When the jet lifted off into the sky, the vibration of runway speed turning into the stillness of flight, she felt as close to Beth as she had in the previous several days. With each step of the way, each new development, every move closer to DARC and closer with Logan, she felt herself finally catching up to her cousin’s shadow. Holly’s shadow now, with the plane, could be visible several thousand miles below on the sun-burnt countryside of southern Texas, the small black shadow of their jet traveling over a sparse grid of dirt roads and highways.

She felt closer with these strange men, too. One of them not so strange, but still slightly unfamiliar after so many years. But even Logan, the way he insisted on sitting beside her for takeoff, and the way he kept checking in on her, even he became less strange.

Holly was prepared for him to remain distant and cold and businesslike. In her mind, she figured it would have been easier that way. Easier and understandable, and far less confusing for both parties involved. There was a serious matter to be dealt with and hardly any time or space for even a friendship to develop. Or redevelop. But the way all three of these men had taken her in, whether it was self-serving for them or not—Logan included—it showed her that she’d indeed made the right decisions. A good move not to talk to the police. An even better move not to go to Gary Johnson. Better than being alone.

She thought about that again, while looking back at Logan’s soft expression and chiseled face. Yes, better than being alone.

She’d been alone for so long. Long enough to know the pros and cons. She was through with the drawbacks, welcoming the new challenge that lay before them, the current flight with her new-found DARC Ops crew. A new bond with an old friend.

“I know it’s a little fast,” Jackson said, coming back to his seat in front of her. He offered her a tray of snacks from the bar.

She waved them away with a thanks and said, “It is a little quicker than I’m used to. But I guess I’m not used to having my cousin get kidnapped and sold into an intercontinental slave ring.”

“Not yet,” Jackson said. “She’s not sold yet.”

“I have three days to get them their data.”

“The dirt on Andrei Godev?”

“Yes. The source files. They also want access to the server so they can make sure there’s nothing left. No traces left of that shit head.”

“They won’t need traces,” Jackson said.

“Huh?”

“The government, I mean. The authorities. We’ll have a lot more than traces to go on, to get these guys behind bars. All of them.”

“Do we know how many there are?” Logan said.

“Not yet. I’ve got Tansy already working on trying to get a sense of what and who we’re dealing with. Very likely, it’s a little more people than just that one guy’s voice on the phone with you, Holly.”

“I know that,” she said.

“Of course you do. We’ll get ’em,” Jackson said. “We’ll get them for sure. We’re already doing it now, right now up in the air. It’s started.” He leaned back, looking over to Tansy, who was working at a laptop. “Hey, Tansy?”

“Yes, getting them, yes,” Tansy said, without looking away from his screen.

Holly said to Jackson, “Is he really already . . . already working on this?”

“He’s always already working on something,” Jackson said. “Which reminds me, we’ll be touching down in a few hours. I want to hit the ground running.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Holly saw the ankle of Logan’s crossed leg begin to twitch rapidly. Then she noticed her own knee was doing the same spastic twitching, the adrenaline running through both of them. It was like what Logan must have felt before the start of some inevitable enemy engagement.

“So I know what they want, generally. But what do they want from you? What specifically?” Jackson asked.

“Specifically,” she said, “I think they want me to—”

“No,” he said, “not what you think. What do you know? What did they specifically ask of you?”

“They want me to upload a file to the CIA’s system, something nasty they cooked up.”

Holly saw Tansy’s head perk up, not looking over but cocked and listening as she said the word “file.”

Holly continued with, “I’m supposed to pick up a package with some instructions, and maybe the virus itself. Once I transfer it to the CIA, it’ll snake through their system and remove all traces of the info they want gone. I think it’ll also make it next to impossible for me to go in and work on anything, reverse anything. But that’s more of that speculation you’re not yet interested in.”

“So you don’t have anything yet?” Jackson said. “No files? No package?”

“No. That’s supposed to come through this afternoon.” She glanced at Logan and then back to Jackson, saying, “Where will I be this afternoon?”

“In good hands,” Jackson said.

She was tempted to look at Logan again, tempted very badly, even just the slightest glance. Good hands. His good hands. Maybe his house for the night, too . . . For increased safety measures, of course. And for a friendly session of catching up. That’s all it would be.

“And in Washington, too, I presume,” she said.

“We’ll start at our headquarters,” Jackson said. “Tansy’s ready to go, right Tansy?”

“Aye, Captain.”

“How about me?” Logan said, not seeming to care that he was injecting himself straight into the plans. Holly had always known him to act that way, wanting to help any way he could, even beyond emotional support. He could do more than quiet listening and soft hugs.

Jackson looked at him for a moment, his mouth twitching slightly as if stifling a laugh.

At least he was laughing around Logan. It was a big departure from how she imagined their last meeting went.

Nothing like an old ex-lovers’ personal tragedy, and a new project, to bring the two men closer.

“Holly?” Tansy called from across the compartment.

“Yeah?”

“Have you checked your mail recently?”

“My email? No . . .” She rummaged through her purse for her phone and pulled it out. Then, blank-faced, she said, “Wait, which one?”

“Not that one,” Tansy said.

She was feeling dizzy. Holly wasn’t sure if it was the flight or the reason for the flight. It couldn’t have been the lunch cocktail. And it couldn’t have been Logan. So far, he was the only real stability she’d had. Solid ground, right with her, thousands of feet up in the air.

Tansy said her name again. Holly’s head snapped back up to see his smile. “I’m talking about your work email,” he said.

“I can’t access that from here.”

Tansy said, “I can.”

She stood and wobbled on weak legs to where he was sitting, then hunched low to read the screen of his laptop. It was the main page of her email interface. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, except for a new email from a strange address, and the fact that she was seeing it on someone else’s computer. A man known in the industry as perhaps the world’s best hacker. That was out of the ordinary, but definitely not surprising to Holly. She took it in stride, quietly watching as he clicked and opened the email. Now reading the text. Reading a standard, broken-English phraseology about where and when she would meet with the Russian kidnappers.

“Is this real?” she asked Tansy, who responded with a mildly disgusted look.

Jackson, from his seat, asked what it said.

“They want me to meet them at some warehouse,” Holly said. “An abandoned friggin’ warehouse outside Baltimore.”

Logan said, “Meet them for what?”

“Meet them for a delivery. They want to give me a USB with the virus on it. Then I’ll take that and . . .”

Jackson said, “And you’ll infect the CIA servers with it, erasing all traces of Andrei Godev before he can be brought to justice. Sounds pretty simple.”

Holly thought of how simple it would really be, purposely infecting the CIA computers, ruining decades of hard work—work that people had died for. She thought of perhaps destroying her own career for just the slight chance of saving her cousin. She knew, given the people she was dealing with, that there would be no guarantees. The first of that worry was about her own safety.

“I’m guessing they want you to infect the servers before they release Beth,” Jackson said. He turned to Tansy. “Is that correct?”

Holly nodded. “Yes,” thinking more of how slim the chances were that the Russians would make good on their deal. But what other option did she have?

Well, she had DARC Ops.

She turned to Jackson. “What do you think?”

“I think we can do a lot better than that. What do you think, Tansy?”

Tansy’s gaze never left the screen, his fingers pounding away on the keyboard. “I think I’d like to take a good look at what’s on that USB.” He was still typing when she walked back to her seat. Jackson gave her a nod on the way and reminded her that it was a long flight.

When she returned to her seat, Logan next to her, he wasn’t working on anything. He sat, watching her. She could feel how carefully his focus moved across her. She could feel his attention.

She might have indeed been in very good hands, in great support with everyone, technical specialists, an ex-military billionaire. And with Logan next to her, a support that she couldn’t even describe.