Page 75 of Shadow Burn

Vance hadn’t simply known about Cinder. He’d been forced to handle him.

And Upton had authorized it.

The page in her hand was no longer only a clue. It was the thing every person in this conspiracy had been trying to bury.

She looked toward the office door. Sebastian waited outside. Jasper was down the hall. Detective Mallory was sitting in a conference room trying to decide how to write a report that involved federal plates, a fake courier, and a gunman Katherine could identify by his mouth.

If she told them, they’d help her. If she told them, Emma and the girls might die.

Her fingers tightened around the paper, then loosened quickly when she realized she was crushing the edge. She slid the page into an archival sleeve and tucked it inside her notebook. The cipher sheet she left where it was, then hesitated. No. If she vanished, Jasper would search this room. He’d need the key.

She pulled the cipher page free, copied the most important terms into her log, and left the original cipher sheet on top of the folder, obvious enough that someone who knew her system would see it.

Someone like Jasper.

Her throat tightened. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, though she didn’t know whether she meant it for Jasper, Emma, or herself.

At 11:35, there will be a distraction at the main gate.

She checked the clock on Jasper’s monitor.

11:31.

Four minutes.

Katherine closed her notebook, tucked it inside her bag, and walked to the office door before fear could root her to the floor.

Sebastian straightened when she stepped into the hall. “Find what you needed?”

“Yes.” Her voice sounded calm, which felt obscene. “I need to check on Priss one more time. Then I’ll go back to the conference room.”

His pause was long enough she thought he might question her. Then a sharp alarm chirped from somewhere deeper in the building.

Sebastian’s head turned.

Voices rose at the far end of the corridor. A door opened. Garrett’s voice carried, clipped and controlled, issuing an order Katherine couldn’t make out. The main gate camera feed must have moved, or an alert had triggered, or Cinder had done exactly what he’d promised.

Sebastian’s hand went to his earpiece. “Say again.” A pause. “Roger that. I’ll be right there.”

He turned to her. “Go back in the room and keep the door locked. Don’t allow anyone but Jasper or Vivi in, got it?”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing to worry about. Jasper will be here shortly.”

Katherine placed her hand on the biometric scanner, and the door opened. She stepped inside. Sebastian jogged off.

She slid back through the opening before it closed and raced toward the east service corridor.

Her heart hammered so hard her chest hurt. Every step felt like betrayal. Every breath tasted like fear. But Emma’s van filled her mind. Her nieces’ backpacks. The pink jacket.

The hallway lights flickered. Katherine’s grip tightened on the strap of her bag. At the east service gate, the corridor ended in a reinforced door with a narrow interior access panel. Beyond it lay the fenced service lane and the darkness beyond the compound’s perimeter. The camera above the door showed a green light, then yellow, then black.

The feed was gone.

Sixty seconds, the message had promised.

Katherine stepped into the service vestibule and saw the figure waiting on the other side of the gate. He wore a rain slicker with the hood up. She couldn’t make out his face.