Page 73 of Shadow Blind

Aiden stopped short between a Cessna and a Black Hawk. “That makes no sense.”

“Codenames aren’t supposed to make sense.” Russo’s voice was dry. “That’s why they’re codenames. Wouldn’t want anyone to follow the breadcrumbs to an actual identification.”

“You think Stargate is O’Neill? How can you be certain the file doesn’t spell out some highly classified op or something?”

“I’m not certain,” Russo said with the verbal equivalent of a shrug in his voice. “A coded file could be about anything—operations, operators, hell, even snitches. No way to tell what it contains without gaining access to it. And according to my spook, this file is impenetrable. I’m not saying it’s your guy. I just find it interesting, that’s all.”

“Any info on which of the soups classified the file?”

Russo paused. When he continued, his voice was more cautious than ever. “Looks like ODNI.”

“Fuck me,” Aiden breathed. “I hope your spook has some serious hacking skills, and that hit didn’t register, or if it did—” which it probably had, “it can’t be traced back to him.”

Nobody in their right mind wanted the Office of the Director of National Intelligence crawling up their ass.

“No shit,” Russo said, his voice hushed, like he was worried the ODNI had already traced the search back to him and was listening in on him from space or some shit.

“That file can’t have anything to do with O’Neill,” Aiden said, shaking his head. “No way.”

“Not saying it does.” Russo paused again. “You’re going to ask him about it, aren’t you?” The question came with a clear, “you stupid fuck” attached to it.

“Maybe.” Russo knew him too well to believe an outright denial.

He groaned. “You are! Jesus. You know if he is ODNI, asking him about Stargate could put an extra bounty on your head.”

“What’s another couple of million?” Aiden started walking again. “Maybe I can push the bounty above five mil.” Which was what the combined bounty had been for his former ST7 leadership.

Dev snorted. “You took Rawlings up on one of his batshit crazy bets, didn’t you?”

Aiden could almost feel Russo’s eye roll through the line.

“That’s classified.” He rounded a Sky Hawk, and the Bell came into view. “You got anything else for me? I’m about to go skids up. I got somewhere I need to be.”

“That’s it. I’ll call if I hear anything more.” The line went dead.

Aiden closed on the Bell, and the tall, dark-haired asshole pacing beside it. Cosky stopped his pacing when he saw Aiden, waited for him to get close enough, and drove a plastic badge into his chest. Aiden came to a sudden hard stop, most of the air vacating his lungs beneath the plastic punch.

He grunted, grabbing the badge before it hit the ground. “Fuck, dude, what was that for?”

“Your slow ass is making me late for date night.” Cosky turned, hopping through the open cargo door and into the belly of the Bell. “And here I thought you were in an almighty hurry to get your love life squared away.”

“Date night?” Aiden jeered, following his brother-in-law into the chopper. “Does Kait know you’re seeing other women already?”

“Trust me, Kait is all the woman I need. No way I’d risk what I have with her by screwing around.”

“You’re telling me you made a date with your wife?” Aiden put so much effort into his eye rolls they stung. “Isn’t that like closing the coop after the chickens have escaped?” He turned, sliding the cargo door shut. He picked up the headsets sitting on the seat next to Cosky, and sat down, handing one headset to his brother-in-law, and adjusting the other over his head, so the mic was pointing in the right direction. “You’re supposed to date ‘em before you marry them, not after.”

“You’re mixing your metaphors, jackass.” Cosky adjusted his own headset before shooting him a get-real look. “And forgive me if I don’t take relationship advice from the dude who’s about to get served with the verbal equivalent of a Dear John letter.”

Aiden set his jaw. Not if he could help it. At least it sounded like Cosky and Kait would be gone, which gave him the time and privacy to talk to Demi and convince her to give him another go.

“Where are you taking Kait?” Translation: How long are you two going to be gone?

“Talkeetna. They’ve got a kickass seafood and steak place.” Cosky shot him a knowing look. “You’ll have two hours, or close enough, to make your case. But I wasn’t busting your ass earlier. You can’t stay with us. I’m not putting Demi in that position. If she’s uncomfortable, Kait will be caught between the two of you and miserable as hell. You’ll need to take Rawls up on his offer to stay with him and Faith.” He paused, studying Aiden’s face with an I’m-not-shitting-you look. “After you’re done talking with Demi, call him. He’ll pick you up.”

Aiden raised his eyebrows. “Doesn’t he live next door to you? I can walk to his door.”

Cosky shook his head, a long-suffering expression on his face. “In the dark? With no NVDs? Through four feet of snow? Don’t be an ass. Call him. Kait would never forgive me if I let you kill yourself during your first trip up to visit us.”

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