Page 97 of Silent Target

Evie settles on my other side. “You’ve already decided.”

“Yes.”

“How do you know?” Rook asks her.

“I read his face.”

I look at her. “You read people.”

“And you read battlefields.” She points to the western trail. “You found another answer.”

Mac watches us from several feet away.

“That’s why Walter can’t beat you.”

No one responds.

“He understands control,” Mac continues. “He doesn’t understand trust.”

Fathom enlarges the satellite feed.

The southern convoy reaches the airfield, but the transport plane remains grounded.

One black SUV has pulled across the runway.

Cobra laughs. “Blaze works fast.”

I look at him.

“Your brother had an old friend near the airfield. Retired Texas Ranger. The plane isn’t going anywhere.”

Relief moves through me.

I don’t let it show.

Evie notices anyway.

“That sounds like a brother,” she says.

“It sounds like a Ranger,” Cobra corrects.

Graves’s armored SUV continues west with four escort vehicles.

“He thinks we went south,” Rook says.

“He wants to believe we did,” I answer.

Mac studies the route. “Ridge Road ends at an old rail tunnel. The First Circle used it decades ago.”

“What is the First Circle?” Evie asks.

Mac’s jaw tightens. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

Cobra folds his arms. “Or you won’t?”

“I watched people disappear for asking about it.”

“Tell us what you do know,” Rook says.