Chapter 25 - The Cleanup
Arthur met me at the edge of the shipyard, the van idling with the doors open. I threw myself into the passenger seat, my clothes torn, covered in the grease of the floor.
"Did you get it?" he asked, not waiting for pleasantries.
I held up the drive. "I got it. But I also got a name. Marcus was on the payroll for months."
"I checked the financial records while you were inside," Arthur said, shifting the van into gear and peeling out of the yard. "Marcus wasn't the only one. There are three more people on our payroll who have been leaking information."
"Fire them all," I said, leaning my head back against the seat. "No, wait. Don't fire them. Feed them false information. If they’re looking for us, let's give them a ghost to chase."
"You’re learning, Amanda," Arthur noted, a grim smile on his face.
"I'm surviving," I corrected. "There’s a difference."
We drove back to the estate in silence. The adrenaline was fading, replaced by a cold, numbing exhaustion. When we reached the gates, the house looked safe, but I knew better now. There was no such thing as safe.
"Arthur?" I said as we pulled into the garage.
"Yeah?"
"How are we going to decrypt this drive without alerting them?"
"I have a contact in the Swiss Alps," he said. "A digital vault that isn't connected to the global grid. We’ll take a private flight tomorrow."
May you like
"A vacation?" I asked sarcastically.
"An execution," he replied. "We’re going to burn their network to the ground."
