Chapter 6 - The Friend Who Came Back Dead
For four years, I had dreamed about Noah dying.
Sometimes he vanished beneath black water.
Sometimes fire took him.
Sometimes he stood on the deck and blamed me for leaving him behind.
Now he was alive on a screen, fastening a wire around Emma's chair.
"Noah," I said.
His eyes softened.
That almost broke me.
"You still say my name like I deserve it."
"Let her go."
"Bring the key."
"You saved me."
He laughed without humor.
"I saved you because Vale needed the key implanted in a survivor nobody would question."
Vivian stepped close to the monitor.
"If you hurt my sister—"
"Your sister is leverage," Noah said. "Nothing more."
I studied his face.
The Noah I knew had never called a person leverage.
"What happened to you?"
"Your uncle happened."
Walter rose.
"Do not listen to him."
Noah's calm cracked.
"You left my team inside a sinking compartment because the Nightglass core mattered more than twelve lives."
Walter's mouth tightened.
"That is not what happened."
"I have the recordings."
Noah touched the scar on his jaw.
"Vale pulled me from the water. Your country declared me dead before sunrise."
Briggs stepped forward.
"Noah, stand down. We can expose whatever happened without killing anyone."
"You had four years."
The screen went black.
A map appeared with coordinates beneath an abandoned naval warehouse on the Potomac.
The countdown continued.
Forty-seven minutes.
Walter grabbed my arm.
"You cannot go."
I looked at his hand until he released me.
"Emma is there because of your secret."
"The key cannot fall into Vale's hands."
"Then tell me what it opens."
He hesitated.
I stepped closer.
"Tell me now, or I cut it out myself and hand it to him."
Walter's face emptied.
"Nightglass can enter any civilian communications network in the country. Phones. Cameras. Traffic systems. Hospital records. Banking transfers."
Vivian whispered, "A skeleton key."
"More than that," Briggs said. "A weapon without smoke."
Walter nodded.
"If Vale activates it, nobody with power will have privacy again."
I looked at the timer.
"Then we do not give him the real key."
Briggs understood first.
"You want to build a duplicate."
"No," I said. "I want him to believe we did."
The injured security guard groaned behind us.
His hand opened.
Inside his palm was a hotel keycard smeared with blood.
May you like
On it, someone had written one word.
BASEMENT.
