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Candace tore her gaze from Isaac. “Can you tell if he’s still there?”

“Hard to say at this point.”

A thousand thoughts whirled through her head, mostly on how she could fix this, but when she spoke, her voice was cool and controlled. “We wait, then.”

While she waited, she considered Remington’s reaction and her options. He was clearly trying to sabotage the deal, but why? He’d made it clear he considered the Avenger a traitor for shutting the back door. But she’d also caught him eyeing her to see how she was reacting to his actions. He was putting on a show, but why and for whom?

A few minutes ticked past. “Anything yet?” she asked.

“No. Nothing,” Jim replied.

More time passed with no contact. Her mind worked furiously to figure out what was going on with Remington. Was he trying to prevent her from bringing in the Hidden Avenger because he wanted to do it himself? It would not reflect well on her if she failed, even if she was not at fault. Regardless, it was disgusting that Remington would risk people’s lives and an invaluable tool solely to advance his own career. Was he really that selfish or stupid? Or could he be afraid of the Hidden Avenger for some reason? Did the Avenger have information that might damage Remington’s chances of becoming director…or was it something else?

She was about to call an end to the operation when an email from the Avenger suddenly popped up on the screen. Jim leaned forward, reading aloud.

“He’s satisfied we’ll see the deal through. The instructions for our next virtual exchange and more information on the terrorists are in an attached file. However, that file will disappear in three minutes.”

“Get it,” Candace instructed, her voice terse as she started pacing again.

“I’ve already got it,” one of the technicians said. “I’ve opened it, and the data is intact. It’s been saved to another server and is safe.”

Thank God, at least something had gone right. “Thank you.”

“He also says the next conversation will be code-named Pope 264.” Jim glanced at her over his shoulder with a puzzled expression. “Whatever that means.”

“I don’t know, but it’s not random,” she answered. “He’s trying to tell us something.”

“No, he’s not,” Isaac countered. “He’s trying to distract us, send us running down a rabbit hole to keep from focusing on what’s real here—that’s he’s a liar, a cheat, and a treasonous former agent gone rogue who doesn’t deserve immunity.”

Candace saw sympathy and agreement from a few of the technicians in the room. Isaac was stirring up things, and she didn’t like it one bit.

She didn’t address his words directly, but ice dripped from her voice as she spoke. “From this point forward, only Jim and one technician will have access to a laptop for communication purposes with the Avenger. Everyone else stands back or is not permitted to attend. Those are my orders. If anyone has an issue with that, I suggest you take it up with the director.”

Everyone nodded, except Isaac. The smug expression on his face said volumes. The damage had been done. He’d made it known to Sinclair that there were people inside the NSA who weren’t going to make it easy for him to come in. If that spooked him and he bolted, the fallout would be pinned to her.

She wouldn’t underestimate Isaac next time. But she hoped he’d continue to underestimate her.

Chapter Twelve

ANGEL SINCLAIR

“Doesn’t it seem weird we have all this space and they are making us share one room?” I asked Frankie.

While the KIT campus was cool, not to mention completely self-sufficient, it was a bit strange that all of this was just for seven kids. I guess the government had its reasons, but it was a bit unnerving.

After roaming around the area for a while, Frankie and I parted ways with Wally and returned to our room. According to our schedule, dinner was promptly at five. We had about an hour more of downtime before that. I was exhausted and needed some alone time to process all the things that had happened to me to this point. Unfortunately, sharing a room with other people meant alone time was going to be hard to come by. At least Kira wasn’t there, and no one had yet claimed the top bunk across from Frankie and me yet.

Frankie plopped down stomach first on her bed. “It is kind of weird, but I bet they want to see how well we get along with each other. So, what’s your favorite part of the campus? The swimming pool? The gym? Wait, don’t tell me. The gaming room.”

“The gaming room is a pretty sweet setup,” I admitted.

“Well, I liked the garden maze the best. The flowers in the garden were lovely. I like how someone had added a few pumpkins and haystacks, too. It makes it feel so welcoming and normal. Although the swimming pool was amazing, too. Not quite as fancy as Excalibur’s, but nice just the same.”

“Maybe we can go swimming after dinner,” I suggested.

“Great idea.”

Frankie closed her eyes, declaring she wanted to take a nap. I envied her the ability to shut down. I wished I could do the same, but I was too wired. Instead I sat down at my desk, booted up my laptop.