Page 65 of Now or Never

Kenna shrugged. “They wanted to see how your genetics contributed to the outcome.”

He reached over and held her hand.

“One of the retired guys was on the hit list,” she continued. “Which means whoever is out there trying to runDominatusis either working against whoever they’re working for, or he’s getting rid of that guy and maybe the rest of them as well in order to tie up loose ends. And none of this makes any sense. Still.”

“Because you don’t know what I know,” Maizie said.

Kenna’s brows rose. “You retrieved the information from those photos?”

“Score one for steganography. It’s a great way to embed information in an image. The file ends up way larger than one that is simply a JPEG.”

“More files to pore over?”

“Craig is loving it, but Elizabeth is bored out of her mind. I found her on the couch, snoring under a pile of papers.” The young woman chuckled. “She said it’s because she isn’t a ‘spring chicken’ anymore. But I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.”

“Me either.” Kenna smiled to herself. “Maybe I’ll find out when I’m old.”

“What we have now, on top of the contents of the packet, is everything the lawyers found out about the Count of Shadows and the network of military personnel he was commanding. He had an entire list ofDominatusassets in the army, and a bunch of other branches. Craig explained the whole Marines under the navy, Delta Force is army, something else about space soldiers. He lost me pretty quickly, but it looks like this Major General Schnell guy was the guy they had in the military.”

“He’s dead. Ramon was there.” Kenna frowned. “Did someone else assume command and they’re moving the planforward? Or maybe they’re cleaning up loose ends, like you said.”

“They also found three decommissioned army bases in the US and two overseas that his people utilize. One was discovered thanks to Ramon and Zeyla, but I’m checking into the others.”

“Great,” she grumbled, closing her eyes. “Send everything to us and them. We can make a plan and divide up tasks.” And she could take a nap first.

She didn’t like the idea of someone out for blood. But when had life ever turned out the way she liked? She could answerwith Jaxon that one, but it was far from perfect. He likely hadn’t anticipated any of this would happen and also wasn’t complaining. Neither of them were. They were both making the best of the situation.

When the lawyers were exonerated and the ghost had been neutralized, they’d get out of here.

Kenna heard the murmur of talking, but her mind didn’t want to decipher what was being said. She let out a long breath and didn’t bother opening her eyes.

Not until the motion of the car came to a stop and she woke up.

“Hey.”

“We’re here?”

He nodded in response to her obvious question, since they were in the space beside the RV. But she couldn’t get out of the car and go crawl into bed. Not with that woman sitting in a plastic chair.

Kenna groaned. “I don’t wanna talk to her.”

“Who is she?” Jax said. “I figured it was one of the lawyers.”

Kenna shook her head. The woman sat in the chair, staring at her. She had blond hair that hung over the shoulders of her big coat with the fluffy hood. Leggings and boots with fluffy edging around the top. Midfifties. “She’s a nurse. From the platform.”

Jax stiffened.

Kenna’s door opened, and Ramon crouched there, letting the cold air in. “I’m not talking to her. She’sDominatus.”

Jax quickly relayed what she’d told him.

Ramon dug in his pocket. “Comms.” He took two from the case and handed it over.

The car door shut.

Kenna and Jax shoved earbuds in. Ramon and Zeyla did the same, and she heard him say, “Got me?” with his attention on his phone, where an app controlled the whole system over Bluetooth.

Jax said, “We hear you.”