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Amos looked guilty and pained. “I’m really sorry about that, man.”
“We were all excited,” Jed said grimly. “I would have done the same.”
“It’s my responsibility to deal with him now,” I said. “I let this cat out of the bag in the first place a year ago, and I let him get his hands on SmokeScreen now. I’m the one who has to fix it. I’ll take him out and wipe that place off the map. You guys keep your noses clean, for Holly’s sake. Plausible deniability.”
Ethan gave him a look. “Right. Like I’d let you go after him on your own.”
“But I’m the one who?—”
“Shut up, Shane. Don’t waste our time. Halliwell won’t be able to use SmokeScreen right way. It’s heavy and complex, and even he will have a learning curve when he gets into it. Plus, he’ll have to beef up even his own huge server capacity by orders of magnitude. But we have a short window. We have to end him fast.”
“I’m the one who did this,” I said. “I’m the one who got snared by a honeypot, not any of you guys.”
“Cass is no honeypot, damn it!” Kat hissed. “Get it through your heads!”
“Whatever Cass is or isn’t, we’re not leaving your ass out in the wind again,” Jed said. “So fucking forget it, buddy. The helicopter’s waiting. Six minutes, ten at the max, and we’re airborne. We can go and take care of business.”
I turned back to the screen. I felt blank. Locked behind a six-inch wall of glass again. Like Kat, I couldn’t believe it. The data just would not go into my head.
“Play it again,” I said to the nervous-looking young security guy at the desk, who looked like he was trying desperately not to overhear our conversation.
Ethan sighed. “We’ve seen it twelve times, Shane. It’s not going to?—”
“Play it again,” I said again.
The guy’s trembling fingers clattered over the keyboard. He scooted his chair back, making himself small as we all shifted closer to the screen to watch.
First, the smiling, excited Cass, bright-eyed and chatting energetically with the balding doctor that Darius, Amos, Kat and Holly had all seen, but who Demiguel and the rest of the hospital staff could not identify. The doctor opened the door for her with a courtly gesture, closed the door smartly behind her, and walked away.
“Demiguel said that examining room was out of use because of an electrical problem,” Remy said. “Halliwell must have known that. God knows how.”
The video played on. The door opened. Halliwell came out, smiling, pulling Cass behind him, throwing his arm over her shoulder, squeezing her to himself as he said something. And then, that smile, from both of them. It looked weirdly similar, and it did not reach their eyes. They strode out of range.
“He told her to smile.”
We jumped at the sound of Holly’s voice. She’d slipped into the room unnoticed and had been watching us from behind. “What the hell are you doing here?” Shane said sharply. “You’re supposed to be upstairs with Darius and Reggie!”
“I needed to see it,” Holly said haughtily. “Because I don’t believe it. Cass is good. And that Halliwell guy is fooling all of you.”
“Holly, you need to do as we tell you,” Ethan said grimly.
“Play it again,” Holly commanded the rabbit-like guy cowering in the corner.
The man recognized the whip-crack of authority in Holly’s voice, young though she was, and scooted forward, promptly setting the clip to play again. It was a torture to watch, every time. Torture I deserved.
There it was, the moment when the doctor ushered Cass into the room. A long pause followed… and then came the moment that she came out with Halliwell. The arm. The squeeze. The hideous fake smiles.
“Stop,” Holly said.
The security guy stopped the video, freezing the video right on the creepy-eyed stare up at the camera, their eerily similar grimaces.
“What do you see, baby?” Kat asked.
“Halliwell’s mouth,” Holly said. “Look at the shape. He’s saying, ‘smile.’ He’s telling her to smile. He’s making her do it. It’s not her fault. She’s pretending.”
“Run that back,” I said. “I want to see it again.”
We watched it, again, and another three more times, for good measure. Sure enough, now that Holly had said it, we all saw Halliwell’s lips form the word.Smile.
