Page 564 of Lodestar

With the go-ahead, I sent D a message.

Me: Temper’s a traitor.

Cin: What kind of traitor?

Me: The worst kind.

Cin: She’s too self-righteous to be a traitor.

Me: Trust me, she fucking isn’t.

Me: I’m about to pick her up. You want in?

Cin: Sure. But… I need to know what she’s done, Star.

Me: Remember Kembesh?

Cin: How could I forget that fuckfest?

Me: She’s the reason there were no medevacs that day. No backup. She sabotaged a fleet of Chinooks.

Cin: Are you fucking kidding me? How the hell do you know that?

Me: Got a letter from Bear.

Cin: Rex’s dad?

Me: Yeah. He’s a solid source, D. But you can always ask her yourself…

Cin: I’ll send coordinates.

Me: Send them fast. My helicopter just showed up.

As I tucked my phone into my pocket, I switched focus and watched as Sinners rushed out of their clubhouse to see what was going on, yelling until they realized the helicopter was for me.

The pilot jumped down onto the marshy turf, peering around the space awkwardly until I pointed at Hawk and shouted, “Hawk, take him back to the city and I’ll owe you one.”

Hawk, ever the generous grouch, merely hitched a shoulder in agreement and the guy jogged over to him.

Now that I knew the Sinners wouldn’t eat the pilot for breakfast, I leaped into the helicopter, quickly grabbed Conor’s hand in greeting, then got myself situated for the trip.

Along the way to DC, Conor coordinated on my behalf and we picked up D who, fortuitously or not, was in Hoboken doing only God knew what with God knew whom.

We’d been friends for too long for me to even consider asking her for details.

A short while later, when we touched base in DC, Eagle Eyes was standing in a small park on the outskirts of the district, an ominously still trash bag at his feet, phone tilted horizontally as he played a game.

Only when the helicopter landed did he look up from the screen and beam a grin at me.

“I remembered the Russians’ names!”

After the day I’d had, I braced myself because I had a feeling I knew who they’d be.

“They wouldn’t happen to be Kuznetsov and Belyaev, would they?”

Eagle Eyes pouted. “How did you know?”

While I clamped down on the urge to scream, D was the one who rumbled, “We’ve been suckered.”

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