Chapter 30
THIRTY
Noah strode into the great hall, Marina right behind him. He’d needed her to fly him to the castle, but to be honest he wanted her here with him. After what he’d discovered, he needed an anchor. It felt as if his whole world had shifted under him.
“You’re here.” Adam glanced up, his face pale. Sitting in a wheelchair with bandages under his T-shirt. Shorts on, and a beat-up pair of sneakers. He’d tied his hair back, but the guy looked awful.
Noah might’ve felt sorry for him, but he had more pressing matters. “I’m here for an explanation as to why you know all about the Lazarus Protocol, and about my parents, and you never breathed even one word of it.”
He crossed the stone floor and stood in front of Adam, who had to look up at him, which wasn’t normal for them. Usually, they stood at similar heights. Right now, Noah appreciated standing over him. “Explain.”
Ash slid from his chair as if he was gonna leave.
Noah pointed at him without turning. “Sit back down.”
“Can’t do that, bro.” Ash turned to them, his shoulders tight. “Breach of security has to be immediately reported.”
“To my parents.”
“I’ve never met them,” Adam said.
Ash said nothing.
Noah turned to him. “Ash?”
The silence went on long enough that Marina broke it by walking to Ice’s desk and sitting down. Drawing her laptop out of her backpack. “It was a long trip, and we’re exhausted, so maybe you guys can explain so we can get on with finding Kai.”
Noah turned to Adam. “What is the Lazarus Protocol?”
Adam lifted his chin. “Why don’t you tell me what you know, and I’ll fill in the rest?”
“No chance.” Noah dragged over a chair and sat. “Start talking.”
Adam shut his eyes. “I didn’t know it was your parents. But I know what the Lazarus Protocol is, because they gave me this.” He opened his eyes and waved a hand. “Not the castle, the team. Friends. A life.”
Ash sat on the edge of his desk. “It’s a clean ID for someone whose identity has been blown. On a global scale. I was on a team who were sent in to kill a Chinese guy. Marine Force Recon, loaned out to the CIA for the use of a specific skill set. A plan we had devised that we’d proven worked.”
“So you went in and killed some Chinese national?” Noah couldn’t believe that was a sanctioned mission, but without the particulars it was impossible to understand. Something like that would’ve been months, maybe even years, in the making.
Ash said, “He had an island out in the Philippine Sea. He was stockpiling missiles and trafficking men, women, and children as slaves. He was working on a plan to kill both the Chinese president and the US president at a joint meeting.”
“I get it,” Noah said. “He was a bad guy.” He probably would’ve jumped to be part of that mission when he was part of the SEALs.
“He was a very bad guy.” Ash nodded. “The mission went wrong. We cleared out his island, but he got away. The CIA has been looking for him since, and everyone involved? Our identities were leaked on the dark web. Sold and resold. Three of the guys on my team were killed within the first few months.”
Adam said, “So the military declares you dead, and the Lazarus Protocol provides you with a new identity.”
Noah looked at him then. He still looked awful, and given everything going on, he was probably going to push it and try to get back to work. Noah planned to order him to stay here while the rest of them found Kai—even if it seemed like punishment for not admitting he knew Noah’s parents.
“Mine was delivered by messenger. It’s always someone within the program who makes contact.”
Ash cleared his throat. “I was requested last fall. I picked up the packet from a trash can in Chicago and delivered it three days later just outside of Anchorage.”
Noah didn’t take his gaze from Adam. Jay and Dan, and Marina, had been silent through this entire exchange. “And you?”
Adam stared at him.
“You can’t tell me.” After the psychologist had told Noah that his parents had found it necessary to go underground and ensure the twins—him and Caleb—were protected, they’d evidently set up the Lazarus Protocol as a way to keep doing what they did best.
“The NDA says that if we talk, we’re out. Like a spy being burned, we’re left in the cold with no resources and no way back.” Adam shook his head. “But if it’s really your parents behind it…”
“According to what I was told, it is them.” Noah looked at Ash.
“I’ve seen them,” Ash said. “But it was a long time ago. At least six years.”
“I was with the teams then.”
Ash nodded. “I’ve been out a long time. Long enough I started to forget the danger.
But the guy we went after is still out there, and there’s a contract on me that’s never going to expire.
He has a network of smugglers across the world.
I’ve been targeted in Budapest and in Pakistan in the mountains, miles from anywhere.
I won’t ever be safe for the rest of my life. ”
Noah sat back in his chair. “You guys never would’ve told me if I hadn’t found out they’re the ones who created this…exit strategy.”
“They saved my life,” Adam said. “And that’s not something I take lightly.”