Page 447 of Broken Oath

“I could ask you the same thing.”

His gaze drops to my bag.

Then returns to my face.

“You should be careful,” he says quietly. “There are dangerous people in this building.”

He doesn’t know.

Not for certain.

But he suspects.

And if Walter Graves suspects, I have minutes.

Maybe less.

“I’ll remember that.”

I turn toward the elevator.

I can feel all five men watching me.

My shoulder blades itch as I wait for the doors to open. For one terrible second, I’m certain Graves will order the guards to stop me.

The doors slide apart.

I step inside and press the button for the main level.

Graves watches me until the doors close between us.

The moment they do, I pull out the recorder.

The elevator is part of Langley’s secured network. I can’t risk transmitting from here, so I remove the encrypted memory card and slip it beneath the lining of my coat.

Then I take a second card from my wallet, insert it into the recorder, and copy the file.

One truth.

Two chances for it to survive.

The elevator begins to rise.

My phone shows no signal, but I compose a message to the only secure contact I believe might still exist beyond Graves’s reach.

Shadow Division is being framed. Senator Vance is the target. I recorded Graves, Miller, and Rhodes. Graves knows someone heard them. Find Caleb McDougal.

The elevator reaches the main level.

The doors open.

Two security officers are waiting in the lobby.

Neither one looks at me.

That frightens me more than if they had.

I walk past them, scan my identification, and step through the final security checkpoint.