Page 68 of The Truths that Deceive

“Nothing…” He shakes his head as he rises. “Weapons, but nothing of use.”

“Grunts. Goons. Disposable jerks who crossed the wrong line here.”

“How you getting her to talk?”

“I will, Jones,” I say. “You know that.”

“And if I said hand her over?”

“You’re not my boss.” We exchange a look. “This is about a new weapon. I’m pretty fucking sure Enver’s working the angle of getting the blueprints, but I think it’s in our bestinterest to find out how deep people in our government might be, along with others.”

“She’s not one of them?”

“No. This crew…” I wave a hand. “These are grunts, like I said. More than I thought, easy to manipulate. They didn’t know anything. Just sent here to find the hacker and what she has.”

But something isn’t quite right about this whole thing, and he knows it, too.

“If this is just about the weapon,” I say, taking the gun he hands me and checking the clip. “I don’t think she knows what she might have. Especially since the CIA breaks up sensitive stuff like that.”

And she’s not technically high level enough. I say “technically” because the agency knows her skill set.

“Is that new?”

“Fucking civilian. No,” I say. “Always has been and always will be. Built-in protection system.”

“Or she wants you to think that. She’s a master hacker.” He pauses. “Devil’s advocate.”

I roll my eyes. “I worked for them. I know how they operate.”

“When are you handing her over?”

“If it’s just about the weapon, she’d have already been taken in Germany. Way before she went into hiding.”

“Or they waited and watched instead. Who recruited her?”

That, I don’t know. “I’ll find out. But come on, you know like I fucking do that the agency has a way of doing things. They’ll watch, and then if someone goes off-grid, they’ll strike.”

“You have her, so technically she’s off-grid,” Jones mutters, kicking one of the dead assholes again.

I nod. “I have her and maybe they are just watching.”

We exchange another look. “This weapon,” he says, lowering his voice, “it’s not something we can find that much about. I’ve tried. All I know is it’s new, in high demand, and the blueprints, once they’re put together, will change the landscape of terrorism.”

“That’s the official word from the CIA?”

“From intel I spent a lot of time looking into.”

I don’t ask if this has rolled into another job, mainly because I know he won’t tell me. We’re Knights. Secretive, powerful above and below the law. But based on what he’s saying, it makes sense why the CIA would go to such lengths to get Calista back.

But the Collectors…

We finished them. As good as we could have, anyway. We have some still in our pockets and… I’m going to have to get everything from Calista. All of it. Piece it together. And then, after whatever Jones needs is taken or uncovered—because he’s definitely after something—we hand her over.

The Collectors… could this really be about them over the weapon? Because even though they’re decimated, there are still some around, other cells we couldn’t find and crush. Or maybe our little hacker saw something else she shouldn’t have.

Because the more I think about it, the government has the team who came up with the weapon. And they still have the original information, the OG blueprints.

Gut instinct?

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