Chapter  The Judas Factor

I stared out the window of the jet as the desert stretched beneath us, endless and unforgiving. The sun was just beginning to rise, casting a blood-orange hue across the dunes, like the earth itself was warning us to turn back.

But there was no turning back now.

Lucien sat across from me, his head bowed, fingers steepled. He’d been like that since takeoff—silent, brooding, armor on. I could tell he was replaying every move we’d made, every clue we’d followed, wondering where we’d missed Harvey. How he’d slipped through the cracks. How Wallace had gotten to him.

I hated the silence between us.

Mostly because...