Page 33 of Until the End

Here comes the tricky part.

Kit snapped out of her sickened daze. “I-I have no desire to obstruct justice and I have every intention of cooperating, but I need—”

Castle nudged her thigh.

“I mean, I’d appreciate some assurance that I’m going to walk out of this facility. I’m not used to gunfights, being detained and threatened, watching my friends…” She squeezed her eyes shut with a shudder, milking the room for every drop of compassion—as they’d discussed, but there was a genuine tug even in Castle’s chest. “I’d like to go get the hard drive myself and make a copy for you.”

Sanborn rested his steepled fingers on the gleaming black table. “It would be safer for you to tell me where the drive is and let me send a field officer to retrieve it.”

By some miracle, she maintained her composure. “With all due respect, Sanborn, you need that drive to figure out whatever those terrorists have planned. Yes, you could strip me of my civil liberties and do unspeakable—and, I dare say, un-American—things to me. But you’d be wasting time. Invaluable time you need to stop these horrible men.”

Every point was true. Time was the one bargaining chip she had. The best way to serve Sanborn, get the drive as easily as possible, and have time to apprehend whoever had killed the Outliers was to let Kit play it.

“Sir,” Castle said. “May we speak in the hall?” He stood, heading to the door.

Sanborn stilled, gaze trained on Kit, as if Castle hadn’t spoken or moved.

Everyone in the Gray Box joked that Castle was Sanborn’s protégé. Nothing could be further from the truth. Knox—the second-in-command, who’d been deployed for what felt like an eternity—was the legitimate holder of that title. But the boss had taken a special liking to Castle, put extra effort into grooming him.

Sanborn, Knox, and Castle were cut from the same cloth. They shared the same vision of the world. The odds were always stacked against them. Winning came with the cost of blood-stained hands and sleepless nights. They had all lost battle brothers and understood how this job hollowed you out over time. The enemy didn’t play by the rules, so those rules needed to change. It was why the Gray Box had been created.

Sometimes they had to go to great lengths to protect this country. Without apology. But this wasn’t one of those times.

“Sir,” Castle repeated, catching Sanborn’s gaze. “One minute.”

The two of them stepped into the hall where their conversation wouldn’t be overheard.

Castle had to choose his words carefully. As prior spec ops and the former director of the CIA’s covert ops division, Sanborn had earned his reputation as the Black Ops Whisperer. He ran the Gray Box with shrewd precision and rarely entertained an alternative course of action.

“Miss Westcott wants to cooperate, but she’s terrified. Of us. I believe the more she feels like she can trust us, the more of an asset she’d be. We need the hard drive, but she wants to make sure that we only get information that pertains to the Outliers’ most recent job. A balls-to-the-wall approach isn’t necessary and may do more harm than good. She has a heart condition.” And an even bigger mistrust condition that bordered on paranoia. “We should tread carefully.”

The idea of bullying Kit left a bad taste in his mouth. Much less allowing her to be locked up and interrogated. Or worse. No telling what the undue stress of confirming her ugliest suspicions about covert agencies would do to her, assuming her heart didn’t give out first.

Always ready to defend those who are unable to defend themselves. That was the Navy SEAL creed.

Once a SEAL, always a SEAL. Even though they’d given him the heave-ho, the ethos was ingrained in his core values. He could do his job, as always, and protect her. The two were not mutually exclusive. To do one was not a betrayal of the other.

“What do you propose?”

That Sanborn was willing to bend an ear to Castle’s opinion was a testament to their close rapport.

“Let me take her to get the drive. She’ll make a copy of the information that we need. Willow can decrypt it and I’ll keep Miss Westcott safe until she’s no longer in danger.”

“I don’t trust her. She’s holding something back. And your skill set would be put to better use working this in Black Ops. I’ll assign Danny to protect her.”

Daniel Cutter—a young, energetic analyst with a Marine Force Recon background—was weapons qualified but hadn’t seen serious action in the field in years. The highly trained operators Castle had faced in the park would eat him alive.

Sanborn had no idea what they were up against.

“Kit realizes how precarious her situation is and that our interests are aligned,” Castle said. The boss tipped his chin up at that, so Castle sought to clarify. “She needs us to protect her just as much as we need that hard drive. I’m sure Cutter can knock the skin off a pudding, but those guys in the park were highly skilled. Sharp. This is too much for him. And Kit has faith in my ability to protect her. That’s a huge first step. Subbing in someone new now would only hinder our chances to catch these guys.”

“Danny sits behind a desk because of family obligations, but he’s more than capable. You obviously feel some sense of personal responsibility for this woman. God only knows why.”

Herein lay the fundamental difference between Castle and his boss. For Castle, if he saved a life, he was responsible for that life. While Sanborn believed if he saved a life, that person was now indebted to him.

“You think she’s hiding something,” Castle said, and she very well might be. Slim odds she’d divulged everything, but that didn’t mean what she kept to herself was tantamount to treason. “Whatever it might be, I’ll suss it out. If there are any holes in her story, I can get close enough to find them.” And he would. She was no Mata Hari and he didn’t have to use the brute force of a hammer to crack her defenses. A scalpel would work far better. “I’ve established a degree of trust I can capitalize on. She’s more likely to lower her guard with me than anyone else at this point.”

Sanborn nodded. “We’ll let her retrieve the drive and you watch her very closely. I wouldn’t put it past her to have some tricks up her sleeve. But I want the original hardware. We have to be certain she’s not hiding critical information and the other contents could pose a risk to national security.”