Page 109 of The Honeymoon Hack

Brooke glanced at the monitor. “It’s classified.”

“Bloody fucking hell.” I jabbed my finger toward the monitor. Dead guards, possible explosives, and my scared Brie. “That’s my wife in there! How fucking classified can it possibly be right now?”

Claire frowned, but exchanged a look with Brooke and said, “You don’t need the specifics. But suffice to say, Dr. Sayid Haddad created a very dangerous biochemical weapon.”

“Greek Fire?” I assumed.

“Yes.” Brooke huffed but picked up the story. “He destroyed all of his research, except what was left on his server here three years ago. The problem is, several people had parts of the research or knowledge of the server, and we’ve been tracking them down since, to ensure no one finishes his research again.”

“That’s why Claire’s here?”

Brooke nodded. “She and I manipulated the files, so the information is useless, but we left it behind as bait.”

“Bait?” I practically choked on the word. “Seven dead people, and Brie is?—”

“Lark needs her to access the server,” Brooke said, her voice matter-of-fact. Clinical. “He’ll keep her alive.”

Until she gave him what he needed. What happened after that?

Brie became a witness.

A liability.

Lark had already killed seven people today. Seven. What was one more to cover his tracks?

“He won’t be able to do anything with the data anyway,” Claire said quietly.

That didn’t sound good. “What do you mean?”

Claire’s expression was grim, almost apologetic. “I also sabotaged some of the wiring on Haddad’s server. The files can be read, but they can’t be copied outside of Mnemis.”

The world tilted. “You what?”

“We’ve used the server to eliminate several hackers trying to grab the data remotely. They get in, the data looks close enough to what they need, and then they waste time troubleshooting the download, giving us time to nab them. It was a brilliant plan.”

“Was! But now, when Brie can’t give him what he wants,” I snarled, stepping toward Claire, my vision narrowing to her face, “he’ll kill her!”

Rage burned through my chest, white-hot and all-consuming. Every protective instinct inside me roared to life.

“Will, calm down,” said Claire, as though she weren’t responsible for calling that murderer into this building and handing Brie over to him.

“No cowboy shit,” Percival said behind me. Probably to Rav, but…

My body reacted; my brain struggled to keep up. I lunged at Claire. She tried to step back, but fury or fear made me faster, my fingers closing around the lanyard hanging from her neck, with all those pretty little white Greek goddess heads.

“What are you doing?” Claire grabbed for the badge, but I yanked it free, the ID snapping from its stupid, weak clip.

I turned to Rav before the Pendragon team had time to move. “I have an idea!”

Rav—looking every bit the soldier, and why did that seem so right at the moment?—turned to me. “What is it?”

“The server above the one Lark’s after,” I said, already passing the Pendragon team. “When you’re moving in, I need someone to enable the ‘tech required’ light. It’ll tell me it’s time to act.”

“What?” Percival asked.

“I’m going in to fix Claire’s fuck-up.” I held up her badge as I backed toward the body scanner. “I’ll be working on the server, keeping him distracted.”

“Come back here,” the team leader demanded. “You’re not going in alone.”