Page 99 of The Honeymoon Hack

He shoved me forward, his rifle at my back. “Ladies first.”

The X-ray scanner’s belt continued its perpetual movement forward, an eerie reminder of what normally happened here. I stepped through the body scanner on unsteady legs, the Code Blue screens lining the walls.

Lark stayed two paces behind me. Close enough that anyone who approached wouldn’t see the gun, but far enough away that I couldn’t swing around and take it from him. That’s what Rav would do, wouldn’t he? Disarm the man and turn the tables?

All I had was my brain. I had to use it. That was the only thing that would keep me alive.

Chapter 38

Will

The dark-haired womanstood near the table, arms crossed, studying me with the same low-grade irritation she’d maintained throughout the interrogation. She glanced at Claire. “I’m going to talk to the woman.”

Claire inclined her head, and the two of them joined Percival by the door. “I think we should send Bobcat. He’s better at breaking fingers.”

Breaking fingers?

Percival barely raised one shoulder. “She’s got a point.”

It had to be a bluff. They hadn’t laid a hand on me, but would they hurt Brie?

I couldn’t let that happen. What was I going to do? They’d come in on a boat during the hurricane. They were not the type of people who’d take no for an answer.

The pen tester cover was our nuclear option—it would end any chance of completing our real mission, but it might be our only way out of whatever black site operation this would turn into.

“We’re penetration testers.”

“You’re what?” The dark-haired woman turned to me, squinting.

Claire launched herself at me. “Son of a fucking?—”

“It’s the truth,” I said quickly, cutting off her explosion. “Gideon Tremaine hired us to test Mnemis’s defenses, both physical and digital.”

Claire jabbed an accusatory finger in my direction. “I did not blow a three-year undercover operation for a group of fucking pen testers!”

“He said if we were found out, that Derek Moss had the authority to call Tremaine Industries and confirm. Our target was Meridian Data Solutions. They’re in cluster fifty-seven.”

“Percival!” Claire snapped over her shoulder. “Go find Moss. We need to verify this story.”

The man nodded and left the room.

“Three years of my life working as a fucking data analyst,” Claire muttered under her breath, storming toward the door. “Three years of waiting for someone to come after Haddad’s research. And it’s goddamn security consultants!”

The dark-haired woman approached Claire and hissed, “Security consultants? You called us all the way out here—during a fucking hurricane—for this? You said you were sure.”

“You saw the footage I sent you,” Claire whispered. “She went after the Orchid server.”

Orchid server?

“And I told you two days ago, Claire—when you called us back from fucking Warsaw—that you were wrong.”

“And how were you so sure of that, Doc?” Claire drew closer to her, dropping her voice even lower. “Because Percival tells me you have history with one of these?—”

The door opened, cutting her off, and Moss entered the room with Percival.

Bad timing, Moss. What were they arguing about? Claire had called this team two days ago. She’d suspected us at least that long?

She’d even sent them footage.