I relaxed a fraction. “It wasn’t just you.”
“Yeah, but—” He shook his head, cutting himself off. Then his jaw flexed as he collected his thoughts. “I’m not used to being the second-best agent at the IDA.” He tilted his head, so he was looking at me again. “I can handle that you’re better than me. Because you are. You always have been. The only reason I’m alive at all is because you decided not to kill me.”
“That’s true,” I said.
He fought off a smirk to glare at me. “The part I don’t do well with is when people—when you—don’t listen to me.”
“You weren’t listening to me either,” I said, crossing my arms. “And I’m not going to do something just because you tell me to.”
“I’m not saying you should.” His voice strained as he tried to contain his frustration. “But you never tried to see my side of things with Venom.” He looked to the floor. “I didn’t really know what to do when that happened.”
My brow furrowed as I thought back over our last exchange. He was right. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. “You have a point,” I said. “But you didn’t hear me out either.”
His eyes widened slightly. “Oh, I heard what you were saying. I just didn’t like it.”
“I’m not sure that’s any better.”
He thought for a moment. “Yeah, I guess it’s not,” he said. “I’m sorry.” Then he sighed. “We’re good together because we make each other better. I make sure you don’t get us killed.” He looked at me pointedly. “But you push me to try things I never thought I could do. I am, without a doubt, a better agent because of you.”
I nodded, seeing his point. “And you’ve made me think about things more,” I said. “And made me less—reckless.”
He smiled. “So, can I ask you something?” I nodded. “You fought me to keep this operation a lot harder than I expected, especially given the risks to you specifically. Why?”
I looked at the table in front of me, which was still covered in papers. I wasn’t sure I wanted to share. But he was here, and asking, and willing to listen. And I didn’t want to shut him out anymore. “At first, I hated how helpless it felt to lose the upper hand on KATO,” I said. “This team seemed like the fastest and most effective way to chip away at them. But once I met these girls—” I hunched forward and rubbed the center of my forehead, trying not to think of how hard Misty worked to hide, the bruises on Centipede’s neck, or what must have happened to make Venom so delighted by death. Travis put a hand on my back, sensing I needed the encouragement. I rolled my head to the side so I could look him in the eye. “It’s easy to think of everyone at KATO as terrible people, but not all of them are. What happened to me is still happening to those girls. They’re living my nightmares every day, and I asked them to take this huge risk. I need to make sure they make it out.”
He moved his thumb across my spine and I couldn’t help but feel calmer. “You have a good heart,” he said, meeting my eyes.
Half a laugh snuck out of me, but it was powered by relief. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
“I am too,” he said, tipping his head closer. “I promise I’ll hear you out the next time we disagree on something if you’ll do the same.”
“Yeah. Okay.” I bit my lip. “But if for some reason I don’t, I need you to be there until I do.”
He gave me a small smile. “I can live with that.”
“And Venom?” I asked. “You know she’s still here.”
“I’m still not sure how I feel about her being involved,” he said. “But I trust you.” He held my eyes, as if he needed to be certain I understood.
“Thank you.”
He nodded, then took in the table in front of us. “Now, what are you working on here?” He pulled a page of the blueprints closer.
“It’s the building that has the serum.” Nikki had taken a handful of the pages upstairs, but had apparently left us with the lower floors.
“You’re sure?” he asked.
I shrugged. “As sure as we can be. Jin Su’s been in touch with the builder.” Travis looked at me sharply. “He said in an email that the security was compromised in the building and threatened the builders so they would fix it. The only reason I can come up with for him to personally oversee this would be if the serum is involved.”
“So you’re trying to find the problem and use it to get easy access to the serum?”
“That’s the idea,” I said. “He said it’s a security issue, but the six of us have been combing over these pages all day and can’t find any serious weaknesses. Maybe you’ll find something we didn’t.”
“Before we do that,” he said, “you need to fill me in on what I’ve missed.”
I launched into a detailed account of everything that had happened in the past few days. It felt like a balance had been restored, and I found myself more determined than ever.
My dad had called me fearless, but my conversation with Travis had reminded me that I wasn’t. I was afraid of a lot. I just had no intentions of letting that fear stop me. I may not be fearless, but I certainly wasn’t helpless. And that was a lesson KATO still needed to learn.
Chapter Twenty-Six
LOCKING IN
I had just finished bringing Travis up to speed when my tablet lit up on the table. It was Sam.
“KATO girl!” Then he caught sight of Travis. “And Agent Elton. I didn’t realize you were around.” Travis gave Sam a salute.
“Did you find a location?” I asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “I’m working on a theory for that. But Nikki said you guys were having a hard time nailing down the security issue, and I think I have your answer.”
“What did you find?” Travis asked.
“I was going through some of our CEO’s emails and I found one from right after the building was finished.” Sam pulled the email up on the screen. “Because CEO Burry was under the impression that he was building a corporate building, he had it wired with a high-tech, built-in, top-of-the-line security system. It wasn’t until after he turned the building over to KATO that he realized his mistake.”
I nodded, understanding. “KATO doesn’t want an outside security system. They have their own security.”
“Exactly,” Sam said. “Now, Burry realized this and had the third party monitoring cut off before KATO moved in. But the thing with this advanced system is, in order to truly shut it down, you have to both deactivate the monitoring and deactivate the building on sight. Something, according to these emails, Burry was too afraid to do.”
Travis leaned forward into the frame. “So what does that mean for us?”
Sam took the emails off the screen so we could see him again. “It means that this facility is still connected to the separate system. Even if it’s not currently being monitored, the building is still live. If one of you can get inside the security company’s offices, we can use this system to get into KATO’s building, then hack into their security from there.”
“So this is our way in,” I said.
Sam nodded. “You guys sit tight for now. I’ll check back in when I have a location.” He disconnected and I dropped the tablet on top of the papers.
I leaned into the back of the couch. “There’s nothing else we can do until we hear back from him.”
Travis ran a hand along his jaw. “Is there someplace we can train while we wait?”
“Nikki says there’s a training room in the basement,” I said, smiling.
“Perfect.” He gestured for me to lead the way.
• • •
I called Nikki down before we headed to the basement and filled her in on what Sam had said. She agreed to stay by her tablet in case he checked back in while we were training. Meanwhile, Misty had started looking over the few details Sam had come up with regarding the security situation. A lot of the technical de
tails were over my head, but she seemed to know her way around a computer on our last mission. It wouldn’t surprise me if hacking was another skill she picked up to avoid human interaction on KATO assignments.
Travis and I worked out for a little over an hour. We hadn’t intended to go that long, but it had been a while since we had trained together and it seemed to be something we both missed. When we had finished, Travis settled in the living room to go over the blueprints. Since the rest of us had spent hours studying them, he still had some catching up to do.
Meanwhile, I moved into the kitchen. I wasn’t all that hungry, but I knew I should eat. Nikki followed me.
“It’s awfully strange Travis turned up out of the blue like that, huh?” she said, smirking.
I smiled sheepishly from behind an open cabinet. “Thank you.”
She shrugged like it was nothing. “Your dad was worried about you going into this place without real IDA backup. And he wasn’t the only one.”
I settled on a protein bar, and leaned against the counter to eat it. “The backup definitely doesn’t hurt. Especially now that a secondary location is coming into play.”
She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost seven at night. “The others will probably be up soon.”
“We should head back in,” I said, tipping my head toward the living room. “I want to be ready to brief them.”
My dad was the first one up, with Centipede and Venom not far behind him.
“Who are you?” Venom asked, eyes locking on Travis from the stairs.
“He’s Scorpion. My partner,” I said, introducing him. “He showed up to help a couple hours ago.” My dad didn’t seem all that surprised to find Travis sitting in the living room. He must have been in on this too.
“You were in Austria?” Centipede asked.
Travis nodded once. “I was.”
Venom cocked her head to the side, then circled him slowly, scrutinizing. I watched Travis uncertainly, knowing how he felt about Venom. He looked uncomfortable, but didn’t react otherwise. She turned back to me when she had finished her inspection. “His face is oddly shaped, but he looks useful.”
Travis’s expression told me that he was both clearly insulted and convinced Venom was as nuts as he had suspected. “My face is fine.” He was slightly more defensive than necessary considering the source, and I had to fight to keep from smiling.
I brought us back to the issue at hand, walking my dad and the others through the details of what Sam had uncovered.
We had just finished going through the latest developments when Nikki appeared. “Command reached out. He has a location.”
She turned the monitor on and Sam’s face appeared on the screen on the mantel. “Wait until you hear how good I am,” he said, smirking at the camera. “I scanned the world looking for a building that matched the blueprint, but came up empty. Then the architect sent an email ordering a small crew to Saudi Arabia. So I scanned the country again. Still nothing.” He said all of this fairly quickly. “Then I took another look at the blueprints and noticed how strange the shape of the building is. It should be easy to find. Do you know why it isn’t?” I had noticed some floors were a little longer than others, but I didn’t think too much of it.
“Why?” Travis asked.
“Because they built it in a mountain.” He pulled up the images. “I managed to get a thermal imaging scan and electrical outputs to confirm it.”
“Okay,” I said, taking this in. “So, we’re going in a mountain.”
“From what I can tell, the doors to the building line up with tunnels that were already in place,” Sam said. “So, this is how it’s situated.” He showed us an outline of the mountain with the building inside it.
“Did you find out anything more about the independent security company?” I asked.
“They’re called Phantac Security.” He pulled up the company’s logo. “They’re an international company with offices around the world, including Saudi Arabia. They also have a base in France.”
“Can we get access through the France location?”
Sam was quiet for a second as he double-checked something. “It looks like it. The monitoring for this particular building would have been in Saudia Arabia, but it appears it’s all in one network, so we can get into this building from any Phantac office in the world. The one hitch is that one of you is going to have to run this on-site. Phantac’s own security is tight. I could hack from here if I had time, but not if you’re looking to move in the next twenty-four hours.”
“Misty,” I said, “can you get into their system?”
“I should be able to figure it out,” she said with a one-shouldered shrug. “I’ve been looking over the intel, and it seems straightforward once you’re on the inside. But this is a lot like the safe. I know my way around, but I’m not an expert.”
“That’s okay,” Sam said. “I’ll still be on comms to walk you through it. The French offices are in Paris. I’ll send you the exact address.”
“And I’ll go with you,” my dad said. My eyes jumped to him. “You’ll need someone to keep the heat off of you if you’re found. Besides, this isn’t a job any of you should be doing alone.”
Misty seemed uneasy, but nodded.
I looked to Sam. “We’ll be in touch when we’re ready to move.”
He hung up and I turned back to the group.
“Now we need to plan our attack on the building,” I said. “Retrieving the serum and any data related to it is our objective. And we want to do this as quietly as possible.”
It took us two hours to sift through all the intel and come up with a cohesive plan.
“All right, each of us will be paired up,” I said as we reached the final stages. “Echo, you’re monitoring the situation from here. If we need to coordinate anything, we’ll go through you.”
Nikki held her cast out in front of her. “My broken arm and I will hold down the fort.”
I smiled lightly. “Misty, you and Archer are in Paris; Venom, you’re with Scorpion, going after the development files in the building supervisor’s office.” I glanced at Travis, hoping he would be okay with this. I knew how he felt about Venom. But when he didn’t object, I moved on. “Centipede, you’re with me. We’re getting the serum.”
She nodded, agreeing easily.
“This will work if we each do our jobs,” I said, looking to Centipede, Venom, and Misty in turn. They were silent and attentive. “We also need to keep our faces hidden,” I said. “It can’t get back to KATO that you’re with us.”
“That is no problem,” Venom said. “I will kill anyone who sees us.”
“We actually want to avoid doing that unless we absolutely have to,” I said, trying not to be too harsh. “Once Misty is in the system, she’ll get control of the cameras, so there won’t be any record of you. We also have masks, hooded jackets, gloves, and everything we need to keep our identities hidden.” My dad passed them around.
“What if something happens and they get a good look at us?” Centipede asked.
I swallowed. “Then we’ll do what we have to.” I still hadn’t killed anyone that I was aware of since I started at the IDA. But I would not let Centipede or Venom’s identities be exposed.
My answer hung in the air for a moment until Travis brought us back. “What’s the on-site security like?”
I met his eyes, grateful for the redirection. “There will probably be guards stationed periodically throughout the facility,” I said. “They’re not spies. They’re high-ranking soldiers with special clearance. I would bet their orders are to injure, not kill, if possible. KATO would undoubtedly want to interrogate any intruders.”
“If you’re retrieving something medical, there’s a good possibility it’ll need to be kept at a specific temperature,” my dad said.
I reached inside my jacket and pull
ed out a small rectangular container. “Dr. March gave me this before we left. She said it will keep a sample at a consistent temperature for twenty-four hours. That should give us enough time to get back here and transfer it to the right environment.”
“All right, then,” my dad said. “I don’t think there’s anything else to discuss. You four need to get in the air.” He looked to Misty. “I’ll work on getting us a ride to Paris. Check in with each other as much as possible.”
I exhaled a heavy, tight breath, and dug my hand into my side. I had kept my cool during the preparation because I needed them to feel confident. But we were going into another KATO facility, and that reality wasn’t lost on me.
My dad came up next to me and grabbed ahold of my shoulders. “Be careful, okay?” His tone was serious, though not nearly as intense as it had been when we first started working together.
“I will.” I flashed a smile at him. “I promise.”
“I’ll be listening, if you need anything,” he said. He gave me a reassuring squeeze, and for a moment I felt calm. More calm than I ever could have hoped before a mission involving KATO. I stepped away from him, moving toward the door with the others.
• • •
Travis and I sat in the back of the plane, while Centipede and Venom each took a bench of their own closer to the front. We were headed for a mountain range in northern Saudi Arabia.
I was more in control than I ever had been when it came to dealing with KATO. This was an invasion we were initiating. We had a covert way in and a planned exit strategy. I was using three of their assets to pull everything together. Still, the closer we got to the mission, the more apprehensive I became. We were still dealing with KATO, and while they had yet to catch me, I couldn’t shake the thought that it was only a matter of time. And I was also all too aware that I wasn’t the only one at risk anymore.
I bounced my leg up and down, trying to release some anxiety. Travis put a hand on my knee, forcing it still.
He leaned into me. “You have done everything you can to be ready for this.”
Enemy Exposure Page 23
