Page 100 of The Lazarus Protocol

“For example”—Marina turned her laptop around so he could see the screen. She leaned forward and tapped it—“the data storage facility in Argentina.”

Petrice’s eyes flared, but he said nothing.

“I’m assuming you cleaned up the scene after several people were killed on the premises.” Marina motioned to the back of the laptop. “As you can see, we have evidence that bodies remained on Earthnet property. I’m sure there are plenty of law enforcement agencies who’d be interested to know that was covered up.”

“What did you do with the bodies?” Noah said. “Because the online activists who think Bradleigh is a corrupt poison who only cares about money and scientific advancement might be interested to know he covers up murder.”

Petrice sneered. “No one would believe it any more than they believe other lies told about Mr. Bradleigh.”

“You sound like a true believer.” And yet Vesper was supposed to be the one labeled a terrorist. The distance from her ideology to what this Bradleigh guy did wasn’t as far as people liked to think. “You’re bought in to Mr. Bradleigh and his plan to…what, conquer the world? Put a space station on the moon, or on Mars?”

“Or is his goal to create a worldwide network to connect every person on the planet,” Marina said.

“Considering how many people in the world don’t have access to free information, wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Petrice asked.

Marina pulled out another file folder. “Kathryn Remeski worked for the FCC. She discovered someone has been purchasing satellite space⁠—”

“Not illegal.”

“—buying up a monopoly on orbital slots so they can launch satellites and create a global network.”

Noah thought she would keep talking, but she didn’t. She stopped abruptly. “Marina?”

“I figured it out.” Marina slammed shut the lid of the laptop, swept it off the table, and stood. “Earthnet murdered my cousin.”

Noah didn’t think those two statements were necessarily related. He stood as well, pushing his chair in when Marina didn’t leave right away.

“You can prove this?” Petrice lifted his brows.

Marina stared him down. “I don’t need to be able to prove it. Because there’s no way that a court is going to file murder charges against an artificial intelligence program, are they?”

“I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at.”

“Playing dumb is probably the best play you’ve got,” Marina said. “But it won’t help you forever.”

Petrice shook his head, as if he didn’t understand what she meant.

“I know what Bradleigh is up to, and I know how to stop him.”

Petrice seemed amused by that.

“It’s a book, written by a German scientist.”

The other man’s eyes flared. That definitely made him mad.

Noah said, “We know you launched something the other day, and that it wasn’t reported anywhere. Your company is in possession of technology that can infiltrate governments and destabilize nations. Something the CIA will be very interested to learn.”

In fact, that’s probably why there was a British intelligence agent in the lobby. Either working for Earthnet, or part of an attempt to stop them.

The door flung open, and the female security guard from the lobby rushed into the room. “There’s been a breach. Someone has accessed our network.”

Petrice looked at Marina.

“It wasn’t me.”

Noah and Marina had decided she wouldn’t try to hack their network while they were here. Doing so would only alert the company to the fact that she was in their system.

“Of course it wasn’t us.” Noah stood. “We came here in good faith. If you want us to retrieve your guidance chip, as a further show of good faith, then we can come to an arrangement.”