Page 94 of The Honeymoon Hack
He pushed me out the door and into the corridor, where the pulsing blue lights filled the space. The Code Blue message repeated, but not as often and at a far quieter volume.
Brie was walking away. Two of the black-clad men walked on either side of her. She looked over her shoulder, nearly tripping over her shoes.
In that glimpse, I saw everything I needed to see. Fear, yes, but also determination. She was working on the problem. She was not about to give up on saving her father.
So neither was I.
Chapter 36
Will
The holdingroom was unlike any other I’d ever seen. It was clearly a Mnemis space, with a surprisingly comfortable heavy wood chair at a solid wood table. The walls were painted a calm light blue, and there were plants in huge pots at the corners. A large screen television affixed to one wall could easily be smashed if I threw my chair.
If I weren’t zip tied to the chair.
Perhaps Mnemis had never used these rooms for interrogations. More likely, they were for meetings with VIPs who weren’t secretly attempting to steal things like Scarlett had been while she was here.
A Mnemis security guard stood on one side of the door. After nearly crushing my windpipe, Percival had elected to join us, while one of his team members finished bagging our electronics. Neither of them had said a word since securing me to my chair, but their message was crystal clear: try something stupid and see what happens.
The door opened, and a woman in tactical gear strode in. She dropped her helmet onto the table, then yanked off her face mask and gloves.
Dark hair fell loose to her shoulders, wet where it hadn’t been covered. Despite the gear and her bearing, she wasn’t military; otherwise, her hair would have been secured. But she also wasn’t playing dress-up. She was clearly comfortable in the heavy layers.
She had sharp cheekbones and bright green eyes that scanned everything in the room before she sank into the chair across from me. “I endured a horrible ride on a little boat from Grand Bahama in a fucking hurricane to speak with you. I am wet, I am cold, and I am ready to be done with this. The sooner you tell me what I need to know, the sooner we can all get out of here.”
Straight to the point. I respected that, even if I had no idea what she was talking about.
She fixed me with her sharp green gaze. “Let’s start with something simple. Who do you work for?”
Simple? “Mnemis Digital Preservation.”
“Try again.” She didn’t blink. “We spent considerable time trying to verify your employment history at Redoubt Systems.”
They’d done their homework. “I worked at Redoubt after I graduated, then was hired here.”
“We looked for Redoubt. Phone calls got us nothing but the runaround. When we dug deeper into the company’s ownership structure, all we found was a maze of shell companies. Layers upon layers of corporate entities that led nowhere.” She leaned forward slightly. “And when we visited the site? All we found was an empty office space.”
Shit. They’d actually gone to the address? Thiswasserious. “I don’t know anything about their corporate structure. I was just a remote employee.”
“A remote employee.” Her tone suggested she found the idea amusing. “And your wife? Also, a remote employee at the mysterious company that doesn’t seem to exist?”
“What’s going on here?” I asked, trying to shift the conversation. “Why did you separate me from my wife?”
An hour ago, Brie had whispered “I love you” against my chest, and now she was hidden somewhere in this facility. How had things gone from such an incredible high to this nightmare so quickly?
The woman ignored my questions entirely. “Your credentials at Redoubt Systems are fabricated. Your employment history is a lie. And yet somehow, you and your wife both managed to get hired at Mnemis within days of each other.” She tapped the tablet. “That takes planning. Resources. Support.”
I kept my mouth shut. Until she revealed what she was looking for, my protests wouldn’t accomplish anything.
“So I’ll ask again, and I’d recommend you think carefully before you answer.” She settled back in her chair, studying me as if I were a specimen under a microscope. “Who do you really work for?”
“I’ve told you?—”
“The truth,” she said, cutting me off. “Not another cover story.”
The door opened before I could respond. Claire walked in, and the friendly act she’d been playing all week was gone, replaced by something cold and predatory.
The woman gestured her over without taking her eyes off me. “Show him.”
