Page 30 of Silent Target

“He followed us through the tunnel,” I say.

“He found the other exit.”

“How?”

Caleb removes an earpiece from the dead man. “They had the plans.”

“For the safehouse?”

“For everything.”

The weight of those two words settles over me.

Walter Graves has access to decades of classified intelligence. Safehouses, former operatives, escape routes, buried operations—every secret the government ever decided to keep.

“How do we hide from a man who knows every place we might go?”

Caleb slips the mercenary’s ammunition into his jacket.

“We don’t.”

“That isn’t very reassuring.”

“We make him look in the wrong direction.”

Voices carry through the rain outside.

More men.

Caleb takes my hand and pulls me toward the rear of the building.

We slip through a rusted service door and into the trees seconds before flashlights sweep across the broken windows behind us.

The rain has finally stopped, leaving the world cold and silent.

Too silent.

Caleb moves twenty feet ahead of me without making a sound.

I try to do the same.

I fail spectacularly.

Every twig beneath my boots seems determined to announce my location to the entire state of Virginia.

Caleb glances back.

“You don’t have to sneak.”

“I wasn’t trying to.”

One eyebrow lifts.

“I was trying not to fall.”

“That’s a different skill.”

I glare at his back. “I liked you better when you only answered with one word.”