Page 32 of Ground Zero (Lantern Beach Blackout: Detonation #3)
S heridan and Maverick sat in silence, both processing the implications of what they’d just concluded. Sheridan had grabbed the sandwiches, and they both nibbled on them as their thoughts churned.
Just as they feared, this looked like it wasn’t just a cyberattack they were trying to stop. It was a physical assault on one of the country’s most important naval installations.
Maverick clicked on another file and froze. “No . . .”
“Why are you saying that?” She leaned closer, trying to figure out his response.
“Look at this.” He pointed to something on the screen. “These are shipments of bomb-making materials.”
“So they’re planning to blow up something on base . . .” She shook her head. “That’s terrible.”
“Yes, it is.” He squinted as he looked closer. “There’s some random mentions of the Frog Box.”
“What’s the Frog Box?”
“I have no idea. But it seems like it might be relevant. Whoever found these files was not only able to find documents that make me look guilty. They also found encrypted messages showing what this plan is.”
“And then this person planted this information, probably hoping you’d find it.”
Silence stretched for a moment.
“If we go official and we’re wrong about who to trust, the mole tips off Sigma and they accelerate the timeline,” Sheridan finally said, pulling off a piece of sourdough crust. “People die before we can stop it.”
“If we stay dark and try to handle this ourselves, we might fail simply because we don’t have the resources,” Maverick continued. “People die because we couldn’t do enough.”
“And if we trust the wrong person—your friend Trey or anyone else—we’ve just handed Sigma another advantage.”
The heavy weight of the situation hung between them.
Maverick leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “There are no perfect options.”
“No safe options,” Sheridan corrected. “But maybe that’s the point. Sigma’s counting on us being paralyzed by mistrust. They’ve sewn so much doubt that we can’t act decisively.”
She thought about Danny, about how he’d died investigating these same people. He’d trusted someone, and doing so had gotten him killed. But he’d also taught her that sometimes you had to take calculated risks in order to do the right thing.
She drew in a deep breath before turning back to Maverick. “I never told you everything about Danny and his death.”
He turned toward her, his expression sober and serious. “Go ahead.”
“Maverick, Danny wasn’t just killed because he was investigating the cyberattacks. He found something bigger—multiple threads that all led back to you. But it’s not in the way everyone thinks.”
Maverick shifted, his gaze hooded and cautious. “What do you mean?”
“Danny was supposed to meet someone who was going to turn over some evidence so we could put out an arrest warrant for you.”
“And?”
“When he got there, he was shot and left for dead.”
He blinked at her. “And you thought I did that?”
She hesitated before nodding. “I did. At first, at least. You were the one who had the most reason to want to stop this meeting.”
“I had no idea that meeting was even taking place.”
Her gaze met his. “I believe you.”
“Thank you,” Maverick murmured, his shoulders softening. “I’m sorry about your friend.”
“Me too.”
Silence stretched for a moment.
“Listen, I don’t want to change the subject, but we have to make a decision,” Maverick finally said.
“What does your gut tell you?”
He remained quiet, his gaze twitching as he stared into space. “My gut says Trey is solid. He’s career military, third-generation Navy. His grandfather survived Pearl Harbor, his father served in Vietnam. Protecting Naval Station Norfolk isn’t just his job—it’s personal.”
“Then we start there.” Sheridan made the decision, knowing they couldn’t afford to hesitate any longer. “But we’re smart about it. We don’t tell him everything, just enough to raise security alerts.”
Sheridan watched as Maverick sent a text message to Trey.
Need your help. Something big going down at the base tomorrow morning. Can you help?
She prayed this worked.
“There,” Maverick announced. “Sent. Now we wait for him to respond.”
As a few seconds of silence passed between them, Sheridan’s thoughts continued to race. She prayed they were doing the right thing, that they were making a wise decision. But everything felt muddled.
Maverick turned to her, his jaw hard and his expression serious. “Sheridan, that evidence on the USB drive—what are you going to do with it?”
She met his eyes and saw the vulnerability there.
He was asking her to choose between her duty as a federal agent and her growing belief in his innocence.
The decision weighed on her.
“For now? Nothing. It stays with us until we know who we can trust.” She picked up the drive and pocketed it. “But, Maverick, eventually I’ll have to account for this. We need to find proof of who really planted this evidence.”
“I know.” His voice was quiet, grateful. “Thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt.”
“I’m not sure I’d call it that.” She desperately tried to keep things professional even as her heart pulled toward him. “Call it reasonable doubt.”
But she knew it was more than that.
Somewhere between that first tackle on the beach and this moment, she’d stopped seeing Maverick as a suspect and started seeing him as . . . what? A partner? An ally?
Something more?
She pushed the thought away. They had less than forty-eight hours to stop a terrorist attack. Whatever was growing between them would have to wait.
If they survived.