Page 46 of The Lazarus Protocol

“Finally.” Adam drew it out. “Keep looking into her. I want everything.”

“Even if it’s all fake?”

“We need to know it all if we’re going to file a complaint or something.” Adam lifted his chin to her. “Does the CIA do that? Guess I’ll find out.” He tapped the phone number Noah had sent him and listened to it ring.

She didn’t need to hear the conversation, or even hear his end of it, so he got up and motioned to Kai. His buddy lifted his chin, indicating that he would keep an eye on her.

Adam wandered down the aisle to the tiny alcove between the galley and the bathroom, then turned his back to her and the rest of his team. He didn’t need the distraction of his enemy, or those he was loyal to, while he played yet another chess match. This time with the CIA.

The call connected with a series of clicks. “Division Zero Operations.”

“This is Zero-One,” Adam said. “We have a problem.”

“Please describe the nature of your problem.”

It was like talking to an EMS dispatcher, but on a much more relaxed scale. “My problem is your asset, Stephanie-Jo Davis, or whatever her real name is. She tried to steal tech from us that has nothing to do with her or the CIA. Under orders, she threatened to kill me and take it.”

“Am I to assume she was not successful?”

“Sorry to disappoint you. You can’t have the drone, and I’m still alive.” Adam leaned back against the bathroom door. “Maybe you should let your assets know there’s a Division Zero team again.”

“Because that makes you untouchable?”

“If ‘untouchable’ means that no one from the CIA holds a gun to my head, then yeah.” The line went quiet for a second, as if he was on mute. Adam gripped the phone. “You still there?”

“Where is the asset now?”

“Tied up.”

The dispatcher said, “You neutralized the threat.”

“That’s correct.” Adam frowned.

“So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is her orders. Given to her by the CIA. Orders to do whatever she deemed necessary to get her hands on tech we were contracted to retrieve.”

“Hmm.”

Then nothing.

The line went quiet again.

Conferring with his manager, probably. If Adam muttered a comment to himself, they’d probably hear it even if he couldn’t hear them.

The door to the cockpit opened, and the copilot stuck his head out. “We’ll be on the ground in thirty.”

“Got it.” Adam shifted the phone away from his mouth and yelled down the plane. “On the ground in thirty!”

The door was barely shut again before the dispatcher came back on the line. “Your orders are to terminate the asset.”

“Excuse me?”

“She’ll be listed as killed while in the field, on a mission for her country. She’ll die a hero.” He barely paused before he said, “Thank you for your service.”

Adam lowered the phone and gave himself a second to be all, What the what? in his head, while outwardly he projected composure.

Kai stood in the aisle, facing Adam, where he was able to see both Stephanie-Jo and the screen of Ice’s computer on opposite sides of the aisle as well as Adam at the end of it.