“Almost there, Isaac,” Jo said.
He shook his head and stalked toward the door.
If he bailed, Giovanni would find him. Isaac needed to have faith in the plan.
The hall was clear of people. One good thing about the holidays was that there weren’t a lot of employees putting in hours. He didn’t run into more than one girl, too busy staring at her phone to notice him on his way downstairs.
He briefly considered walking out the front door again, but if he did that he could also risk angering Giovanni that way.
Isaac was screwed. If he followed directions and stuck close to Jo and she was FBI, he could become a pawn in her game. If he looked after his own hide, he could run afoul of Giovanni, and contrary to what a lot of people liked to think, the man was not lenient. His jovial personality was an act. He was a cruel, ruthless bastard formed by the two families who’d birthed him.
“This fucking sucks,” Isaac muttered as he opened the north exit.
A lumpy form darted inside.
“Took you long enough,” Jo snapped back.
He frowned and watched her shrug out of the coat. She wore slacks and a blouse with her hair tied up. Dressed like that, she almost looked like an employee.
“East stair?” She dropped the puffy coat on the ground.
“Uh, this way.”
“Elias’ really good at this,” she said softly.
Isaac grunted.
The guy knew how to spin his wheels. So what?
“Here, look at this.” Jo opened a notebook and showed him a blank page as they walked.
“Uh, what am I looking at?” he asked.
She flashed him a smile. “A prop.”
“Okay...”
“Have you seen them? Dion, I mean?” She glanced over her shoulder as they reached the stair.
“No, Elias did.”
“Shoot. Okay.”
They didn’t speak as they climbed the stairs, which was fine for him. He was still wondering how this would play out.
“This is us,” he said and reluctantly opened the door to the second floor.
“Move. Quick. Dion might be ahead of us.”
“We can’t run,” he said, trying to sound logical.
Why him?
He dragged his feet the fifteen or so yards to the server room entrance, praying that any second they’d get caught. But they didn’t.
Jo pressed the end of the code breaker to the display and it began the cycle. Unlike movies and TV, the process wasn’t instantaneous.
“This darn door,” Jo fussed, still playing into her role.
Isaac shoved his hands in his pockets. If Dion caught up to them, would he take this morning out on Isaac? Why had they moved in so fast like that? Weren’t they supposed to hang back?
“Got it,” Jo said in a triumphant whisper.
She opened the door to the server room.
Inwardly Isaac groaned.
THURSDAY. EAGLE TECH, Seattle, Washington.
Jo could hardly believe they’d gotten this far without incident. The whole plan had sounded far too good to be true. But here they were, in the damn server room. She was going to owe Elias so big after this. He was the rock star that made it all happen. There was no way they’d have gotten this far without him.
She hovered behind Isaac as he picked away at the keyboard.
“Find it yet?” she asked, anxious to be out of here. From what she could hear of Elias’ side of the conversation, he was starting to scrape the bottom of the bucket to keep Torres talking.
“I’m working on it,” Isaac snapped.
She bit back her own unhelpful reply. Instead, she crossed to the door and peered out of the little glass window.
“I’m running out of material, guys,” Elias whispered into her ear.
These comms were something else. So small most people wouldn’t even notice them.
“Isaac is working on it. I don’t know how long it’ll take,” she said.
“Work faster,” Elias said.
“How much time do you think we have?” Isaac asked.
“Not much. Focus.”
Jo was starting to wonder where the hell Dion was. Did he have a better handle on where the virtual bomb code might be? Had they already extracted it? Were they gone? Was that why Isaac was taking so long? Or had Elias seen Dion at all?
She didn’t want to consider that last question.
After Elias’s injuries, she knew he’d stayed away from all combat roles. His jobs had been desk work out of the eye. And then there was this morning. She was used to his cool-under-pressure attitude, but this morning he’d been like ice. Inhuman and cold. It made her worried for him.
Was she asking too much? Could this whole thing be damaging to him?
She bit her lip and struggled with the guilt.
“My assistant had to run to do a pickup. Would you mind if I waited for him in the lobby?” Elias asked.
No more cards to play.
She turned and crossed to Isaac’s side.
“You’ve got to give us something. Do you think you’re close? Do you have any idea?” she asked.
“Thanks so much. It’s kind of you to let me wait in your office,” Elias said.
Isaac mashed the keys hard.
“Come on, tell me anything,” she pleaded.
He whirled to face her, eyes wide and jaw clenched. His hands balled into fists.
“There is no bomb,” he said.
“What? Dion got here first?” She shouldered him aside and grabbed the keyboard.
“No. I mean, there never was a virtual bomb. It was made up.” Isaac threw his hands up in the air. “It was a trap.”
Her body went cold. She pivoted to face him as chilly rage pumped through her.
“What?” she asked.
Isaac’s nostrils flared. “Giovanni knows he has a rat. Someone is snitching. So he set up a trap, and we’re in it.”
“What do you mean a trap?” She glanced over her shoulder, as if she expected the so-called trap to snap shut.
Isaac held his hand up, fingers pinched together. “You’re on his short list of rats. He dangled the bait, and you took it.”
She watched his hand sway from side to side as her mind scrambled.
“Who the fuck do you think is a fed?” Elias’s voice took on a cocky note. “In case you didn’t realize it, Isaac, I’m a mercenary. I work with mercenaries.”
Jo shook her head and shoved the panic down.
Thank goodness Elias reacted faster than she did. He was right. She hadn’t exposed herself. Other than their conversation behind closed, reinforced doors last night, she hadn’t put a foot wrong.
“Cut the act.” Isaac rolled his eyes. “I heard you last night tell him everything. All about how you’ve been undercover, so don’t give me that shit. There is no bomb. This is a trap.”
Jo’s body went cold. He’d been listening to them? In their private moments?
She reached under her blazer and grabbed her gun, pointing it at Isaac. Her whole body went cold. So much work down the drain because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Elias was her weakness. “Then I guess we don’t need you anymore, do we?”
Isaac’s eyes widened, and he backed up, seeming to realize his mistake.
She narrowed her gaze. “Here’s the thing, Isaac, I only needed you because I didn’t know what I was looking for. If you’re going to tell me all you are is a plant? Well, I guess it’s time to prune.”