“Seeded by who?” asked Liam.
“That’s exactly what I asked.” Nell pulled down on the hem of her oversized anime T-shirt before moving to the next screenshot. A string of numbers that probably made sense only to her filled the screen. “Sky and Aiden asked me to see if I could source the info sent to the various news channels. I isolated the protocols and…never mind. Bottom line—all data streams came from the same IP.”
Three parts of the screen merged together.
“It gets more interesting.” Eli snagged Nell’s keyboard for himself. “The polymer used in the explosion is pretty common in itself, which is why I paid little attention to it in the postblast analysis. That said, there are only three major suppliers. Again, not useful information until—”
“Until you have an actual delivery location to check out,” Nell jumped in. “So once we had an IP address and the physical location it came back to, we could run that against the recent shipping orders. Overlap again. Right to here. Boom.” She punched the air, then seemed to remember where she was and cringed. “Sorry. I just like it when calculations work out.”
Eli pressed some buttons, unearthing a map that started to slowly zoom in on the East Coast of the United States. As the geo-location circle tightened mile by mile, Liam felt a familiar dread similarly tightening up his diaphragm. He knew where they’d end up even before the map came to a halt.
“Obsidian Ops.” Liam’s voice sounded too stoic even to his own ears. “Their main complex in New Jersey.”
“The evil security company that nearly got Kyan killed last year?” said Jaz. “They’ve been behind all this from the beginning? Why would they care about me?”
“Not evil, but certainly Machiavellian,” said Kyan, his gaze piercing Liam’s. “And I have a feeling Jaz was never the real target. Though I imagine her last name being the same as mine was icing on the cake for Lucius.”
“Aye. That’s my analysis as well.” Aiden looked grim. “Jaz wasn’t the real target of the explosion. Trident Security was. Or rather, our reputation. We encroached on Obsidian’s international turf, and this was their response.”
Liam nodded. “They tried lawyers first, and when paper didn’t work, they fired a literal shot—or blast—across my bow.” This also explained why he saw no threat indicators in internet chatter surrounding Jaz. There weren’t any.
Jaz rubbed her hands over her arms, and Liam wondered whether being relegated from presumed target to collateral damage was making her feel better or worse. “Doesn’t it seem a little, well, careless, for someone as good as Obsidian Ops not to obscure their IP address and have the explosives order shipped right to their office?”
Liam exchanged glances with Aiden and knew the man’s thoughts reflected his own. Sighing, he turned his attention to Jaz. “They left a crumb trail on purpose, Jaz. They wanted us to figure things out eventually so that we’d get the message.”
Though he let none of his emotions show, the next words Liam had to say ripped him apart. “Aiden, sever the contract with Vector Ascent. Lucy.” He turned toward the PR director. “Issue a public statement declaring that Trident Rescue and Security is fully disassociating itself from Vector, the Clash of the Titans competition, and Jaz Keasley. I don’t care what reason you give, just make it sound good. We aren’t risking any more bystanders in this cockfight.”
“No, wait.” Jaz’s hand closed around Liam’s wrist. Her fingers were warm and strong, and he wondered if she could feel how her touch made his pulse bound. “Let’s do the opposite. Ignore the story altogether. Obsidian is a bully, and bullies hate to be ignored. Plus, the Clash is in three days. If you put a press release out now, it will only generate confusion when you show up with me. You’re the face of Trident Security, and the nuance of whether you’re there in a protection role or just as a climbing partner is going to be lost on people.”
Liam swallowed. “Jaz…”
Silence settled around the table.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
He blew out a breath. “Jaz, we aren’t just putting out a story that Trident Security is pulling out of the event,” Liam said gently. “We’re putting out the truth. I won’t be going with you.”
Her face paled. “But you’re my partner. I can’t do this without you.”
He pulled his hand out of her grasp. “You’re going to have to. In fact, the more distance we have between each other right now, the better.”
32
Jaz
Jaz knew she hadn’t heard Liam correctly. Or just that she’d misunderstood what he meant. Her competition, the competition, was two days after tomorrow. Whatever else Liam might be, he was reliable. A rock. Someone she could lean on even when the road got hard.
Liam met her gaze, his own eyes deep and regretful.
No. Jaz’s fingers tightened on the edge of the table, her heart pounding. No, he would never just walk away. They’d find a solution. Trident Security could pull out as publicly as Liam wanted, but not him. Not from her. Not on this.
Liam raised a hand. “May we have the room, please,” he said to the others, without ever looking away from Jaz. In her peripheral vision, she saw the others push away from the conference table and quietly step out. Aiden left last, his expression unreadable as he studied her and Liam for a long moment before finally pulling the door closed himself.
“I’m sorry,” said Liam. “I wish there—”
“This is a joint decision. Let’s talk about this. We have options—there are always options. We could put you in a disguise, for example.” She let a corner of her mouth rise in a defiant, quirky smile. “Personally, I think you would look delicious in drag. But I’m open to other ideas, if you insist.”
“Jaz. Stop.” A muscle ticked along Liam’s clenched jaw. “There is just no safe way for you to be associated with me right now, not with me squarely in Obsidian’s crosshairs. The explosion is a case in point. Obsidian wasn’t actively trying to kill you when they blew up my car, but they knew it could happen. They were all right with it. You’re acceptable collateral damage to them, and every second I stay beside you, the danger factor to you increases. Goddammit.” He slapped his palm on the table. “All this time I thought I was protecting you, I was actually the one putting you in danger. That stops now. It has to.”
Jaz shook her head, just like she had been the entire time Liam was speaking. “Let’s talk through this. There has to be a way to stay safe without utterly destroying my chances at the Clash of the Titans.”
“I’m sure there is. But it will be a way that doesn’t involve me.”
“So that’s it? You think you get to make a unilateral decision?” Her voice rose. “Even if that decision will likely destroy my career?”
“You can have a new career. You can have a new life.”
Jaz’s hands clenched into fists, her hopes and reason shattering beneath a sudden deluge of fury that spilled into her blood. Wrong. Everything about this was so damn wrong. Placing her palms flat onto the tabletop, Jaz rose out of her chair to get a few inches on Liam. “I never asked you to get involved. Hell, I was the one who told you to fuck off right from the beginning. You insisted. You inserted yourself into my life, my career, my world. You barreled over my wishes, going over my head all the way to my sponsor, because you wanted things done your way. All under the banner of safety. Well, congratulations. You got your way. But there are consequences to what you did. Problems that your bullheadedness creates. All I’m asking now is that you follow through with what you started instead of pulling the pin from a grenade and tossing both into my lap to fix.”