Page 6 of Run

“It’s David; we’ve got a problem.”

As he spoke, he put his foot down and made the most of stealing a high-performance car.

3

Monday 10:20 a.m.

Benson Security

London

Every handheld device in the building, including Elle’s beloved laptop, was locked inside the industrial-sized drawer of the degausser machine that stood in the corner of Elle’s office.

“Goodbye, old friend,” she said as she pressed the On button.

The machine would expose the devices to a powerful targeted magnetic field, wiping out their hard drives and rendering them unusable. It was inhumane.

“Your laptop deserves to die,” Megan said from beside her. “Whereas my new phone never did anything wrong. Now all those photos I took of Dimitri last weekend are gone.”

Elle knew better than to ask what photos. Instead, she pointed at the message scrawled across her T-shirt, the one she wore to every team meeting as a reminder they should save their stuff to the cloud. It said,Back up or you’ll be sorry.

“I’m already sorry,” Megan said in disgust. “Sorry someone didn’t take away your internet privileges before the rest of us suffered.”

“I was weak.” Elle returned to her desktop setup and checked that the program her old boss, Harry, had written had done its job. Which it had. Their local network was now wiped clean in such a way that even the best data-specializing forensic scientists on the planet wouldn’t get anything from it.

“For almost three years? That’s a long time to have no impulse control.” Megan was clearly unconvinced.

“I’ve learned my lesson. From now on, I’ll only be a good little hacker.”

With everything safely backed up to a secure server in a country that didn’t recognize UK court orders, all Elle needed was a new laptop to get them up and running again. She gazed longingly at the machine where her old laptop lay dying. It’d been state of the art, custom-built, and set up to perfection. It was quite possible she’d never get over its loss.

“Serves you right.” Megan accurately read the puppy-dog eyes Elle was giving the machine of death. “You wouldn’t listen to reason. Or threats. Or even logic.”

“Do you realize how long it took me to get that laptop exactly how I wanted it?”

“A better question is, do you realize how little I care?”

“Now you sound like Rachel.” With a scowl at Megan, Elle tugged her messenger bag on over her head. It felt far too light without the weight of her laptop pulling it down.

“Rachel? My sarcasm has nothing on how she’s going to react when she finds out about your latest screwup.” Megan mimed explosions and choking—for some reason.

“Whatever,” Elle grumbled as they headed downstairs.

Julia stood by the main door, holding a tray laden with paper bags. She handed one to each of them.

“Your burner phone, cash, and the keys to the car you’ll be using are inside the bag,” she told Elle. “It’s in garage A, down the street. Just drive in and swap out your car for the junker.” It had been Julia’s idea to keep an assortment of untraceable cars in different parking garages close to the office. They used them for surveillance but also as a fail-safe in case they were compromised and had to escape unnoticed. “I’ve preprogrammed the phone with the numbers of the other burners and disabled GPS.”

“You couldn’t have disabled everybody’s phones before Ryan sat down at the meeting?” Megan grumbled as she took her bag.

“It’s possible office policy will change to include that happening from now on,” Julia said.

“Paperwork’s in the furnace,” Ryan called to them as he rushed into the foyer. “With time to spare. Gimme my phone, so I can get out of here.” He held out his hand, and Julia gave him the paper bag with his name on it. “I don’t suppose there are two safe houses? One for Callum and one for the people he’ll want to shout at?” He pointed at himself and Elle—just in case there was any confusion.

A door slammed behind them, and a scowling Callum strode out of his office.

“Too late,” Ryan muttered.

“Why are you hanging around in the foyer?” Callum asked.