10. Evie
EVIE
Caleb crawls into position behind his rifle.
I remain beneath the fallen pine, clutching my pistol and trying not to think about the bullet hole through my coat.
Or the blood spreading across Caleb’s side.
He insists the round only grazed him.
The dark stain says otherwise.
“Can you see the second sniper?” I ask.
“No.”
“Is that bad?”
“Yes.”
One word.
Terrifying question.
Somehow, I still feel better because Caleb answered it.
He peers through his scope.
“Two guards moving below us. Search team approaching from the north. Three men near the eastern fence.”
“How can you see all that?”
“I’m not only looking through the scope.”
Of course he isn’t.
Caleb doesn’t merely see the battlefield.
He feels it.
I crawl closer and use the binoculars to study the compound.
Walter Graves crosses the yard with two bodyguards.
I’ve seen him in the halls of Langley and at formal dinners. I’ve watched him reassure frightened lawmakers with one hand while burying intelligence with the other.
I’ve never seen him like this.
Here, he isn’t pretending to serve anyone.
This is Walter Graves without the mask.
“What are you going to do?” I ask.
“Change the battlefield.”
Caleb adjusts his rifle.
A shot cracks across the valley.
The floodlight above the eastern fence explodes.
Shattered glass rains over the yard, and every guard turns in the wrong direction.
Caleb fires again.
A security camera vanishes.
A third shot destroys a communications antenna.
A fourth sends the rooftop alarm into a shower of sparks.
Men start shouting.
“East perimeter!”
“Movement on the west ridge!”
“We’re under attack!”
Confusion spreads through the compound.
I stare at Caleb. “You aren’t shooting the guards.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“They expect me to.”
Below us, Walter stops beside the main building.
His calm expression changes.
Only slightly.
But I recognize the moment he understands.
Caleb isn’t trying to kill him.
He’s dismantling the systems protecting him.
Walter grabs a radio.
Operators rush toward the damaged equipment.
Exactly where Caleb wants them.
His radio crackles.
Cobra’s voice comes through. “What in the world are you doing?”
“Creating traffic.”
“You always were strange.”
“Status?”
“Five minutes.”
“Hold your position.”
“You sure?”
“Very.”
Rook joins the channel. “We’re ready when you are.”
“Not yet.”
Caleb sounds completely calm.
But I see the pain tightening his jaw.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I know.”
“You said it was a graze.”
“It is.”
“That doesn’t mean you can ignore it.”
“It does right now.”
“I’m going to enjoy arguing with you when no one is shooting at us.”
His gaze shifts briefly from the scope to my face.
“Are you?”
Heat touches my cheeks despite the cold air.
He turns back before I can answer.
I lift the binoculars again.
A guard enters the largest concrete building.
Another follows.
Then three technicians hurry across the yard carrying equipment cases.
Something has changed.
“They’re moving inside,” I say.
“Where?”
“The main bunker. Three technicians just entered.”
Static erupts from Caleb’s radio.
Fathom’s voice cuts through it.
“They activated the servers.”
Caleb freezes. “Explain.”
“I intercepted a burst transmission from the bunker. They’re initiating a purge.”
My stomach drops.
“The evidence.”
“They’re destroying it,” Fathom says. “Once the wipe finishes, we may not recover anything.”
“How long?” Caleb asks.
“I don’t know. Five minutes. Maybe less.”
I focus on the bunker.
Walter Graves stands outside it with one hand pressed to his earpiece. He isn’t watching the mountain anymore.
He’s watching the door.
Protecting it.
“It was never about Mac,” I say.
Caleb nods. “Mac was how Graves brought Shadow Division here.”
“The evidence was always the real target.”
“And now he’s destroying it before we can reach it.”
I lower the binoculars. “We have to stop him.”
“We will.”
“How?”
“We split their forces.”
Caleb keys his radio.
“Rook.”
“I’m here.”
“Change of mission. You, Cobra, and Fathom hit the bunker.”
“What about Mac?”
“I’ll get him.”
Silence follows.
Then Rook asks, “You’re going in alone?”
“Yes.”
“That’s at least thirty operators.”
“I know.”
“Caleb.” Rook’s voice softens. “Don’t be a hero.”
Caleb studies the compound.
The prison building.
The towers.
Every shadow and firing lane.
“I won’t.”
He releases the radio and begins packing his rifle.
I know that expression.
He has already made his decision.
“You’re planning to leave me here.”
His hands pause.
“For three minutes.”
“No.”
“Evie.”
“You need someone who knows Graves’s procedures, his codes, and how intelligence detention sites operate.”
“I need you alive.”
“And I need those files preserved before Graves murders anyone else.”
His jaw tightens. “The compound isn’t Langley. Those men won’t hesitate.”
“Neither will I.”
His eyes meet mine.
Dark.
Furious.
Afraid.
Not for himself.
For me.
Something warm and painful tightens in my chest.
“You said you came because I asked for help,” I say. “Now I’m asking you to let me help finish this.”
His expression doesn’t change.
I press harder.
“Fathom may need someone inside the bunker who understands the archive architecture. You can rescue Mac, but I can help Rook reach the evidence.”
“No.”
“Caleb—”
A bullet tears through the fallen pine.
Caleb covers me as splinters rain over us.
The second sniper has found us.
Men shout from the trees above.
The search team is closing in.
Caleb pulls me to my feet.
“There’s no time to argue.”
“Good. Then I’m coming.”
For one breathless second, we stare at each other.
Then something in his expression yields.
Not agreement.
Acceptance.
“If we get separated, you stay with Rook.”
“I will.”
“You do exactly what he says.”
“If it’s a good plan.”
“Evie.”
“All right.”
He removes a spare magazine from his vest and presses it into my hand.
Our fingers touch.
His close around mine.
“When this starts, stay behind me until Rook reaches us.”
I nod.
Caleb looks as though there are a hundred more things he wants to say.
Instead, he turns toward the compound.
His voice becomes low and lethal.
“Then let’s make Walter Graves regret putting both of us inside his trap.”
The first helicopter lifts from the compound.
A black case is visible through its open door.
My heart stops.
“They’re moving the evidence.”
Caleb raises his rifle.
And the helicopter turns directly toward us.