Chapter 13 #3
Not just his trust, though that alone was more than anyone had given her in years. Something else. Something that had pressed itself against her palms and said come back like it was the simplest thing in the world.
The thought slipped in sideways, uninvited, warm, and inconvenient, like a hand on her shoulder she couldn’t see. She shoved it down. She didn’t have time for whatever this was. But it lingered, stubborn as a heartbeat, refusing to be filed away with the rest of the variables she couldn’t control.
A new message pinged on her screen. Lars again.
Tick tock, Grace. Fail, and our son learns what disappointment feels like.
Our son. The possessive claim made her stomach turn. Lars had given Oliver DNA but nothing else. Magnus had given him everything that mattered.
Grace composed her response, each word a carefully crafted lie.
I’ll get you the Key. But I need guarantees. Proof of life every six hours. And when this is over, you let us go. Both of us.
She hit send, knowing Lars would interpret it as weakness. Would see a mother bargaining for her child, too emotional to think strategically.
He would be wrong.
Outside, the storm had settled into something steadier. Still fierce, but the violence had leveled off into endurance. The ocean heaved in long, rolling swells instead of the sharp, angry chop of an hour ago. The rain came down in curtains rather than slashes.
Even the light had changed, the flat gray brightening at the edges. Whatever the storm had been an hour ago, it was something gentler now. Easier to stand inside of.
Grace pulled up the facility schematics one more time on her laptop, but her mind was already three moves ahead. Lars thought he was forcing her hand. Thought fear for Oliver would make her reckless.
He’d taught her too well. Fear wasn’t a weakness. It was fuel.
And she was about to show him exactly what carefully banked fury could accomplish when given a target.
Her laptop chimed with an incoming video call.
Grace glanced at Rafe’s encrypted handle.
She minimized the schematics and ran a quick check on her firewall.
Rafe was Stryker’s best, and she wasn’t about to leave a single open port for him to wander through.
Then she accepted the connection. Rafe’s face filled the screen, his expression uncharacteristically serious.
“Grace. We need to talk.”
Her shoulders tensed. “About?”
“About the data from the drone mission. And the really interesting anomaly I found buried in the code.” The seriousness cracked, and there was the Rafe she’d seen in every briefing with the look he got when he’d found a particularly good puzzle.
“Want to tell me why there’s a null packet in the security sweep that doesn’t match any known protocol? ”
Grace’s mind raced. He’d found the breadcrumb she’d planted. The clue that would either solidify Magnus’s faith or expose her entire strategy.
“I was going to explain,” she said carefully. “But I needed time to verify what I found.”
“Verify what?”
Grace took a breath, committing to the next phase.
“The null packet is a signature. Lars’s signature.
He didn’t just set up the ambush. He’s been inside the Patroclus facility’s systems for months.
That facility isn’t just holding the Aegis Key.
It’s holding evidence of every crime Lars has ever committed. And he’s been trying to delete it.”
The lie flowed smooth as water, built on enough truth to be convincing. Rafe’s eyes narrowed, his mind already chasing the implications.
“If he’s compromised the facility—”
“Then we’re not just stealing the Key. We’re preventing a cover-up.” Grace pulled up fabricated logs she’d prepared. “Look at the access patterns. Someone with high-level clearance has been systematically deleting files related to Eriksson Arctic Technologies.”
Rafe studied the data, his expression shifting from suspicion to concentration. “This is bigger than we thought.”
“It always was.” Grace let exhaustion color her voice. “Lars doesn’t just want the Aegis Key. He wants to erase every trace of his crimes. Oliver is just leverage to make me help him do it.”
“Then we stop him.” Rafe’s voice hardened with determination. “We get in, grab everything, and make sure the evidence sees daylight.”
“Agreed.” Grace minimized the screens. “But we need to move fast. Lars is getting impatient.”
Rafe nodded once and disconnected. The screen went dark, reflecting her hollow-eyed and sharp-edged face back at her, nothing like the woman who’d once made Oliver pancakes shaped like dinosaurs on Sunday mornings.
Another piece in place. Another ally maneuvered into position.
The board was set. The pieces were moving.
Now she just had to survive the next forty-eight hours without anyone realizing she was playing a completely different game.
She turned back to her laptop and pulled up Oliver’s video one more time, studying her son’s face. The scared little boy who needed his mother. Who believed she would come for him.
“I’m coming, baby,” she whispered to the frozen image. “I promise.”
It was a promise she had no right to make. But she’d broken enough promises in her life. This one, she would keep.
Even if it killed her.