Page 15 of Silent Target

“Whatever you heard, whatever proof you have, we’re going to get it out.”

“And if they find us?”

His expression goes cold.

“Then they’ll learn why they should have left you alone.”

My phone is gone.

My identity is compromised.

The agency I served wants me dead.

I should feel alone.

Instead, I watch Caleb McDougal scan the mirrors, and for the first time since leaving Langley, I believe I might survive the night.

Then headlights appear behind us.

One vehicle.

Then two.

Caleb looks into the mirror.

His jaw tightens.

“They found us.”

4

CALEB

The safehouse looks abandoned.

That’s the point.

It sits at the end of a dead street outside Alexandria, its windows dark, gutters sagging, and porch light broken. Weeds push through cracks in the walkway. Part of the roof has begun to buckle above the attached garage.

Anyone driving past would see a forgotten property waiting to be demolished.

They wouldn’t know it was once a Cold War courier house.

Or that the basement connects to an old maintenance tunnel leading three blocks beneath the neighborhood.

I drive past the house twice before parking two blocks away.

The vehicles that followed us disappeared near the interstate.

That doesn’t mean we lost them.

It means they’re trying to make us believe we did.

I kill the engine and wait.

Evie sits beside me, her damp hair falling loose around her face. A cut marks one cheek where concrete struck her in the garage.

She hasn’t complained.