Page 44 of Shadow Burn

“Trying to learn your schedule.”

Priss snagged a piece of bacon.

“Priss!” Katherine rolled her eyes.

Jasper glanced up at her. “Better eat your egg or she’ll snag that, too.”

Katherine closed her notebook and slid it into her document bag. The Agency phone went in next, then the baton. Jasper noticed the quick, almost unconscious motion when her hand closed around the strap, knuckles going white from the grip.

The office had a biometric lock. The compound had cameras, gates, armed men, and more security than some federal facilities. She still took the bag and picked up the plate. “You stay here,” she told the cat.

Priss immediately sensed the food wasn’t staying with her. She shot through the open door, leaving them behind.

They walked together to the conference room, Priss ahead of them. Inside, the wall screen showed a photo of the library exterior Sebastian had pulled from the nearby traffic camera, and a paused frame of a dark sedan.

Sebastian stood at the main workstation, arms folded, his attention on the screen. CB leaned against the long conference table with a mug of coffee the size of a small aquarium. Mack sat at the conference table cleaning his rifle. Reid was slouched back in a chair with his eyes closed. His lanky legs were kicked up on another chair.

CB nodded at Katherine. “Morning. Heard you assaulted your armed intruder with academic literature.”

Katherine blinked. “Good morning.”

CB nodded toward Priss. “And that she was instrumental in the takedown.”

Priss sat beside Katherine’s boot and began washing one paw.

“She assisted,” Katherine said.

“Team effort,” Reid said without opening his eyes. “Respect.”

“You must be Reid,” Katherine said to him.

He gave a mock salute. “At your service.”

Mack gave CB a look. “Do not interrogate the woman before she finishes her breakfast.”

He grasped his chest as if hurt. “I was establishing rapport.”

“You were being you,” Reid said.

“Same thing.”

Katherine set the plate and her bag on the table and stared at the screen. Jasper took his seat at the workstation.

With a few clicks, the image enlarged on the central monitor. Dark sedan, mud obscuring part of the rear bumper, no front plate visible in the earlier angle. The second clip showed the same car moving slowly past the library near closing time.

“If he’d wanted to break into your place and search it,” CB said, “he would have done it while you were at the library.”

Katherine stepped closer, coffee forgotten in her hand. “He waited for me to return home and thought I was in bed. I fell asleep on the couch, Priss on my lap. She heard him picking the lock and woke me.”

The cat was winding around Jasper’s legs. He reached down and scratched her head. “Good girl.”

He pulled up the route map, overlaying the rental, the library, the traffic camera, and the compound. “He should have assumed we’d go to the library after his failed attempt and pick up the documents. Yet, we didn’t spot him anywhere.”

“Because he wasn’t prepared for failure,” Sebastian said.

Jasper tried zooming in on the driver. The shot was grainy but clear enough to make out a man’s build behind the wheel. He was wearing sunglasses. “He lost his weapon. Even if he had backup weapons somewhere, it’s doubtful he had them with him, and he couldn’t take on all of us.”

“Those are his lips,” Katherine said. She stood stiff, eyes sharp and furious, locked on the driver’s image.