CHAPTER 68
Jameson
Tallinn, Estonia
Three Days Later
Rook contacted us again seventy-one hours after she entered Serpens.
By then, Brynn’s article had been translated into twenty-three languages.
Four governments had opened formal investigations.
Two intelligence agencies denied any connection to Mirrorstream while quietly removing personnel named in the supporting documents.
Serpens Geminus no longer appeared in any active corporate registry, and every public address associated with it had been stripped clean.
Whitaker’s death had been classified as suspicious.
No cause had been released.
No arrest had been made.
Rook’s message contained seven words.
I found it. I cannot open it.
A second message followed.
I need your legacy credentials.
We left Greece that night.
The commercial route required too many airports, passport checks, and cameras. Rook arranged something smaller through people she did not name.
Brynn slept through part of the flight.
Not enough.
She sat beside me now with one leg folded beneath her and both hands closed around a paper cup she had stopped drinking from twenty minutes ago.
Clouds pressed against the aircraft windows, turning the morning light flat and colorless.
She looked tired.
She also looked determined, which was more dangerous.
“You’re staring at me,” she said.
“I would have preferred to leave you in Greece.”
“That was never going to happen,” she said.
“The probability that Tomar remained in Estonia is low,” I said. “It is not zero.”
Brynn held my gaze over the rim of the cup. “And you’re worried she’ll be there.”
“I’m worried you will be there if she is.”
She took another drink, discovered the coffee had gone cold, and made a face before setting it down.
The aircraft tilted as it began its descent.
Brynn looked toward the window.
The cloud cover broke beneath us.
Tallinn appeared in pieces: gray water, dark roofs, roads still wet from recent rain. The harbor stretched along the edge of the city beneath a pale sky.
My body recognized the landscape before my thoughts resolved around it.
Brynn touched my wrist.
I looked down.
Her fingers rested lightly against my pulse.
She did not ask whether I was all right.
That question would have required an answer neither of us needed.
“We’re going back,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Not staying,” she said.
“No.”
Her thumb moved once against my skin. “Good.”
The landing gear lowered beneath us.
The vibration traveled through the floor.
Three days of public exposure had created the opening we needed.
If Rook had found what she believed she found.
There were still too many conditions.
My hand closed over Brynn’s before the wheels fully settled.
She looked down at our joined hands, then at me.
I did not release her.
***
Rook met us inside an empty maintenance hangar forty minutes later.
She stood beside a dark utility vehicle with her arms crossed, black curls falling around a pair of dark aviators. A worn leather jacket fit close over a black shirt, and a faded bruise showed along one side of her jaw beneath the glasses. Another disappeared beneath her collar.
She looked exactly as she had the last time I saw her.
Which meant she looked like someone had recently tried to kill her and failed.
Her gaze moved over me once behind the dark lenses before settling on Brynn. “You brought her.”
Brynn adjusted the strap of her bag. “I brought myself.”
Rook’s attention shifted back to me. “That sounds familiar.”
“It should,” I said.
Brynn looked between us. “Are we doing the part where everyone pretends they aren’t happy to see each other?”
“No,” Rook said.
“Yes,” I said at the same time.
Rook opened the rear door of the vehicle. “Get in.”
Brynn looked at me. “Very touching reunion.”
I placed one hand against the small of her back and guided her toward the vehicle.
Cold air swept through the open hangar, carrying the smell of rain and fuel.
Rook drove without speaking until we left the airfield.
She avoided the main roads, moving through industrial areas and narrow streets where security cameras were sparse or old enough to be compromised.
Brynn sat beside me in the back, her knee pressing against mine with every turn.
“What did you find?” she asked.
Rook checked the mirror. “A sealed evidence repository beneath the primary server level.”
“And you need him to open it,” Brynn said.
“His old analyst profile is still attached to the records,” Rook said.
“You said you were inside for six hours,” I said.
Rook’s eyes met mine briefly in the mirror. “I went back.”
“Alone.”
“Yes,” she said.
“That was unnecessary.”
“It was faster,” she said.
“It was reckless.”
Rook turned onto another road. “You can lecture me after you open it, Teach.”
***
Serpens looked abandoned.
There were no lights behind the glass, no vehicles near the entrance, and nothing moved along the upper floors.
Rook parked behind a warehouse three streets away and killed the engine.
Brynn studied the building through the rain-streaked windshield. “You’re sure everyone left?”
“No,” Rook said.
I looked toward her.
She removed the aviators and folded them into the front of her jacket. “I’m sure everyone who wanted to be seen leaving did.”
Brynn glanced at me. “That sounds promising.”
“It is not,” I said.
Rook reached beneath her seat and pulled out a compact black device. “The route I used before is sealed. There’s another entrance beneath the east side of the building.”
“Of course there is,” Brynn said.
“I can get you to the secured level,” Rook said. “After that, his old credentials should open the repository.”
“And you?” Brynn asked.
“The surveillance loop has to be maintained from an old control room on the floor above you,” Rook said. “If I leave it, every active camera in the building comes back.”
“How far away will you be?” Brynn asked.
“Far enough that you shouldn’t wait for me if something goes wrong,” Rook said.
The answer was too specific to be reassuring.
Rook opened her door. “We move now.”
***
The entrance beneath the east foundation required crossing a drainage tunnel half-filled with cold water.
Brynn followed Rook without complaint.
I stayed behind her, close enough to catch her if the uneven concrete shifted beneath her feet.
She glanced over her shoulder. “You’re hovering.”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it,” she said.
Rook reached the end of the tunnel and climbed a rusted ladder. She lifted the hatch above us, waited, then disappeared through it.
Brynn followed.
I went last.
The maintenance corridor above was dark and silent.
Rook closed the hatch and led us through a service passage barely wide enough for two people. The air smelled faintly of metal and stale electricity.
Nothing inside Serpens sounded alive.
That did not mean it was empty.
Rook stopped at the junction of two corridors.
She pointed toward the passage on our left. “The repository is at the end. Your legacy credentials should open the final door.”
“Should?” Brynn asked.
Rook handed me the compact device. “Press once if it opens. Twice if you need another route.”
“And three times?” Brynn asked.
Rook looked at her. “Run.”
Brynn slipped her hand into mine.
Rook turned toward the opposite corridor. “I’ll keep the building blind as long as I can.”
Then she disappeared around the corner.
We continued alone.
The corridor narrowed as it descended.
Several doors had been left open, revealing empty offices and stripped server rooms. Cables hung from the walls where equipment had been removed.
The evacuation had been fast.
It had not been careless.
We reached an unmarked door at the end of the passage.
Brynn moved closer to my side.
I placed my hand against the access panel.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then a narrow line of light passed beneath my palm.
The screen activated.
MERCER, JAMESON.
A second line appeared beneath my name.
LEGACY ANALYST CREDENTIAL RECOGNIZED.
The lock disengaged.
Brynn read the words over my shoulder. “That’s unsettling.”
“Yes.”
I pressed my thumb against the reader.
Something shifted inside the wall.
The door slid apart.
Cold white light spilled across the floor.
The room beyond was smaller than I expected. A single console stood in the center, surrounded by rows of dark equipment that had been left untouched when everything else was removed.
Rook had found the record set they had failed to erase.
Brynn stepped inside beside me.
The door closed behind us.
The console came to life.
Lines of data moved across the screen before settling into a single prompt.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
A woman’s voice carried from somewhere beyond the rows of equipment. “Let me know when you arrive. I need to be out of the country before morning.”
Silence followed.
Then the quiet click of a call ending.
I moved in front of Brynn.
Footsteps approached from the far side of the room.
Tomar stepped into view.
The gun in her hand was already raised.
Her gaze found Brynn over my shoulder.
For one second, her expression held nothing.
Then recognition moved through it.
“She really isn’t dead,” Tomar said.