Page 47 of Avenging Jessie
Spence slumped back against the seat. Jessie’s knuckles were white on the wheel, her jaw clenched. “Which way?” she demanded.
“East for now.” He closed his eyes for a brief moment. “Once we’re sure we don’t have a tail, we’ll hit the safe house.”
“Is he…” She shifted, and the car lurched. “Do you think Hastings is dead?”
Pivoting in the seat and ignoring his worthless wrist, he squinted back at the data center. Another explosion occurred when something struck a gas line. “I wouldn’t bet money on it.”
“And the drones? Will Brewer still launch them in the morning?”
Another unknown. But now, if Hastingswasalive, they had a way to blackmail him with Brewer. “No one is safe until we deactivate them.” It was the best he could do. He raised his injured hand. “And that’s going to be a challenge for me, now.”
Her gaze flicked to him. She grimaced. “You need a doctor.”
They hit the highway and flew down the blacktop, the rain reflecting their headlights when Jessie flipped them on. “No hospitals,” he said. “No doctors. We’re off-grid, now, remember? Those places want information and answers I can’t give.”
But, holy mother, he needed some pain meds.
“This is all my fault,” she said softly. “I should have stayed in the car.”
He gritted his teeth so he didn’t lip off,You think? Bloody hell. “We stopped them, at least for now, from breaching any other U.S. intelligence service.”
“Did we? Won’t they have backups of their programs?”
“The virus I left them with will wipe out their cloud, as well as anything directly tied into those servers.” He grimaced as he shucked off his vest and tossed it in the backseat. “I’m sure Hastings’ pets have off-site backups, but for now, they’re out of commission until they can regroup.”
She fell silent as he programmed in a new route into the GPS to take them on a circular path back to the apartment. It was awkward since he had to use his left hand.
When he sat back and she seemed assured no one was following, she said, “Go ahead.”
He sank deeper into his seat, cradling his arm. “Go ahead, what?”
“Yell at me. I deserve it.”
She did, too. And he was furious.
But he’d let her put him in that situation. He’d made the call, and this was the outcome.
Stupid.
Some leader he was.
“We’ll discuss it later.” He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “Right now, we need to regroup.”
She started to say something, and he raised a hand to stop her. Silence fell; the only sounds were the tires on the wet road and the GPS telling them to turn right in half a kilometer.
Spence focused his anger on Hastings rather than Jessie. They had more intel now on him, and had delayed his attempts to break into the CIA, but was he the one who’d breached the Pentagon’s security? Was he using Brewer’s signature as his own?
Did Brewer know?
All questions had to wait. Until he could get back up to speed, they were lame ducks. He sneaked a peek at Jessie. By her expression, she knew it, too.
And was blaming herself.
For now, he planned to let her stew.
Which was either a tactical move…or a dangerous one.
Nineteen
