Page 38 of Peak’s Code

"No, they've been under us for years."

Peak rubbed a hand over his face. "Anything on Mercer?"

Captain hesitated. "He's talking."

Maeve froze, and Peak noticed immediately. "What'd he say?"

"Not much." Captain sighed. "But enough."

Peak waited. "Mercer works for somebody called the Director."

Peak frowned. "Who the hell is this Director?"

"Don’t know. That's all he'll give us,” Captain said. "He’s not giving us a name, description, or a location."

Peak looked toward Maeve. She'd gone completely still. "What aren’t you telling me, Maeve?” he asked.

"I know that name,” she admitted. She slowly shook her head. "I wish I didn't."

Peak put Captain on speaker. "Tell us what you know." Maeve sat down in the chair across from him; her hands folded tightly in her lap.

"When Wren disappeared—” She swallowed. "I hacked into one of Mercer's encrypted servers."

Peak leaned forward. "You’re just telling us that now?" he asked.

"I never had the chance to tell you before. I didn’t know that it would matter." Captain stayed silent, and she continued. "I found hundreds of messages. Every single one ended the same way." She closed her eyes as though trying to remember what they said. "'Report sent to Director.'”

"So Mercer reports to the Director,” he said.

Maeve nodded. "But Mercer isn't high enough to know who the Director is."

"What do you mean?"

"He takes orders, but he doesn't make them."

Captain cursed softly. "So we're still chasing ghosts."

"No." Maeve opened her eyes. "We're chasing one ghost."

“It doesn’t matter how many we’re chasing; we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Captain said. “I’ll be in touch soon, and I’ll send you the coordinates to the temporary clubhouse,” Captain promised to move Mercer before dawn and ended the call before Peak could ask how everyone was.

Peak didn’t trust that the motel would stay secret for long, and he knew that they’d have to move before getting too comfortable. He knew that running back to the temporary Grave Prowler’s clubhouse wasn’t a good idea. It would just put everyone there in danger again, and he couldn’t do that. Instead, he and Maeve would have to find a place to lay low on their own. The fewer people who knew about it, the better—especially if they had a leak in the club.

Peak slipped his phone back into his pocket. "You hungry?"

Maeve looked surprised. "I—” Her stomach answered for her. A loud growl echoed through the room, and Peak grinned.

"I'll take that as a yes."

She buried her face in her hands. "Can we pretend that didn't happen?"

"No,” he breathed.

"Please?" she begged.

"I absolutely will not forget that happened, honey,” he said.

She laughed. "I kind of hate you."