” If she didn’t make it to Romania before that, where she’d send him the data, keeping her end of the bargain. “First, I need out of this underground fortress, a hot shower, and a decent meal.” She also had to figure out how she was going to get her passport and medication from her apartment. “And I want your assurance that you’ll protect me until Bravo’s men are apprehended or killed.”

Always smart to have a worst-case contingency plan.

“I’ll speak to Sanborn,” Castle said, “see what he thinks is—”

“No!” She tilted her head to the side and gave him a fixed are you shitting me? look. “I don’t mean ‘protected’ in a cell at a black site.” Surely, his boss would constitute locked away as protection. “I want you to protect me. Nonnegotiable. Or no deal.”

“Sanborn isn’t a man to trifle with. Push him too far, too hard, he’ll reduce you to a memory.”

Too bad there was no one left to remember her.

“Kit, make requests of Sanborn. Not demands. No deals. You’ll have to concede.”

Surrender wasn’t an option. “I’m asking you for help, not your boss.” She dug deep, trying to recall the right technique to use from that How to Win Friends and Influence People seminar. If there was ever a time that she needed it, this was it. Kit risked taking his hand. “I’ll never forget how you saved me at the park. You were like an action hero from a movie. I’m going to trust you.” To an extent. “To get me out of here.”

Didn’t mean she was fooling herself. He was still a hardened government agent who’d only saved her because she was a POI with information he needed. No delusions beyond that.

“I’m not guilty of terrorism or conspiracy,” Kit said. “I’m not an anarchist or a traitor to my country, but I don’t think Sanborn will ever believe I’m innocent. I want to stop Bravo from hurting anyone else and to see those guys in prison for what they did. I want to help. You’ll get all the information pertaining to the job the Outliers worked on.” And she would make good on that vow. “But you know my conditions.”

Freedom and safety were nonnegotiable.

She also needed a decent meal and sleep to think straight. “Do we have a deal?”

10

Castle eyed her, long and hard, assessing her story. The odds of an innocent person getting mixed up in this disaster with zero culpability were about the same as someone winning the lottery.

Things were clear as water. Kit had let Jasper into her inner circle when she shouldn’t have. Definite mistake. Then she hadn’t vetoed a vote on taking the illegal job. An even bigger mistake.