Page 69 of Forged in Deception

“If someone goes into that bathroom, they might notice the open window and take a look outside, but I didn’t see any cameras except for the ones in the parking lot,” Axel explained as he pulled Karlin around the corner of the building. “I think we might have actually pulled this off.”

His eyes were actually shining.

He looked like he was having the time of his life.

Karlin, meanwhile, felt like she was going to throw up. Or, at the very least, find the nearest ravine and toss the file folder she was holding into it.

She nodded mutely, pulling her arms around herself as a rush of wind sent a chill running through her. The sun was lower in the sky now, and it would only get colder with each passing minute.

“You okay?” Axel asked, pausing and resting his back against the brick wall.

“I’m fine,” she said, drawing in a heaving breath, only just then realizing how exhausted she was. “You?”

“Oh, I’m great,” Axel beamed. “I was just thinking about how, for once, I’m so thankful to be the scrawny one of the family.”

“You know, I was kidding when I said you looked like a string bean,” she admitted.

“I know, I know–by the standards of the general population, I’m totally buff,” he said, his voice serious. “But my twin brother is the size of this wall. And the rest of them are somewhere in the middle of the string bean and wall continuum.”

It felt good to laugh, even a little. “As much as I’d love to keep discussing this, we do need to get out of here.”

“Lead the way,” Axel announced, pushing himself off the wall and following her toward the dusty pickup. “But I’m really curious why you risked taking that file. I was thinking we have enough now to string together a warrant, especially if you’re willing to talk about the pressures you faced when you started the job.”

Karlin didn’t answer for several seconds as they shuffled across the parking lot. One of her colleagues, a younger scientist she didn’t know by name who had just started working in the lab a few weeks ago, crossed their path and smiled. “Hey, Ms. McKenna,” he said, raising a hand in a salute. “I’ve got overnight lab duty tonight. Paying my dues.”

“You got this, newbie!” she offered, unsure what else to say. She sounded cringe, but whatever. At least the man would have no idea that Axel was out of place here.

Finally, they reached the vehicle. This time, Karlin took the wheel, and as they began the drive back to the retreat site, they both kept a look out for Bajwa and the others returning from their hike. If they saw anybody, Axel would have to drop to the floor, and that was about as far as their contingency plans went.

“So, the file?” Axel prompted as soon as they’d reached a relatively less treacherous part of the road.

“Senera lied to the courts after Amira died,” she said. “They claimed that a lightning strike took out their servers and caused a huge data crash, which happened to erase much of their trial data.”

Axel snorted. “The courts bought that?”

Karlin nodded. “I always suspected they were lying, though. I was sure they had some evidence against me somewhere. An insurance policy, in case they ever ended up in a tight situation. I’d also suspected that Bajwa knew about it, based on some little comments he’s made in the past. I’ve just been proven right.”

“It’s just nasty enough for me to believe that Senera would do it,” Axel said, his jaw tightening. “Take a new hire, fresh out of college, put her on the hook for a risky trial…The good news is that I think a decent judge would be able to see through it. Remember, they wouldn’t have wanted to fake the server crash if they thought it would be an easy slam dunk to pin it all on you.”

Karlin shook her head. “I mean, sure, the best thing for them was just to keep me around and keep me quiet. But once we start threatening them legally, it’s ultimately my word against theirs. And we don’t even know everything that’s in that file yet. For all we know, they embellished the details to make me sound even worse. So, yeah, that’s why I took it. Whether they have another copy or not, I’m not sitting around waiting for the trap to close. I’m getting ahead of it.”

She realized that she was gripping the wheel tight enough to turn her knuckles white.

Axel leaned a little closer, resting a hand on her shoulder, but even his touch wasn’t enough to soothe her anxiety. She felt like every nerve in her body was humming, poised for action, though she had no clue what to actually do next.

“Karlin, you realize that you can turn around,” he said. “You can just turn around, right now. We don’t need to go back.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Not an option.”

“Even just based on what you’ve told me, we have enough to get the local authorities involved,” Axel argued. “Look, we have this police liaison back in San Antonio, Allie? She’s great. She’ll know someone here, or Gabe will, or we’ll find one of our contacts who does. They’ll know how to handle the next steps. You’re not facing this alone.”

Karlin said nothing, considering his proposal as she navigated around several sharp turns. So far, there’d been no sign of any other vehicles, and though it was getting colder, sunset was still a few hours away. She was confident that her plan had worked and that they would beat the others back to the site before anyone realized they had ever left.

“We can’t leave tonight,” she said firmly. “I mean, you can if you want, but I’m not abandoning my patients. I’m going to observe their DX8 doses and make sure everyone is okay.”

“If you think I’m leaving you, you’re insane,” Axel announced. “But tomorrow, however we make our escape, we need to leave. This is getting too big for the two of us to handle on our own.”

Karlin nodded, risking a quick glance in his direction.

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