Page 135 of The Lazarus Protocol

“Now you’re scrambling.”

“That’s you thinking you can save me.” Vesper hit one of the keys twice, then pulled out the flash drive. “Got it.” She jumped up from the chair, a look of triumph on her face, and shoved Steph out of the way. “I guess we⁠—”

A double gunshot cracked in the room, and Vesper’s body jerked.

Steph grabbed her sister, who started to fall, and wound up sitting on her behind. She looked for the shooter, fear racing through her like water over falls. A man stood in the door for a moment before he fell to the ground, and she saw Adam in the door, his weapon smoking.

“You killed her.” Steph whispered the words.

“I killed the shooter. Saw him about to fire and got him in the back.” Adam stepped over someone and came to her. He crouched. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here fast enough.”

Dampness coated Steph’s fingers, and her lap. She didn’t want to look down but did, seeing the lifeless look in her sister’s eyes.

“We can carry her. Take her with us,” Adam said. “But we have to go.”

Steph couldn’t even put to words an explanation of what Vesper had been doing. Apart from it being what she always did, which was whatever it took to fulfill the mission. At least according to her. Vesper had her own solution for everything—even Steph. They’d never seen eye to eye and never would have, not if they were to both live a hundred years.

Steph laid her sister on the floor and shifted out from under her. She closed Vesper’s eyes and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry.”

She stared at her sister for a long second, then took the flash drive Vesper had come for and slipped it in her pocket.

She took Adam’s outstretched hand. He raced out of the structure with her in tow. But not on to the path she’d taken. Instead, he led her to a cable car over to the right and entered the open door.

“This is how you got up so fast?” she asked.

He shut the door and pressed a green button a control panel. “Hold on. It’s bumpy.”

She grabbed the rail and watched out the window as they ventured out into the air, ten feet off the ground at least. The cable car swung back and forth, rocking with the motion as the mechanism carried them down a thick cable. “Was this on the surveillance?”

“Ice wasn’t sure it still functioned. When you disappeared, I figured I knew where you’d gone, so I checked it out.” He touched his chest. “Better than running.”

“As if being injured has even remotely slowed you down yet.” She shook her head.

“Don’t worry, I’ll crash pretty soon. It’s been a long day.”

She chuckled. “It’s been a long week.”

Adam leaned against the rail, the gun across his body. A man who would run across an island to help someone but also needed a minute to sit because he’d been injured and he wasn’t some kind of superhero. He was human.

“She was wrong, you know.” Steph glanced out the window.

The ground rumbled, and the cable car swayed them back and forth as it descended the hillside.

Adam said, “Vesper?”

Steph nodded. “She said I would turn her over to the CIA to get my job back. But there’s nothing left there for me.”

“Because they cut you loose. Their loss.”

“I need to know if she was right about my father.”

“I can help you do that.”

Did she really want to rely on him? If she asked, he would probably let her live at the castle. But then, she would always feel indebted to him. She’d know she was only there because he was a nice guy. Eventually, she would outstay her welcome.

Steph swiped away tears, even though she didn’t know what she was crying about. “Do you think Winston would let me be his assistant?”

Adam came over, shifting the gun behind him and smiling at her. He grabbed the handholds hanging from the ceiling, giving her a sense of safety that came with the proximity of a strong man. A good man who used that strength to protect people and understood the value of freedom—and loyalty. “If you want a job, I think we can find something that suits your skill set.”