Page 62 of Final Exit

As Bailey waited at the back of the group for Kade to get this next door open, she felt a tingle of nerves shoot up her spine. Swiping a security badge across a scanner seemed like they’d be announcing Kade’s presence to the world. If anyone was actively looking for him, wouldn’t they know the moment his badge was used?

But Kade had explained the security in this facility didn’t work that way. No one would know they were ever there unless they knew to specifically look in the lab’s databases to see who’d come and gone. And since this particular lab wasn’t used much anymore, that was unlikely. Most of the people who used to work here had long ago moved on to a more modern facility on the other side of Boulder, closer to town. Kade could only count a half-dozen other people he’d ever seen here. Which was why his boss had chosen this building to house the EXIT information. It was the last place anyone would expect something like that to be.

Kade hesitated before pulling the last door open. “The rest of this place may seem like a slum. But prepare to be impressed with this room.”

He opened the door and they all followed him inside.

The door clicked shut behind them and the electronic lock engaged. Lights flickered on overhead, and all of them froze except for Kade, who pulled up a seat at one of the banks of computers. He massaged his aching thigh for a moment, then straightened and went to work keying in something on the computer keyboard.

Jace sat beside him, keeping a close eye on what he was doing. Devlin and Mason took their guns out and swept the room, looking in every doorway. But Bailey hung back with Terrance, taking it all in.

“What the hell is this place used for?” Terrance asked, his voice low.

“Supposedly for Kade’s research to find Enforcers. Seems like a waste doesn’t it?” Bailey counted at least forty computers in several rows of long, semicircular white tables that faced an enormous screen at the front of the room. The tables were auditorium style, but instead of individual seats on each row, there were tables, sort of like a NASA control room. An aisle ran down the middle and both sides, with a much wider aisle along the back wall where she and Terrance stood.

Mason and Devlin met at the front of the room. Apparently having decided they were truly alone and things were secure, they holstered their guns and headed up the center aisle to where Kade was typing at a keyboard.

Terrance moved to the door to stand watch, looking through the glass with his gun drawn.

Bailey debated where to sit and finally decided to sit beside Kade. She was just too curious not to be a part of the action.

“What kind of a portal is this?” Bailey asked, looking at the reports that had automatically opened on his desktop after he keyed his ID and password. “Wait, isn’t that the Sarin gas investigation that was on the news last week? The FBI shut down a sleeper cell in the warehouse district, right? They had stockpiles of Sarin and some freaky lab where they were testing it. But thankfully never got a chance to deploy it. Why do you have that report?”

Devlin and Mason crowded closer, leaning over Kade’s and Bailey’s shoulders to see the screen.

Kade’s jaw tightened at her question, and Bailey realized how suspicious her question had probably sounded, given the way things stood between them right now.

“Kade, I didn’t mean to imply that—”

“Since my EXIT missions have to be kept secret from any other agents running missions in the area, I have to keep up with who is where and what they’re working on. Traffic cop stuff, really. To make sure we don’t run into each other. The Sarin gas incident was even more important to me, though, given that it’s exactly the kind of thing that an Enforcer might feel compelled to get involved with. They might want to go after the terrorists themselves rather than rely on the FBI to put them in prison. So I’ve kept tabs on what’s going on and where the terrorists were taken.”

Bailey could well understand his concerns. She’d been tempted herself to follow up on where the terrorists had been taken, to ensure they couldn’t harm anyone else in the future. But she’d been too busy running for her life and trying to find the Ghost, all at the same time.

“I know all about Sarin gas,” Mason said. “Wicked, deadly stuff. Had to take down a terrorist cell overseas during one of my missions so I had to learn everything there was to know about it. What happened with this cell?”

“Shut down, like the report says.”

From the look on Kade’s face, Bailey suspected that he knew a whole lot more than that. But he wasn’t volunteering any extra information. Plus, that wasn’t why he’d brought them here. He’d brought them here to prove that he wasn’t part of the battle against Enforcers, among other things.

Kade punched a button and a document flashed up on the monitor.

Bailey leaned forward to read it. “It’s your life insurance policy.”

He nodded and scrolled through. “Since Jace painted me as a liar about being married, I figured I’d show him where I made Abby the beneficiary in my benefit plan.” He stopped scrolling, and blinked at the screen.

The beneficiary line was in the middle of the page. It was filled out. And it didn’t say Abby Quinn.

“Who is Nicholas Quinn?” Bailey asked. “Brother?” She swallowed. “Son?”

His gaze flashed to hers. “I don’t have any children or siblings.” He looked back at the screen. “This doesn’t make sense. Nicholas is my father. But I changed the beneficiary after I got married. I can see it in my head, me sitting here filling out the forms. I know I changed that.”

His words hung in the air but no one said anything.

He punched up another document from the directory that he’d navigated to earlier. This one was his W-4 form, the one he’d obviously filed with his employer to set up tax withholding. On the box for marital status, the one labeled “married” was blank. There was only one box with an X in it. The one marked “single.”

He punched up more forms, checking each one for the beneficiary line, or marital status, depending on the form. Everything he brought up, from his 401K savings plan to his long-term disability, all revealed the same thing.

Kade Quinn wasn’t married. There was nothing here to prove that Abby Quinn had ever existed.

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