Page 14 of Shadowfox
“No,” I said, snapping my case shut, “this is different. We don’t have contingencies. There’s no extraction plan if things go sideways, no real contact on the ground except some barely verified Hungarian asset Manakin thinks still exists, and we’re supposed to waltz in, convince Farkas to betray everything he’s ever known, and walk him out like it’s a weekend in the country? With his teenage daughter? And a fancy machine the size of a barn?”
“It’s more the size of a small desk. Farkas improved on the anti-Enigma design.”
“That helpssomuch.” Sarcasm dripped from my lips. “I bet it only weighs half a ton.”
Thomas paused.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
“We’ve handled worse,” he said.
I let out a sharp laugh. “Have we? Because I don’t remember ‘winging it in Soviet-occupied Budapest’ being on our list of successful operations.”
“Paris? Berlin? Fuck me—Holland? Have you forgotten the part where we actually launched ourselves out of a submarine in inflatable canoes?” Thomas smirked. “You worry too much, Will.”
“Someone has to,” I shot back.
He sighed, turning to look at me, arms crossed. God, he was sexy when he did that.
“It’s last-minute, yeah. It’s not perfect, but it’s not impossible.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not a bad idea.”
“It’salwaysa bad idea,” he countered. “That’s the job. They don’t need us for the good ideas.”
He smirked, as though that last bit were a joke. I tried to smile, but my lips refused to budge. I ran a hand through my hair, exhaling.
He wasn’t wrong.
But there was something about this one that sat wrong in my gut, like a blade pressed too close to the skin. I glanced at the rain-speckled window, watching the streetlights flicker in the downpour. We were already ghosts in this city. Soon, we’d be ghosts in another.
“And what about Egret and Sparrow?” I asked after a moment.
Thomas let out a breath that was far too controlled as he clicked his suitcase shut.
“What about them?”
“Oh, don’t start.” I snorted, losing the last of my thinly veiled composure. “You saw how they were acting.”
Thomas rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Sparrow was quiet. Egret was insufferable—so, normal?”
“Sparrow wasmorethan quiet,” I said, frowning. “She curled in on herself during the briefing. I’ve never seen her do that before.”
Thomas hesitated. Barely.
“And Egret’s usual brand of insufferable was dialed up to eleven. He was spoiling for a fight.”
“Egret is always spoiling for a fight.”
“Not like that,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Something’s going on between them, and don’t pretend you didn’t notice, because I know you did. You see everything, Thomas Jacobs.”
Thomas exhaled through his nose, then sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing his temples. “It’s complicated.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He gave me a pointed look. “It’s the only one you’re getting.”
