Page 76 of The Truths that Deceive

“What do you want to know? I told you what I have, which is nothing. At least from what I could decipher. Just encrypted, and I mean really encrypted files I haven’t had a chance to try and break into. Stuff I collected for Johnny, things he had stored.”

Johnny, her field agent. I frown. “For him?”

“He was out with an outlier group that wanted to make money selling weapons. The CIA was trying to find out who ran it and if they had any of the weapon blueprints. Small parts of them kept showing up on the radar.”

She’s very clever. I take a swallow of my drink. The small snippets are truth, and maybe the rest is too. But she foreshadowed that information by telling me she hasn’t yet cracked into anything substantial.

Calista’s given me nothing.

I look down into my glass for a long minute and nod. “If I said this could save your brother?”

I’m still looking down, but I can see her from my periphery. Her head shoots up and she turns almost green, that shade that comes from being nearly sick and so full of absolute fear, it’s debilitating.

I’ve seen it in others before.

When we were in Cuba and those fucking animals I killed touched her, she was angry, scared, defiant. Full of hate.

But my words right here are the things that threaten to bring her to her knees.

“If—if he is killed and you’re behind it, I’ll kill you.”

“He’s been watched by the CIA, Calista. What do you think, person of fucking interest?”

“That I need to get the fuck out of here and find my brother.”

I shake my head and take another swallow, straightening up and crossing to the island, setting my glass down with a click. “You’re trained but you can’t take them on. I might not be able to keep you from their reach, but we can hold it off, and I can make sure your brother doesn’t godown, too. If you tell me what you know, what you really know.”

“You mean, work with you?”

My phone buzzes but I ignore it. Whoever it is—and it’ll be a Knight—can wait. It’s the phone Jones gave me.

“I’m trying to help.”

Calista looks at me. “I know. I’m just not sure if it’s me or yourself.”

“The greater good?”

“Do you even know what that is?”

“Calista.”

She sighs and slides off her stool. Then she comes around the island to grab the bottle and drink straight from it. “I told you. Johnny disappeared and said he was onto something just before that, a way of letting me know not to report him missing if that happened. Not immediately, anyway.”

“When he didn’t show, I started poking around, putting together more information from areas I shouldn’t have been in.” She lifts her head. “I hid what I found but I haven’t looked at much. And I can’t make heads or tails out of some of it. Blueprints, coded notes.” She shrugs. “And I… I also took them after the generic threats came in. That’s all.”

I push a hand through my hair, then shrug off my jacket. I think she’s giving me the truth, but I need more. I need to know where this stuff is. She mentioned the cloud, but I doubt she gave up the one where she stored everything. No agent worth anything—especially one who is a hacker—would do that.

Slow and steady. I’ll get my hands on the data for a look before she’s handed over. Before I hand her over. And if she won’t give it to me, what did she say?

Every hack leaves a trace, or something like that.

I’ll get someone at the Obsidian Knights headquarters to get onto it soon.

But first. “Estonia and the Collectors?”

“What about my brother?”

I don’t face her. Instead, I check my message. Seems like I’m going to that sex club tonight, after all.

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