Page 42

Prologue

Operation Silent Veil

Catskills Mountains — seven months ago

“Are you insane? We need to go!”

Ember glanced at the asset as he paced the room, eyes wide.

Skin blanched white. A dead man walking if she was being honest. Because despite her skills, she had little confidence she’d be able to keep him breathing.

Not with alarms already sounding inside the room — an increasing number of men converging on their location within the compound via a flickering camera feed.

She snagged his arm on his next pass, locking her gaze on his.

“You need to calm down. You gave me the footage. You know the caliber of enemy we’re about to make.

If we’re going to stab Scythe, and more importantly, Rook Donovan, in the back, we should be damn sure the intel’s fully uploaded.

Otherwise,” she pointed at the dots on the security feed, “we might as well just wait for them to find us and save ourselves the gauntlet run out of here because we’ll be dead either way. ”

She pushed down the riotous impulse to shoot the guy in the head and complete her mission as if she hadn’t just discovered the past twenty years of her life had been a lie. That Rook was far from the man she’d thought he was.

That he was the real monster hiding in the shadows.

Former tier-one operator and current Scythe handler, Rook Donovan was Scythe’s senior Shadow Asset Acquisitions Specialist and head of their Asset Operational Division.

He believed in control through precision.

He didn’t send an army. He sentghosts — the kind who slit throats, erased fingerprints, and vanished before sunrise.

There were only two acceptable outcomes to every mission — success or death.

With his record thoroughly scrubbed, Rook operated with complete autonomy. He was the man Scythe sent in to clean up any of the agency’s messes before they became visible. And she’d just risen to the top of his termination list.

Her asset, Bart Conrad, inhaled, his gaze darting to those dots on the screen.

The wet squad slowly closing in on them.

“Oh, god. You don’t think we’re gonna make it out, do you?

This is insurance.” He shoved his hand through his unruly ginger locks.

“Where are you sending the intel? Some secure server that forwards it to a dozen newspapers if you don’t put in some kind of code in the next twenty-four hours?

Maybe to some of your other operatives? Are you even going to try to help me? ”

Ember fisted her hands, pinning him to the far wall with nothing more than a stare.

“If I was going to kill you, I would have put a bullet in your head instead of listening to you hyperventilate for the past ten minutes. But if we’re going to have any chance at getting out of here in one piece, you’ll need to do exactly what I say, when I say.

So, stand there, shut up, and wait for my next set of instructions. ”

She turned when the computer pinged. “There. Now we can?—”

The room went dark, the hum from the air exchanger in the far corner slowly winding down.

Bart gasped, the panicked sound excessively loud in the oppressive silence.

“Shit! Did they cut the power?” He wheezed out a couple more raspy breaths, tapping on something in what she assumed was an effort to get the thing to pop back on.

“How can they do that? I have backup generators. Batteries. An entire grid that’s completely isolated. ”

Ember secured the decryption drive Conrad had made to decipher the intel, her comms unit nothing but dead weight in her ear. “They didn’t cut the power. They hit it with an EM pulse.”

“They have electromagnetic pulse weapons?”

“They have everything.”

“That means they can breach the doors. Bypass all my magnetic seals and encrypted codes. Just waltz right in.” More tapping, as if he thought hitting the damn unit harder would have a different outcome. “Christ, I never should have trusted you. I’m outta here.”

Ember snapped her head toward him, his labored breathing the only means she had of tracking him in the utter darkness. “Don’t move, and don’t open that other door. It’s likely rig?—”

The explosion hit hard, lifting her off her feet and blasting her over a desk and into the far wall.

Thick smoke curled through the room, distant shouts rising above the ringing in her ears.

She blinked against the dust and debris, willing the room to stop spinning, when footsteps sounded off to her left.

Two scouts, searching the rubble. Laser sites mapping out their location as they scoured the room.

She pushed onto her hands and knees, staying below the top of the overturned desk beside her — judging their progression by the slight scuff of their boots. How the smoke swirled around them, making patterns in the air.

They stopped, those red beams skimming the top of the desk before she was up and over, kicking one in the chest as she caught the other in the throat.

The first guy tumbled back, landing on something nasty because he started flailing — arms and legs shaking as if he was having a seizure — before stilling, blood dripping out of his mouth.

The other asshole managed to get his rifle braced in front, but she simply used it to smash his face, dumping him on his ass with a sweep of her feet. A boot to the head and neck, and he was out — head lolled to one side and foot twitching.

The rest of his squad must have heard the commotion because they fired a second later.

Short controlled bursts punching through the smoke — cutting down everything in their path.

Ember hit the ground, covering her head as wood splintered around her, raining down like bits of confetti.

Sparks lit up the darkness, yellow muzzle fire flashing against the eerie gray.

More dots appeared amidst the smoke, fanning out across the room. The last man drew closer, AR-15 ghosting into view — laser site sweeping the far wall a good three feet above her. She counted it down then caught him in the knee, buckling his leg with a second kick to his ankle.

That got everyone moving.

Gathering together in the center to minimize any crossfire — keep her on the fringes.

She snagged a couple frags off the guy writhing on the ground then tossed one into the fray. She didn’t know if it was smoke, incendiary or a light and sound show. Didn’t care if it gave her a chance to make a break for the door.

The canister clicked along the floor, each tinny strike bolstered by the thick vapor.

Someone shouted — the dots scatter ed, but it exploded a heartbeat later, filling the room with light and sound.

Damn near bringing down the roof as the entire bunker shook, more dust coming loose from the old wooden slats covering the ceiling.

The ear-piercing noise scattered what was left of her senses, tilting the room left and right as she stumbled toward the exit, climbing over what remained of the door. A few shots whizzed through the air next to her head, one of the men shouting her name.

Ember hit the tunnel half-running, half-tripping, the blast of cool air lifting some of the numbing haze.

She took the second corridor on the right, then sprinted for the escape hatch at the far end — bouncing off the ladder when the signals didn’t quite reach her limbs in time.

She gave herself a shake, climbing the metal rungs before twisting the oversized wheel above her head.

It groaned in protest, finally releasing the thick lid with a rush of air. A foggy mist veiled the surrounding forest, a hint of moonlight shining from above.

She heaved herself up and out, crawling onto the wet grass as boots pounded the hallway beneath her. But she was already pulling that second pin — tossing the grenade through the opening. Covering her head, again, as it rattled down the rungs, clattering to the floor below.

Voices rose then retreated, a moment of uneasy silence settling over the area before the canister exploded, flames shooting out the hatch.

She waited for the shaking to stop then pushed to her feet and took off.

Not nearly as fast as before, but at least she was moving.

Limping and falling her way to the tree line then beyond.

She took what looked like a deer trail, scrambling through the underbrush until she’d put at least a mile between her and the compound.

Not enough to be safe. but she needed to catch her breath — stem some of the bleeding.

Ember leaned against a moss-covered tree, doing her best to take stock. Blood soaked through her clothes, a scattering of shrapnel poking through the fabric. Her head still rattled from the combined explosions, all her exposed skin caked in soot and dirt.

Pain teased her senses, but she was too numb to register anything but the cold bite of reality.

She was burned.

Every identity.

Every resource.

Every lifeline — gone.

All that remained was the bitter taste of regret, and a series of dead-drop sites scattered across the country. Her only chance of retrieving the intel, and her last hope in a lifetime of lies.

She closed her eyes, letting it all sink in, when her comms buzzed — Rook’s voice sounding through her head.

“Bravo, Ember.”

She inhaled, hating the stab of pride that warmed her chest. The part of her that still wanted his approval. To belong, even if it meant selling her soul. She scoured the forest, half-expecting the man to step out from the shadows. But nothing moved other than the odd flutter of wings.

She tapped her earpiece, all the pieces starting to fall into place. And she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d really escaped, or if he’d simply lengthened her leash.

He chuckled, the sound hollow. Smug. “It’s EMP proof, in case you were wondering.”

She bowed her head, the truth cutting deep. “How long have you known?”

“That you had doubts?” He pushed out a long slow breath.

“Since the day I saved you from that group home. Even at twelve years old, I always knew you were too smart, too unexpectedly moral, not to eventually question your place in the agency. I’d just hoped that after all this time — the years I put into beating every ounce of defiance out of you — it wouldn’t come to this. ”

She grunted, blinking against the dots eating away her vision. “You didn’t save me, Rook. You recruited me. I was just too young to see the difference. But I’m seeing everything clearly, now.”

He sighed, as if her discovering his betrayal was inconvenient. “Are you sure? I’ve been five steps ahead of you this entire time. Why do you think I sent you here? It was a test.” He let out a weary groan. “Congratulations. You failed.”

“Did I? Because this feels like a victory.”

“I suppose that depends on your perspective. Like your asset. How do you know Mr. Conrad wasn’t part of the ploy?”

“Because I know you. And if that intel wasn’t half as damming as I think it is, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Which means… You’re scared.”

He laughed. Louder. Deeper. “You’re exceptional, Ember.

The best I’ve ever trained. But there’s no way you can ever win this war.

No future without me and Scythe in it.” Another slow breath, this one colder than before.

Any hint of compassion gone. “You’ve had your fun.

Proven you’ve still got those morals buried beneath the muscle memory.

Ones I intend to finally bleed out of you. But we can talk about that later.”

“There’s no later, Rook. No us . There’s just me.”

“You know the score. No loose ends. If one ghost escapes, the whole house of cards collapses. Letting you go would set a precedent, and I can’t afford to have anyone else think they can follow in your footsteps.

” He exhaled, the gruff sound bordering on a growl.

“You’re either with us, or you’re dead.”

“Then, you better hope the next group of men you send are better than the last.”

“I won’t just send a squad. I’ll come for you, myself. Because you didn’t just betray the program — you betrayed me. And I can’t let that go unanswered.”

She straightened, pushing down the hurt and the pain. The absolute emptiness gathering in the pit of her stomach as she drew herself up. “Then, I guess this isn’t goodbye.”

A pause, as if he was still processing all the words. Coming to terms with the fact she’d defied him. Again. “Ember…”

“I’m the one giving the orders now. So, watch your back. I intend to stick a knife in it.”

She tossed the earpiece on the ground, crushing it beneath her boot before striking off. There was a questionable diner not too far down the old state highway. She could hitch a ride. Regroup. Head west. Gather the intel.

One more target.

One last mission.

And she’d live by Rook’s decree. She’d either burn him and Scythe to the ground or die trying.