Page 118 of Doyle

She moved the map. “It looks like the closest exit.”

“Let’s break out your flashlight.” He pulled off the headlamp.

She stifled a shiver. Her wet clothes plastered to her body, her hair damp, even though they’d found an exit from the water over two hours ago.

He opened her pack, pulled out the Maglite, and turned it on. The brilliance against the dark rock had her blinking.

“Sorry.” He turned down the brightness. “You’re shivering.”

“So are you.”

His white shirt slicked against his form, and he walked in his stocking feet. She wore her padded dive booties, so she was a little better off, but they couldn’t escape this dungeon fast enough.

He stepped up and put his arm around her, pulling her to himself, her back to his chest.

She stiffened. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to warm us up.”

She turned her head to look up at him. “Don’t get any ideas. This isn’t an alleyway in Krakow.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t seem to mind.”

Whatever.She pushed his arm off her. “I had a mission to complete. Besides, what was I going to do—shove you away and alert the police to some domestic scuffle?”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s why you kissed me back.” He flashed the light over her shoulder, down into the tunnel, as she started walking.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Frogman. It was just business.”

He made a sort of huff.

“At least for me.”

That shut him up, but her chest pinched.

She hadn’t forgotten the kiss, had she? Sometimes, in lonely moments, she let herself unlock that door, experience again the feel of his arms around her, the moment when it hadn’t been a game or a job but a what-if.

Then she locked it up again because the answer was always... never.

“What if he’s already sold the program?”

She glanced over her shoulder, her hand on the wall as she ducked under a low ceiling. “What?”

“Colt says the DOD is already using his program.”

“An older version, maybe. My intel says they don’t have the upgrades.”

Silence.

“Okay, we have a plan for that too.” And Mystique, her boss, would strangle her, but Mystique wasn’t here in the darkness with a guy who might actually become an ally.

An informant?

“It’s not about stealing the program to stop it from deploying—we know he probably has a number of copies of the master.” She came out into a larger area with two more tunnels branching off. Checking her GPS, she pointed to the one on the right. He followed. “It’s about creating a defense against it.”

He had to duck as they entered the tunnel, his light skimming the jagged rock. “You’re sure this is the right way?”

“No.”

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