Chương 9
My pulse shifted.
That was too close.
“What else?”
“He said she had traveled under other names.”
Shaw’s pen stopped.
“When did he say that?”
Lauren hesitated.
“Maybe six weeks ago.”
“Before your father contacted Voss?”
“Yes.”
Mercer’s face tightened.
That meant Kessler had not discovered me through Harold.
He had found the family first.
Harold’s obsession had merely opened a door Kessler was already standing beside.
I looked at Lauren.
“What names?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“He only said aliases.”
“Did he give examples?”
“No.”
“Did he mention Raven Nine?”
Her expression went blank.
“No.”
“Collins?”
“No.”
“Prague?”
“No.”
“Cyprus?”
Nothing.
Then a tiny change.
Her eyes moved.
My stomach dropped.
“What did he say about Cyprus?”
Lauren went pale.
“I don’t remember.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Emma.”
Michael’s voice warned me, but I did not stop.
“What did he say?”
Lauren backed toward the table.
“That you weren’t where you said you were.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
Diane sat down again.
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“How would he know that?”
Lauren looked miserable.
“He showed me a picture.”
The room went still.
“What picture?”
“You.”
“Where?”
“At an airport.”
“Which airport?”
“I don’t know.”
“What country?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lauren.”
“I don’t know.”
Her voice cracked.
“There was a sign behind you in Greek.”
Cyprus.
My skin prickled.
“What was I wearing?”
She stared at me.
“What?”
“The picture.”
I stepped closer.
“What was I wearing?”
“A black jacket.”
“Hair?”
“Tied back.”
“Anyone with me?”
She closed her eyes.
“One man.”
“Describe him.”
“Older.”
“That means nothing.”
“Gray hair.”
“Tall?”
“Kind of.”
“Glasses?”
“Yes.”
I felt the floor tilt.
Mercer saw it.
“Who?”
I looked at him.
“Elias Ward.”
Mercer’s face emptied.
Shaw frowned.
“Who is Elias Ward?”
“A source.”
“Current?”
“No.”
“Alive?”
I looked at Lauren.
“Not after that trip.”
Michael took a slow breath.
“Was his death public?”
“No.”
“And Kessler had a photograph of you with him before he died.”
“Yes.”
Shaw stood.
“That means he had access before the metadata breach this morning.”
“Much earlier.”
Mercer was already calling someone.
I turned to Lauren.
“Did Kessler send you the image directly?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still have it?”
“I deleted the chat.”
Shaw looked up sharply.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Why?”
Lauren began crying for real now.
Not gracefully.
Her face folded.
“Because Dad was yelling about Emma being on base and I realized maybe Daniel had been using me.”
“Did Kessler tell you to delete anything?”
“No.”
“Did you delete only the chat?”
“Yes.”
“Cloud backup?”
“I don’t know.”
Shaw stepped closer.
“Phone.”
Lauren handed it over.
Her fingers shook so badly she nearly dropped it.
Diane watched her daughter surrender the device and then looked at me.
“Was this always about you?”
I almost said yes.
It would have been easy.
Instead I looked at the photograph still glowing on the tablet.
“No.”
Mercer lowered his phone.
“What are you thinking?”
“Kessler had an image from Cyprus.”
“Yes.”
“He had already connected me to Ward.”
“Yes.”
“So he did not need Harold to identify me.”
Mercer’s eyes narrowed.
“What did he need?”
I looked toward Lauren.
“Access to something around me.”
Shaw understood first.
“The family.”
“Maybe.”
“For leverage?”
“Maybe.”
Michael shook his head.
“Stop saying maybe.”
I turned toward him.
“I’m saying maybe because I don’t know.”
“Finally.”
The word came out harsher than he meant it.
He regretted it immediately.
I could see that.
He did not apologize.
That was fair too.
I looked back at Lauren.
“What exactly did Kessler ask you for over four months?”
“Family information.”
“What kind?”
“Birthdays.”
“Whose?”
“Everyone’s.”
“Addresses?”
“Some.”
“Phone numbers?”
She nodded.
“Travel?”
Another nod.
“Michael’s unit?”
“I didn’t give him classified information.”
“That was not my question.”
She looked at her brother.
“Just things you’d told us.”
“Deployment windows?”
“Not exact.”
“Duty station?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes briefly.
Not enough to compromise an operation.
Enough to build a pattern.
Enough to know where pressure lived.
“Did he ask about children?”
Lauren looked confused.
“You don’t have any.”
“Did he ask?”
“Yes.”
Michael’s face changed.
“What did you tell him?”
“That you were trying.”
Silence.
Absolute this time.
Lauren seemed to realize too late that she had stepped into a private wound no investigation had authorized.
I could not look at Michael.
For eleven months, we had been trying.
For eight, unsuccessfully.
For three, I had been pretending I was too busy to care.
Kessler knew.
Of course he knew.
People who build leverage collect the ordinary disappointments too.
Those are often more useful.
Mercer spoke softly.
“Emma.”
I stared at the table.
“He wasn’t trying to find me.”
“What?”
“He was mapping my life.”
Shaw’s voice sharpened.
“For what purpose?”
“To see what I would protect.”
Michael looked at me.
“And what would that be?”
The answer hurt before I gave it.
“You.”
Michael’s face did not soften.
If anything, the answer seemed to make him angrier.
“You don’t get to say that now.”
I held his gaze.
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
He stepped away from the table and dragged one hand over his mouth.
“You protect me by lying to me for six years, and then when somebody targets me because of those lies, I’m supposed to understand that as love?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Lauren stood by the wall with both arms wrapped around herself.
Diane looked down at her hands.
Mercer shifted his weight but stayed quiet.
For once, nobody in the room had a useful authority.
Michael turned toward the door.
“I need air.”
The security officer outside moved to block him.
Michael stopped.
His expression went flat.
“Seriously?”
Mercer spoke before the situation became stupid.
“He can use the interior courtyard.”
The officer stepped aside.
Michael left without looking at me.
I wanted to follow him.
I did not.
Shaw was already examining the extraction software on Lauren’s phone.
May you like
“We may be able to recover deleted message metadata locally.”
“Do it.”
