Page 42 of Beautiful Vengeance

The frown disappeared as he smiled back, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “No, he won’t. But that’s more than enough money to tempt a lot of people to start hunting you.”

Kiyomi didn’t respond, unfazed by the increase in the bounty. They went downstairs into the kitchen where the rest of the team was gathered around the table. All except for Jesse and Ty, who were currently outside keeping watch. Everyone waited while Amber ran the phone number through her custom laptop, Lady Ada, and waited for the software to do its thing.

A few minutes passed, then the frown of concentration on Amber’s face eased. “I found something.”

Kiyomi and Marcus crowded in on either side of her to look at the screen. It was hard to follow. Amber had at least a half-dozen programs open, all doing different things. She pointed to the one on the far right. “The call was received here.” She indicated a building in an industrial area on a satellite map.

“Can you verify whether it was him or not?” Marcus asked.

“Already running his voice through my software. But there’s something else interesting here as well.” She paused, looking up at them. “The caller’s number originated in the Atlanta area.”

Where previous calls in their investigation on the Architect seemed to have originated as well. “Rahman used the term architect during the conversation. Who was he speaking to?”

“Rory said the other voice was synthesized. They couldn’t determine the gender.”

Amber shook her head, typing more commands in and checking a different tab. A voice recording came up, two different graphs tracking similarities as the person spoke. “I can’t tell either.”

The program stopped, the red lines on the graphs suddenly turning green. “Wait.” Amber typed some more, muttered under her breath as she read to herself, fingers racing over the keyboard.

Kiyomi studied the graphs, waiting.

Amber sat back. “It’s a woman.”

Everyone looked at her sharply. “You’re sure?” Megan asked.

“Lady Ada is, so yeah, I’m sure.”

Kiyomi stared at the screen. “So the Architect’s a woman?” She’d been so certain it was a man.

“Looks that way.” Amber typed something else. “I can’t get a location for where this most recent call originated. The signal’s been scrambled just like all the others, bounced around all over the globe. I’ve tried to triangulate the previous calls and there’s just no pattern to go by.”

“Now we can take out Rahman,” Kiyomi said, excitement burning in her chest.

“No,” Trinity said firmly, cutting her a sharp look. “That’s not the mission.”

Kiyomi straightened, frowning. “Yes it was, we—”

“We were going to capture Rahman to get a lead on the Architect. Now we might have one. And since she knows you’re here, we can’t assume she’s going to sit back and depend on Rahman to capture you. She’ll probably send a team after you too.”

“So? We’ll be in and out before they can get there.”

Trinity’s expression hardened. “I know you want him dead. I get that. We all do. But we don’t know yet whether we still need him or not. If we don’t, we’ll take him out—together—before we leave the country. And as of this moment, putting you or any of us at further risk by going after him now, is just reckless. We need to wait and see before we move on him, give Amber time to analyze this further.”

Kiyomi stared hard at her friend, argument piling up on her tongue. But she knew Trinity better than she did any of the others. One look in those deep blue eyes, and she could tell that arguing was pointless. Trinity was team leader. Her word was final, and this decision was not up for discussion.

“He’s going to run,” she warned, desperation clawing at her insides. “He’ll disappear again and next time we might not find him.”

“We’ll find him.”

Dammit, no, they might not if they let this chance slip away. Didn’t Trinity and the others see that? Of all people, didn’t Trinity understand how important it was to kill Rahman now?

Kiyomi wanted to scream. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. This wasn’t the way she’d imagined it going.

“We will get him eventually, I promise,” Trinity said in a softer tone. “But the Architect takes priority, because that’s the only way we end this thing for all of us.”

Meaning, Kiyomi’s personal revenge was a distant second and would just have to wait—if it happened at all.

Resolve crystalized in the pit of her stomach. She was done waiting. And targeting Rahman as a team wasn’t what she wanted anyway.

---