Page 102 of Hush

“Good luck.” Kris turned away, heading for the couch in the small sitting area and giving Tom a modicum of privacy. He motioned Mike over as well, and Mike reluctantly padded to the couch and Etta Mae.

Ballard spoke as soon as he answered, shouting over the line. “This is a fucking disaster, Brewer! Jesus Christ! The White House is absolutely shitting themselves.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Jesus fucking Christ. We need to figure out how to handle this. Squash this so it can’t be admitted into evidence. You can bounce this, Brewer.”

“You want me to bar these documents from the trial?”

“Yes!”

“Jesus, Dylan, you’re asking me to break the law! These documents are admissible—”

“Find a reason for them to be inadmissible!”

“Renner has been all over the news saying that the government is holding something back. Is this it, Ballard? Is this what you’ve been hiding? Are you trying to get me to break the law with you? You weren’t going to turn this over in discovery—”

“The U.S. Government does not have to disclose intelligence gathering operations or anything that would reveal sources and methods!”

“Something has gone very, very wrong, Dylan, and people aredead. Are you helping to find justice or are you complicit in a cover-up?”

“Fuck you,”Ballard hissed.“You’re going to ruin this whole fucking thing—”

“The documentsareadmissible. Federal rules of evidence state they are. They’re self-authenticating. They have a seal from a foreign government, attesting to their authenticity. If Kryukov wants to use it in his defense, he’s allowed.”

Silence. “How the fuck do you know the documents are sealed?”

“Don’t call me again, Ballard. You want to speak to me, you come to my chambers at the courthouse.” He hung up and sagged against the kitchen island.

Mike was at this side in a half-second, one hand on his back. Even Etta Mae trotted over.

“You heard all that?”

“Was kind of hard not to.”

“I should have given this trial up. I should have walked away. Every day it gets worse and worse.”

“You’re the only thing keeping this trial honest, Tom. What would happen if you quit?”

He shook his head. He couldn’t say.

Kris came back, pulling clothes from his dryer and packing them into his duffel. He started a second load. “You two should stay here. This place is safe, and it’d be difficult for anyone to figure out where you are.”

Kris’s place was gorgeous, but it was only a studio. A large one, but still. Behind a delicate paper screen off the living room was his bedroom area. A king bed, and on the wall behind it, a mirror that ran the length of the room with soft golden light falling from recessed bulbs in the ceiling above the mirror. There were no decorations, no clutter. Nothing personal at all aside from one framed picture resting on the nightstand: a man in an Army uniform, scowling at the camera.

“I don’t think we’ll fit.”

Kris arched one eyebrow sky high. “Oh, Tom, I always like squeezing into the middle. But, not right now. I’m out of here as soon as this load is done. You have the place to yourself for a while.”

“Where are you going?”

Kris sent him another look. This one clearly saiddon’t ask silly questions.

Mike jumped in. “Are you involved in this at all? In any way?”

Kris hedged his answer carefully. “I’m going to help out the recovery team. We’re standing up a unit to try and get our people out of the Russian prison.”

“All options sanctioned?”