Page 78 of The Lazarus Protocol

“Press Enter.”

She watched the circle that popped up swirl around. “It’s processing.” A few long seconds later, it finished. “No signal.”

Ice bit off a curse in Russian.

“So then don’t lose them, all right? We don’t need the tracker to get him back.”

“He could be dead before we catch up.”

“If she wanted him dead,” Steph said, “she would’ve killed him on the boat.”

“I just don’t get why he said there was a bomb when there wasn’t.”

She’d been thinking about that. “What if it wasn’t him, it was just made to sound like him?”

Ice gave her a quick glance. “Who else would it be?”

“Whatever program Adam was looking at. The one that wormed its way into Marina’s system. Polaris.” But Vesper hated AI, so why use it to mimic a man’s voice? It could have been the same program, but run by those who set up that lab. But why? To see what they would do, and learn from their actions?

Ice glanced over. “You know something we need to know?”

As if she was going to just tell him. Steph was more interested in how she managed to get here, speeding down the highway south, toward Italy. “What are we going to do when we get to the border?”

“You have your passport, right?”

She glanced at him. “Was that your idea of a joke?”

“One hurdle at a time.” He cracked a smile. “How ’bout we catch up before the Italian border and get my friend back?”

“Fine by me.”

Ice pressed his foot harder on the gas pedal and she felt the car speed up. “Tell me about Polaris.”

“Adam asked what it was, and that got me wondering, because it could be the system he was looking at.”

“Okay, so we assume Polaris is…what? Some kind of artificial intelligence?”

Steph shrugged. “Maybe it’s the same AI program that learned from what happened at the server farm.” They’d told her all about that. “And who is Kyle?”

“No idea.” Ice rapidly changed lanes.

Steph shifted in her seat, which just reminded her she was still soaked. The heat coming out of the car vents on her side wasn’t going to do much to warm her, but it was better than being wet and shivering.

She dipped her head to the tablet and looked up the CEO of Earthnet while Ice worked to catch up to the van. He’d made it to the deck in time to see two men and Vesper shove an unconscious Kai into the back of their van.

She got the feeling Ice wasn’t ever going to quit chasing the van. Regardless of national borders, or the potential to get caught by local law enforcement for exceeding posted speeds. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who cared about that in the face of losing his buddy—his brother.

The CIA had sent their new Division Zero team to retrieve her when she’d been captured. Getting to know them only showed her what she didn’t have and never would. Her life was about doing her job and keeping the agreement she’d made with the CIA that kept her father alive. He would never be free, but what he’d had before she was burned was far preferable to the situation now.

One she had to rectify.

Steph needed to find that book, but that mission would come after this one was completed.

She reached up and curled her fingers around the vial on her necklace, because it made her feel close to her father. Right now, it was all she had.

Ice changed lanes again, closing the gap between them and the white box van in front. “Why would she take Kai?”

Steph figured he didn’t need a lecture about how sometimes things happened in life and there was no explanation that would satisfy. Instead, she said, “She’ll hit you where it hurts. Vesper is ruthless, and if she wants something to happen, she won’t quit until it does.”