Page 270 of The Forbidden Center

“If Riley calls me about this, I kill it.”

I wait for him to smile. He does not.

I take the folder from under his hand.

“He will not.”

“Good.”

Maren walks beside me to the elevator, and neither of us says anything while we wait for it.

The doors close.

“He called me down the bench himself,” Maren says. “That’s all you get.”

I take the notebook out of the folder. Page three still has the question at the top.

I turn the page and write my name at the top of page four.

Under it:

LEGAL REVIEW

OPERATING PROTOCOL

DO NOT START UNTIL AUTHORIZED

I draw a box around the last line.

I take out my phone. His thread opens under my thumb.

I type first.

Chapter forty-eight

Astrid

Can I come by?

The message sits beneath my thumb.

Three dots appear before I can decide whether I should have written more.

Yeah.

Then:

Tova with you?

No. Gabi has her.

The dots come back.

Okay.

Nothing else.

I stare at the screen until Maren touches the elevator door before it can close on me.