Page 133 of Black Reign

Xavier doesn't know I've identified him.

That is the only advantage left to me.

I need to keep it.

I carry the tray inside.

No rush.

No panic.

Jenny Hernández does not know Xavier Blackwell.

The woman in brown contacts does not know Ghost.

Sabine Beaumont is nowhere near this property.

Vesper?

Vesper is everywhere.

I move into the service corridor and brace one hand briefly against the wall.

Breathe.

Think.

Papa.

Blackwell.

ARGUS.

The files I've stolen.

The blackmail I've used.

The men I've squeezed using information pulled from Blackwell's supposedly untouchable systems.

Xavier has been hunting me.

Maybe not Vesper by name.

But the intrusion.

The ghost inside his machine.

All this time, Ghost has been searching for the same woman he goes online to find every night.

The irony is almost obscene.

I close my eyes.

Then another realization hits.

I have been searching for him too.

Not Ghost.