Wright knew from the look on Sahil’s face what he was going to say; somehow, it wasn’t enough to prepare her to hear it.
“They took him,” Sahil said.
The words hit Wright like a rifle butt to the stomach. They’d grabbed her commanding officer, her team leader. Taken him away. And she didn’t even know who “they” were. In all her years in special operations, she’d never had a teammate captured by the enemy. Based on her reaction to the news, she was thinking it just might have been the absolute worst possible thing she’d ever experienced.
Sahil flopped sweat-soaked into a chair, his exhaustion apparent. He’d been the last to arrive at Zulu, their emergency safehouse in a damp basement apartment near a transit station.
“Where?” Thumper asked.
“No idea,” Sahil said. “I knew he had trouble comin’, so after the sun ray call, I circled around, almost caught up with him in the park. But I had to break off again. Got a line on him when a team picked him up. He was too far…” He stopped, leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees, dropped his head, still breathing heavy. “Just too far. I kept movin’ for another hour or so, to make sure I was clear.”
He’d beaten the sunrise, but not by much. The horizon was already showing its first pinkish-red hints of dawn. Wright had to remind herself that the twilight phase lasted longer on Mars than it did back home, so maybe they had more time before the sun came up than she’d first thought. Enough to risk another trip out? Maybe, if only she had any idea where they needed to go.
“I hope whatever we got in there was worth it,” Wright said.
“I wish I could I say for sure it was,” Thumper answered. “I didn’t have time to pull everything I was looking for. I need to feed it all to Veronica, get her to help me put it all together.”
Something was off with her. Sunken in on herself. Blown from the op, maybe. Elliot had all their gear out in his vehicle, a sure sign that returning to their previous safehouse wasn’t an option. They’d pulled some of it into the apartment, but Wright wasn’t ready to commit to setting up shop just yet.
“We’ll get her started on it as soon as we’re sure we have some breathing room,” Wright said.
“So I assume those were our bad guys,” Mike said. “Any guesses on who we just bumped into?”
“No need to guess,” Elliot replied. “They were Internal Security.”
“What?” Wright said, reflexively.
“The Republic’s guard dogs,” he said. “Like your usual secret police, but with more smiling and less mercy.”
“I know who they are,” she said. “How’d they get on our trail that fast?”
Elliot spread his hands, a gesture somewhere between “I have no idea” and “what else would you expect”.
“There’s a reason no one wants this place for an area of operations,” he said.
“Mas’Sarnt,” Mike said. “What should we do?”
“First order of business is to get the rest of you out of here,” Elliot said. “I’ll get in touch with the guys from Papa, see how long it’ll take them to get something prepped–”
“Excuse me,” Mike said, interrupting pointedly. “I was talking to our senior ranking team member.” Elliot took the hint and backed down. After a moment, he found himself a chair in a quiet corner, and left them to their business. He looked wrecked.
“We gotta go after him,” Thumper said. “We gotta get Lincoln back, obviously.”
Wright and Sahil exchanged a look.
“It ain’t obvious, Thump,” Sahil said. “Much as we all want it to be.”
“What are you talking about?” she said. Then she looked at Wright for support, but found none. “How is this even a question?”
Wright had wondered if she had what it took to be the team leader; had always believed she did, in fact. She’d been Almeida’s right hand for a long time, and when the old man had brought Lincoln on board to take over, she’d had to wrestle with that decision more than she ever wanted anyone to know. But now, sitting in the driver’s seat, with everyone just waiting for her word, the weight of the responsibility nearly overwhelmed her. After all the ops she’d run as an element lead, she’d thought she was more than up to the task. She’d never really thought about the fact that even in those roles, she was still executing someone else’s plan. Now, the plan was her call, and it wasn’t at all clear what her call was.
Or maybe the call was clear, and she just didn’t like it.
“It’s not a question of doing,” Wright said. “It’s a question of priorities. And I’m not sure he’s top of the list just yet.”
Thumper shook her head with her mouth open, but she didn’t have a response. And when Wright heard the words come out of her own mouth, she realized the truth; she’d already made the decision, and she hated herself for it.
“We still haven’t done what we came here to do,” Wright continued, mindful that Elliot was in the room. “Recovery of the asset has to be our focus. He knew that. Said it himself. That’s why he took the risk he did.”
“To get me out,” Thumper said. And the way she said it tipped Wright off to the thing she’d missed. A thing she shouldn’t have missed. Thumper’s guilt was weighing her down; she was taking Lincoln’s capture personally, like it was her fault. Lincoln would have caught that right away, Wright knew.
“It wasn’t about you, Thumper,” Wright said. “It was about the mission. He made a call that you were critical to mission success. And it was the right call.”
The words sounded harsher than Wright had intended, but it achieved the desired effect. Thumper’s air of near-desperate frustration faded.
“Look,” Wright said, trying to soften the moment. “If we knew where he was, we’d go get him right now. But we can’t afford to split our focus searching for two targets. So we’re going to prioritize and execute. First job first, and then we’ll put everything we’ve got into getting Lincoln back.”
Thumper nodded, and then did so again after a moment, more forcefully.
“If we play our cards right,” Elliot said from his corner of the room, “we might be able to get them both at the same time.”
“How exactly do you figure that?” Wright said. “And don’t you dare say you know a guy.”
Elliot blinked. “… then I’m not sure how to answer your question.”
“Elliot,” Thumper said carefully. “How did you find us, anyway?”
Elliot looked at Thumper, then flicked his eyes at Wright briefly. “I do know a guy,” he said, holding up a hand as he answered. He stood up and cautiously worked his way back over to the group. He held off a few feet away. “But he’s not my guy.”
He was pale, sweaty, trembling. Wright had assumed it’d been from the adrenaline dump after the close shave escape, and maybe the news of Lincoln’s capture. He scrubbed his face with both hands, pressed his fingertips into his eyes. Collecting himself. Or gathering himself.
“Look,” he said. He kept his eyes closed, and a fist pressed against his forehead. “His name is Gregor. Gregor Petrescu. He and his partner… a woman named Mei. Mei Dimasalang. They got their hooks into me not long ago. Had me pegged. Codename, records of operations, names of contacts and sources. Full book, dead to rights.”
“When was this?” Wright asked. The implications were starting to weave together in her mind, and she didn’t like them.
Elliot pulled a chair out from under the table, turned it to face her, and sat down heavily. He really did look like he was about to faint.
“Few days before NID told me you were coming in. I’ve been trying to spin it, use it to figure out what’s going on. Feed them a little information, steal some at the same time. To get to the bottom of the whole thing. I think they’re in on it. Gregor for sure, some others too, maybe.”
He opened his mouth as if to say more, but then stopped himself.
“In on what, Elliot,” Wright said.
He took a deep breath, as if preparing to jump off a cliff into icy waters.
“I think they have SUNGRAZER.”
His mention of the ship electrified the air, and Wright felt the world slip sideways.
“Where did you hear that name?” she said.
Elliot dropped his hand into his lap, kept his eyes on the floor.
“From an NID tech,” he said quietly. “About seven years ago.”
“You know about SUNGRAZER,” Thumper said. Not a question. Processing aloud. Elliot nodded.
“More. I got access to her,” he replied. “Wasn’t supposed to, obviously, but I did. What you’re going through right now? It’s just a taste of this place. How hard it is to stay on top of the bubble, to stay ahead of the game. And the Directorate… the things they ask for, that they demand… They have no idea what it’s like here, no patience, no concept of the risks involved. The intelligence on SUNGRAZER was the edge I needed. Before I had her, I was small time. After… well, I only used her occasionally, just in emergencies, just when there was no other option. But she helped me dodge a lot of bullets. And maybe put a few into some key places. The secrets I was able to get after that, the influence I was able to build… off the charts. That’s why NID keeps me here. The networks I’ve built.” He shook his head.
“Did you give them the ship?” Mike said.
“No,” Elliot said, “No! Absolutely not! I’m not a traitor. Internal Security doesn’t even know that I know about her. When they picked me up, I thought that’s what they were going to ask me about, but they were just trying to turn me…” He trailed off, shook his head again. “I’m always so careful. But… I think somehow I blew it. Somehow I turned them on to her. That maybe they picked up a connection I created, maybe saw the signal bounce out, I don’t know. I have no idea how they managed it, how they took her over. But I’m sure they did… and I’m sure it’s my fault.”
“They’ve been running you since before we came in,” Wright said.
“I know Gregor’s part of it for sure,” Elliot continued, ignoring the comment.
“And how do you know that?” she asked.
“Because I…” He stopped himself, considered his words. “… I was trying to figure out what they knew. So I dropped him a hint, a piece of information that would only be useful if he could put it together with another piece that I knew SUNGRAZER had. And he did. He put them together and then he… acted on them.”
It took a moment for Wright to make the connection between his words and his mannerisms, to figure out both what he was saying and what he was telling them. Then it clicked. That explained what had happened during the Guo hit. Thumper said it before Wright could.
“Ready Vector Solutions…” Thumper said. “That’s why you suggested it. You set us up.”
“I had to give them something,” Elliot said. His flat delivery of the confession made it all the more shocking, as if he’d just admitted to something as mundane and arguably understandable as lying about his age to get into a bar.
Wright didn’t even think; her body did it all on its own. The punch caught Elliot full in the face, left side near the jaw, tipped him back in his chair and sent him sprawling into the corner of the table, then down to the floor.
The next moment, strong arms wrapped hers in a bear hug from behind, held her fast. Firm enough to contain her, reserved enough to let her know they could get plenty stronger if she tried to break free.
Sahil. He didn’t say anything, just held her there until she relaxed. Once she stopped straining against him, he released her, slowly, and then patted her back firmly. He stepped up alongside her, wordlessly showing his support while making it clear that he wasn’t going to let anything like that happen again.
Elliot rolled up to his hands and knees, but stayed there, head down, maybe braced for another assault.
“I didn’t think they’d really be able to catch you,” Elliot said. “And I figured even if you got into trouble, I could get you out. I was half-right about that, at least.”
“And what was your plan after that?” Thumper asked.
“My plan… was to figure it out,” Elliot answered. “That’s always the plan. It’s the only plan anyone can have in this line of work. The only one that actually holds up. Keep your options open, figure it out as you go.”
“That’s not how it works!” Thumper said.
“Oh, it’s not? You know so much, why don’t you tell me how it works, then?” Elliot said, his voice steady, and tone calm despite the acid in his words. He rocked back to his knees, looked up at her then. “I’ve been here for fifteen years, kid. Fifteen. My assignment was supposed to be for five. Any guesses on how I’m still standing? Or why NID keeps refusing to pull me? But sure, you’ve been here a couple of days, you’ve got it figured out, why don’t you tell me how it works.”
“How long did you last once they took SUNGRAZER away?” Wright said; she couldn’t stop herself from twisting the knife.
Elliot moved from his knees to sitting on the floor, now looking truly defeated, and helpless. Her words crumpled him more than the blow she’d delivered.
“When I gave NID the Ava Leyla,” Elliot said, “I had to make up a story for it, because I wasn’t even supposed to know about SUNGRAZER then. I knew something had gone wrong, I just didn’t know what to do or… or how to fix it. And then Gregor… having to figure out what he thought I knew, and what he knew I knew… this whole thing has been a nightmare, just trying to remember what I was supposed to know when, who told me what, and what I found out on my own.”
He looked at his hands in front of him, spread his fingers, flipped them over to look at his palms.
“I’m not asking for your sympathy,” he said. “I don’t expect it, I don’t deserve it, I don’t want it. But I’m not a traitor. It’s just… they ask me to do the impossible. And I guess I’m too stupid and stubborn not to try.”
The room went still after that. Elliot, spent by his confession, had nothing more to say. And everyone else was waiting for Wright to take the lead. Her mind swirled with the dump of new information, of all the possible implications. Of what it meant for Lincoln, out there somewhere, waiting for them to come rescue him. He was counting on her, too, to lead.
“You said we can get both at the same time,” Wright said. “I’d like to hear how that’s supposed to work. But before we get to that,” here, she crouched down in front of him, locked eyes with him. “You’re going to have to convince me that I shouldn’t put you down right here in this room.”
“I’m a dead man no matter what, master sergeant,” he said, and he meant it. “If I go home, they’ll kill me for treason. If I stay here, they’ll execute me as a spy. At least give me the chance to clean this mess up before I go. It’s on me, I made it. Let me fix it.”
He held her gaze with the steadiness that only someone with truly nothing left to lose could manage.
It was probably suicide to trust him. It was a dead end not to. But just about anything they chose to do was better than the grey hell of wait and hope they were facing now.
“This guy you know,” Wright said. “Tell me everything.”