Page 109 of Enthraller

Wren guessed the military were in the middle of a shake-up. They had cruised along happily for a long time, but now they’d reached the pointy end of things. They needed to up their game.

And from Darnell and Bartam’s expressions, it was a painful process.

“What’s happened to Evette Linao?” Ed asked.

“She’s in custody. She wants a deal for her freedom before she talks.” Darnell rubbed at his hair. “The head of the military is considering it.”

“She’s one of the heads of this whole enterprise.” Wren leaned forward, elbows on the table, suddenly furious. “She will lie.”

Violet Fann shifted. “Is she? That’s interesting.”

“She can fly a Razor, but that’s not her only value.” Ed added his voice to hers. “If I were to guess, I’d say she was the daughterof a Cores exec. She likes the thrill of mixing with the people they’ve duped or coerced and those on their payroll, pretending to be one of them while she spies on them. It must have been very useful to the top bosses. But she’s gotten away with too much, been rescued too many times. People have noticed that she never gets left behind, when everyone else does.”

Wren remembered the questions Fenton and Navar had asked Linao in the freighter on the way to Ytla. They had definitely known she wasn’t in the same category as they were.

“I think she’s even more than that,” Wren said. “I think she’d moved up the ranks from high-level fixer, mixing with the dregs so the high-ups feel like they know what’s being said about them, to decision-maker. She felt no hesitation in killing Pontia and leaving him. Her regret was that she didn’t have time to make sure he was dead. She spoke to Gy Renard on Ytla as if she was involved in the deal they offered him. And I think she was.”

“So she’s playing us?” Darnell asked. “To what end?”

“She’s hoping to give her people time to rescue her,” Ed warned. “She’s drawing it out, and while you ponder the deal you’re going to offer her, they’re working out a way to get her out.”

“I’ll pass your insights up the chain,” Darnell said, and Wren had a horrible feeling it would do no good. Somehow, Evette Linao was going to slither out of this mess, as well.

Wren reached out a hand and brushed Ed’s arm to get his attention, then dragged her chair back with a screech and stood.

Ed’s gaze met hers and he stood with her.

“Where are you going?” Bartam’s voice was snappish.

“To visit Bailey and Hatch,” Wren said. “You aren’t holding us, are you?”

There was an uncomfortable pause.

Then Bartam sighed. “All right. As Lieutenant Fann says, what you did worked.” She shook her head. “I don’t likesuspecting my whole team, wondering who could be on the other side.”

“Join the club.” Darnell sounded grim. “We’ve taken Kaleb, the soldier who forced Ed away from the military base, into custody. He’s claiming coercion.”

“I think a lot of their contacts have been coerced.” Ed moved with her to the door. “Which means you need to watch the people looking for Velda Shanïha and Ethan Hyt carefully. Some might be out there looking to silence them permanently.”

Bartam winced. “I did consider that. Guttra is keeping an eye on the searchers. So far, there seems to be no sign of Ethan or Velda.”

“They can’t have vanished,” Ed said.

“No. Maybe they’re hiding. Maybe they’ve worked out not everyone out there can be trusted.” Bartam lifted her shoulders. “We need them back.”

It was a depressing end to the meeting.

Ed took Wren’s hand as they walked to the hospital, which helped to lift her mood.

She glanced up at him. “When you said ‘unnecessary’ to the nanos, when you rescued me from the obs station, you were telling them they didn’t need to influence you. You were already all in.”

“Yes,” he said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “And when you said ‘it works both ways now’ when Evette Linao was holding a laz to my throat, you meant the same.”

“I’m glad we got that cleared up,” she said, and gave their joined hands a little swing.

“Me, too,” he said. “The stress was killing me.”

She pressed her forehead into his arm and laughed.

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