"But that's unethical."
"It is, but this is a matter of life and death. I want to know what it is that Massimo wants to know."
The lift dinged, and we were let out onto her floor. I watched her like a hawk as her fingers traced along the walls and she glanced around. "Is it okay that it feels weird to be here?"
"Thanks to some friends of mine, no one's going to catch you on CCTV. Because you still intend to work here after this is all over, let's just go ahead and do it from a different computer."
“I'll just type in my credentials and I can look at the raw data because I've been given clearance. But I won’t be able to read it. I can only tell you what kind of data it is. It’s all encrypted."
She went through the biometric and fingerprint scans. "And we're in. Without Tanashi, I can't see anything important. I certainly can't download it, but I can see the details. It looks like these are just names, but I don't recognize any of them."
As she scrolled through, I took photographs. It was just a list of names and accounts. It meant nothing to me until a familiar name popped up. "Wait, right there, George Santiago."
"Who is George Santiago?"
The gnawing dread that had been swirling around for weeks solidified. "Fucking hell. Log out."
She did as she was told. "Why?"
"We have to go. Right now."
"What's going on?" She went toward the lift, but I pulled her down to the service exit.
"We're not going out the front way."
"We're not?"
"No, we’ll take the service lift to the second floor, then we're going in the laundry chute."
"The laundry chute? Are you insane?"
"Maybe. But that name, George Santiago…" I tugged her along behind me. If there was some kind of alarm triggered when she went looking for information, I wanted her as far away from here as possible. "George Santiago is dead. As for Tanashi, someone tried to take him out two weeks ago."
"What?"
"He's alive. But I think it was Massimo Igno who tried to kill him."
"But why would he take him out? Tanashi is just a corporate raider. He's nothing special."
"Not to you, but to the Intelligence world, he is a member of the Syndicate." The service lift arrived, and I shoved her inside. I was on high alert.
She swallowed hard. “So Tanashi isn't exactly on the up and up if he knows who all these people are? And Massimo thinks that means I know who they are too?”
“Massimo is pulling a king-maker play. To some, it might look like he's trying to rise through the ranks. But no, he's taking them out. If he gets that full list of names, he'll be even more deadly. He'll also be at the very top of the largest criminal organization in the world.”
“Jesus. What’s to stop him from coming after me again at that point?”
“Me. The Syndicate is a problem. We've been trying to take them down for years. Every time we get one name, or ferret someone else out, there are two more to replace them. But I plan to take down the whole thing, to collapse the infrastructure. Massimo is trying to keep the infrastructure, and we have a pile of dead bodies to prove it."
"That's why you took pictures of the names?" she asked.
"Yes. I can get it to my people, which means I'm back in play."
"Oh, so you get to go back to being a spy."
"Yes and no,” I hedged. “They know who I am, but now I know who they are, so at least I'm not going in blind anymore. But more importantly, this tells me who Massimo's targets are. If we can get ahead of him, we can catch him."
On the second floor, the lift let us out, and we marched quickly. We had ten minutes left before the cameras came back online, thanks to Rook, but we had no time to waste. When we reached the laundry chute, I opened it for her. "Up and over."
"But it's dark. What if there's no basket?"
"There's a basket."
"Are you sure?"
"Do you trust me, Daphne?"
She bit her bottom lip. "Yeah, I trust you."
Then she climbed over, and down the chute she went. Despite being scared, she didn't make a sound as she went down the chute. "Good girl."
She used something to bang on the chute to let me know she was down, and I followed after her. Sure enough, there was a basket and I lay in a pile of towels. "See? All good."
"Yeah."
I helped her out, and we headed out the door. My mind was still buzzing and reeling from the data I'd gathered. All I had to do now was get to somebody before Massimo could access it. I’d send the names to Reina, and she’d have to put me back in. But somehow, getting what I'd ultimately wanted didn't feel like what I really wanted anymore. It wasn't about getting back into the game. I just wanted Massimo gone. I wanted to make sure that Daphne didn't have any reason to be afraid anymore. So right now, I needed to get home and at least start laying the groundwork to ensure her safety.
When she was safely tucked in my car, she grinned at me. "Hey, I sort of like this secret spy stuff. It's fun—"
She was cut off when the alarm started blaring, and I cursed under my breath. As I started the engine, I noticed a motorcycle at the end of the road, and the rider was putting on a helmet.
"Oh, fuck me."
"What? What is it?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"Massimo."
33
Daphne
Maybe me driving was a bad idea, but Drake thought it was better that his hands were free to shoot.
London's city streets sparkled in the cold, steady rain, their dark beauty amplified by the flood of adrenaline in my veins. Massimo wasted no time. Even before Drake could get his door closed, he fired a bullet, and I peeled out of our parking spot.
Sweat popped on my brow as I drove, the wheels skidding slightly as I took a turn too fast. My knuckles tightened on the steering wheel, trying to outmaneuver Massimo in the backstreets.
You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.
Drake kept a vigilant watch beside me and fired behind us, but Massimo dodged the bullets and stayed hot on our tail, hugging tight to his motorcycle.
I was familiar enough with the roads around my office, but as we got deeper into central London, I needed more assistance. Since it was so late at night, I didn't have the added benefit of getting lost in traffic.
And with every turn I made, the quiet night was shredded by the relentless roar of his engine and the pouring rain. We needed to shake him off, fast.
As we fishtailed again, my teeth were clenched tight, and my heart threatened to jump out of my chest.
We raced through the shadowy, rain-soaked labyrinth of central London, windshield wipers working overtime. Drake seemed to have an uncanny grasp of these winding, narrow lanes.
"Where am I going?" I yelled over the engine's roar.
"Finding a way out!" he hollered back. "Just follow my lead!"
He directed me around unexpected bends and turns. My pulse pounded with each sharp corner, fearing Massimo might ambush us from the next bend. Yet no matter how we darted or twisted, his ominous silhouette loomed dangerously close on the bike.