Page 101 of Shadow

Roger picked then to get up and head to the bathroom.

Daphne kept the door open and turned to face Asher.

“We need to fake their deaths. Stage something convincing. Make the syndicate think they won. Buy ourselves time to figure out who the mole is and get Roger and Destiny safely to testimony.”

Asher blinked at her. “I was…I was thinking the same thing.” He’d even run through a few scenarios. Logistics. Problems. “How?” he asked.

“A car accident. Mountain road. Vehicle goes over a cliff. Burns. Bodies too damaged to identify immediately but dental records confirm later.” She took a sip of coffee, made a face. “This is tar.”

He wanted to smile, but it felt too much like stepping over a line. “The syndicate will want proof.”

“Right. The fire department finds the remains. We work with a medical examiner to confirm identities. Everything goes through proper channels, just in case the mole is paying attention.”

“That’s a lot of moving parts.”

“We’ll need help. But we choose who to trust.”

“And if they want visual confirmation?”

“Medical examiner’s report is what matters. And I have a contact in the coroner’s office who can help with that.”

“Who?”

“A friend of my dad’s. Works as a forensic pathologist.” Daphne crossed her arms. “It’ll work.”

Asher studied her. Gaze steady. Jaw set. She’d clearly been planning this for hours. “Walk me through it.”

“We get two vans. Identical. We’re seen getting into one and leaving the motel with Roger and Destiny. We drive into Renegade. Somewhere along the route, we switch vans. They stay in the second van with me. You continue in the first van with dummies positioned in the back seats.”

“Where do we switch?”

“Service station. Gas stop. Somewhere with enough vehicles that one van blending in makes sense. The second van is already there. We make the switch in under two minutes.”

“Then?”

“You drive the first van up to Blackwater Pass. Isolated stretch. Rig it so you can control it remotely. Position the dummies. Send it over the cliff. Detonate on impact to ensure fire.”

Blackwater Pass. Asher knew it. Narrow mountain road twenty miles west of Renegade. Switchbacks. Steep drops. Sheer rock face on one side, nothing but air on the other. Remote enough that no one would witness, except whoever you wanted there.

“That requires a little technical finesse.”

“You have that?”

Asher nodded. “Yeah. I have that.”

“Good. I’ll switch Roger and Destiny to a third car, pick you up, and we’ll head to wherever we’re hiding.”

It would work. But…“The syndicate will be watching. They’ll have people on the roads. If they see the van⁠—”

“Then we make sure they see it. Make sure they’re watching when it goes over the cliff.”

“You want them to follow?”

“I want them to witness. To see with their own eyes that Roger and Destiny died in that van.” Daphne paused. “You’ll need to contact your informant. Tell him where we’ll be. When. Give him enough information that he shows up to watch.”

Contact Dmitri. Lead him to the scene. Make him witness the deaths.

Except Dmitri wouldn’t trust him, would he? Unless Asher played it right. Played it desperate. Like someone scrambling to salvage a compromised operation.