Page 169 of Silver Elite

I take a seat next to Kaine and scroll through the new source I received last night. Which was another disappointing discovery—I don’t have the kind of clearance I thought I would. When I searched “Julian Ash” last night, I received the sameAccess Deniedalert. When I searched for myself, however, I discovered that my name is no longer in the system. Same for Kaine and the other Elite recruits. We’ve been wiped from the database. It’s like we don’t exist anymore.

Cross enters a moment later. Rather than sit, he stands at the wall by the holoscreen.

Kess glances around, her black hair swinging around her chin. “Is this the whole unit?” She also seems confused.

“No. I run a team of sixteen,” Cross tells her. “Our fellows are currently in the field.”

When his eyes land on me, I remember him moving inside me and have to tear my gaze away. I swear I hear him chuckle, but when I look back, his face is stoic.

I keep waiting for someone to confront me about Cross. Lyddie, maybe. Or Kaine, although I don’t know how much contact he has with Ivy now that we’re not all training together.

So far, nobody’s come out and asked if I’m sleeping with the captain of Silver Block. Which tells me either Ivy has kept her mouth shut about what she saw, or people know and for some reason have decided to mind their own business.

“This,” Cross says, activating the holoscreen, “is Jasper Reed. You’ll find dossiers for him on your sources.”

The photograph on the holo shows a man in his late twenties. A very handsome man, I can’t help but notice. Reed has dark hair and an endearing dimple in his chin.

Ara Zebb, the Red Cell recruit who also made the unit, starts skimming through the file on her source. “He runs the black market?”

Cross nods. “Reed is a smuggler with fingers in every criminal pie in the Point. The bulk of his operation involves drug running. Used to bring opiates in from Tierra Fe, but we crushed that avenue last year. Yet the drugs keep flowing. We suspect they’ve set up a lab somewhere in the wards.”

He swipes the holo, and a map appears in the ether, a close-up of the wards east of Sanctum Point.

“Farren. Zebb,” he says to the two women, “you’re going with Tyler to do some digging. Try to figure out where those drugs are being produced.”

He replaces the map with a photo of what appears to be crates of medical supplies.

“Reed’s other favorite pastime is smuggling supplies out of the Point and trading with the Faithful.”

“Trading what?” I ask. “What could the Faithful have that’s of value to Reed? It’s not like they’re drowning in credits.”

Ford fields that one. “Favors. Escape routes. Places to hide if his people need them.”

“We dismantled a Faithful camp last month and found a trove of medical supplies that could’ve only come from Company hospitals,” Cross explains. “And the General doesn’t enjoy having his resources stolen from right under his nose.”

“Why can’t we just eliminate this Reed guy?” Anson asks, sporting a creepy grin that tells me he’d love nothing more than to kill Jasper Reed with his bare hands. “Cut off the head of the snake.”

“Killing him might seem like the easy solution, but it’s not the right one. He’s the head of the snake, yes,” Cross agrees, “but cutting off one head won’t kill the beast. There are others waiting in the wings, ready to step up and take Reed’s place.”

Ara Zebb hesitantly speaks up. “But if we take out the head, won’t it at least disrupt their operations?”

“Maybe temporarily. But sooner or later, someone else will fill the void. We need to dismantle Reed’s operation piece by piece, from the ground up. Cut off their resources, disrupt their supply chains, take down their lieutenants.” He shrugs. “The head can wait while we chop up the body.”

“Darlington, Sutler, you’re with me,” Ford says, glancing in our direction. “We leave for Ward C in the morning. One of our informants says he might know where they’re storing the med supplies.”

Cross nods at Anson and Jones. “You two will be with me.”

“Doing what?” asks Jones.

When Cross sends a quick glance my way, apprehension knots my stomach. I get the feeling I’m about to be tested.

Sure enough, he swipes his finger through the holo ether. The Jasper Reed intel disappears, replaced by a photograph of Hamlett.

“That’s my village,” I blurt out. “What does Silver Block want with Hamlett?”

“Z is the suspected location of an Uprising cell. We were already keeping an eye on the ward, but after we learned Julian Ash had surfaced in Hamlett, we redirected most of our surveillance there.”

I try to maintain a neutral face, despite his gaze boring into me. “I’d like to be assigned to this op instead.”

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