Page 110 of One Last Stand

She stared at him a moment, then—“That’s how you found me. My phone.”

“York had someone in his organization hack you. So yes.” He stirred the fire. And then, finally, looked at her. “What happened?”

She probably wouldn’t tell him about her fight with Igor One, or Two, or the way Ziggy had fought Martin, relentless, even climbing onto his back, holding on with a choke hold until he nearly broke her ribs—or had—getting her off.

She remembered the poker, too—Tomas had used it to take Ziggy down and render her unconscious.

“I gave them the seed code.”

He gave a nod. “You had to.”

Maybe.

“But it wasn’t the right code.”

He sighed. “Of course not.”

“The right code is twenty-two words, all in the correct order. And in case I forgot them”—she pulled out her necklace, the one with the Mandarin written on front and back—“they’re here.”

“On the necklace?” He touched the pendant and ran his thumb over the etchings.

“I learned rudimentary Mandarin when my family lived in Taiwan. The Hanzi—the symbols—are the words.”

“Brilliant.”

“It bought me time. They’ll get locked out for twelve hours.”

“So, we’ll have twelve hours to get to Cryptex and attach the virus to your account.”

“Yes. Ziggy said she thinks she knows why they want the money now.”

“Not just for random nefarious plans?” He closed the door to the stove.

“She thinks the Petrovs want to buy a country.”

He stood up, smacked off his hands. “A country. A little vacation country by the sea?”

She frowned. Who was this guy? “I doubt it. She says it’s either that or some massive biological weapon . . .”

“Can’t just go with a straight-up nuclear bomb, huh? Too boring.”

“Are you okay?”

He sat down on the bed. Rubbed his hands over his face. Then he lay back and closed his eyes. “Next time you want to go to a ball, London, can we please stay home and eat pizza instead?”

She laughed.

“I just want to go home,” he said.

Her laughter faded even as his breaths deepened.

So maybe now wasn’t a great time to talk about the fact that suddenly, painfully, she’d realized that Ziggy was right.

Despite the horror, something had ignited inside her. A thirst for justice, maybe. And it felt like she’d also found the person she wanted to be.

She just wasn’t sure that person belonged in Alaska.

CHAPTER11

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