Page 103 of Silent Target

He doesn’t take a life simply because he can.

That may be my favorite thing about him.

Fathom runs toward us with his tablet.

“I intercepted their communications.”

“What did you find?” Rook asks.

“They weren’t trying to stop us.”

Mac leans against the SUV. “Delay.”

Fathom nods. “Graves reached the command bunker seven minutes ago.”

Caleb looks toward the blocked road.

“How long until he transmits the seventh drive?”

“Unknown.”

Mac’s face turns pale. “If he connects it to the command system, the First Circle can remotely purge everything.”

“The six drives too?” I ask.

“If the seventh contains their master encryption key, it may be able to corrupt every copied file the moment Fathom tries to open them.”

The evidence case suddenly emits a soft electronic tone.

Fathom tears it open.

All six drives are flashing red.

“He’s inside the system,” Fathom says.

“How long?” Caleb asks.

A countdown appears on the tablet.

Nine minutes.

Forty-eight seconds.

“If that reaches zero,” Fathom says, “we lose everything.”

Rook looks toward the ridge.

“The road is blocked.”

Caleb studies the cliff, the smoke, and the stream pouring from a broken drainage pipe beside the rockslide.

Then he smiles.

“We don’t need the road.”

He points toward the rushing water.

The drainage channel runs directly beneath the mountain.