Page 97 of The Lazarus Protocol

Ice said, “Who were they?”

She only shrugged.

“Kai is gone?” Ice stared at her, trying to figure out if this was just a game to her.

She knew more than she would ever tell him, even if he spent weeks torturing the information out of her—which he didn’t have time for. Besides, the man he wanted to be didn’t do that anymore.

Vesper represented a whole different kind of temptation. Coming here had been a mistake, but not for any of the usual reasons in a situation like this. She was a slippery slope, an invitation to things he didn’t want. The past, and what he’d done, and who he could be instead—as long as he chose a better path.

Vesper studied him.

Ice’s jaw tightened. “You hung around just to tell me Kai was abducted by someone else?”

“‘You’re trying to take what I have rightfully stolen.’ Isn’t that what you said to me in Argentina?”

“Cute.” Too bad he wasn’t amused.

“You know what? I might’ve considered working for you. But I certainly don’t need the hassle of being your enemy. Neither of us has time for that.”

He flung the knife before he fully recognized what she was doing. She’d already hit the trigger on the weapon she pulled from her jacket.

His knife made impact, because he heard her scream. At the same time, twin barbs embedded themselves with hooks in his chest. One in the vest he had on, the other in the skin of his neck.

Lightning flashed through his body, and he fell to the floor.

“You and I might not be enemies⁠—”

He managed to make out her face swimming in front of his. “—but if you hurt my sister, I’ll kill you.”

She touched her lips to his, ran her thumb across his lower lip, and then she was gone.

Ice didn’t know how long he stayed there on the ground, trying to wait out the sensation of getting zapped. She’d done something to that taser, because it wasn’t like any other time he’d opted to ride the lightning.

He was just sitting up when the door behind him opened and someone else came in.

THIRTY-FOUR

Paris, France

Noah walked around the car and held the door for Marina. “Parking lot is full.”

She glanced around, her hair blond and straightened today. There hadn’t been much time to prepare, get ready, or do more than change clothes, but she’d spent most of the time they’d been airborne in the tiny plane bathroom. “This is the main headquarters for Earthnet. I’d expect someone to be here. Unless the whole company is a front for…whatever it’s a front for.”

He wasn’t going to tell her she was cute when she was angry. He wasn’t sure that would go down so well. “You look the part.”

“International inspector come to tour the facility?” Marina set off for the entrance to the main building of this campus.

Noah kept pace with her, smoothing down his tie and hoping their security didn’t have invasive scanners. “Something like that.”

“It won’t last long if their security has any kind of facial recognition.” Marina glanced over. “They’re probably reading our lips right now.” She kept her lips together, speaking in a muffled voice.

“One way or another, we’ll find out what we want to know.” Right now that was a list, and Noah wasn’t leaving here until he’d asked every question on it. “But I still think we should’ve created fake ID badges in their system and pretended we worked here.”

“If they have an AI in their system, you think it won’t flag that?” Marina said. “It knows us. I’m pretty sure at this point it knows everything about us.”

“Because it did facial recognition on Adam and found out everything about his history?”

“Then wormed its way into our system through the connection between our comms radio channel and my laptop. And spoofed Kai’s voice to make us believe there was a bomb on the boat.”