“Let it finish out, Reva.”
“Hurry up. Just hurry up. I want to get out of here.”
“It’s all right, Reva.” Caro spoke softly. “Only a little more, and it’ll be done. Everything’s going to be all right.”
“Nothing’s all right. Nothing’s going to be all right again.”
No secondary device detected. Single electronic device, operable, subdermal, section two. Request command to mark location.
“Do so,” Roarke ordered.
There was a quick hum, a flash. Reva slapped a hand at the back of her neck, as though she’d been stung by a bee.
Eval and scan complete.
“Save and display all data. Release seal, end program.”
The lights in the tube winked off, and the door opened.
“Inside me? Under my skin.” She held her hand cupped over the back of her neck. “How could I not know? I swear to God, I swear I didn’t know.”
“I never thought you did. Sit down now.”
“An internal. It would require a procedure. I haven’t had a procedure. It can’t be there.”
“It is there.” Roarke drew her to a chair, stepped back when Caro sat beside her, took her hand. “Planted there without your knowledge, without your acquiescence.”
“I’d have had to have been unconscious. I haven’t been unconscious.”
“You’ve been asleep, haven’t you?” Eve broke in. “Somebody’s asleep, it’s not hard to give them a little bump with a pressure syringe and take them under. Or to slip something into food or drink so they’d sleep through an implant.”
“I sleep at home, in my own damn bed. The only person who’d be able to pull off something like that would’ve been . . . Blair,” she finished on a shaky breath. “But that’s crazy. He didn’t know anything about internals or subderma1 devices.”
She saw the look Roarke and Eve exchanged. “What is this? What the hell is this?”
“I didn’t tell her, Lieutenant.” Roarke inclined his head. “It wasn’t my place to.”
Eve stepped up to Reva. “You’re going to have to toughen up, because this is going to be a punch in the face.”
She told Reva the way she’d want to be told. Straight, clean, without emotion. She watched her sag, lose color, saw the tears swim into her eyes. But they didn’t fall, and the color came back.
“He . . . they marked me, as a source for information.” Her voice was hoarse. “To spy, through me, on Securecomp, and possibly other areas of Roarke Industries through my mother. Also . . .” She paused, cleared her throat and spoke in stronger tones. “It makes sense to assume they were using my connection with the Secret Service, President Foster, and members of her staff I remain friendly with. They would, through this implant, have recorded any and all conversations, professional and personal.”
She took the glass of water Peabody brought over without glancing up. “I have, in my supervisory position at Securecomp, numerous discussions every day with techs, giving directives, receiving status reports. It’s my habit to log my own reports verbally. It helps me to see the progress, or any necessity for a new direction. They’d know everything about my projects, and any I assisted on since they put this thing in me. They were sucking me dry, the two of them. Every day. Every day.”
She looked up at Roarke. “I betrayed you after all.”
“You did not.” Caro’s tone was harsh and impatient. “You were betrayed, and that’s a difficult thing. But feeling sorry for yourself isn’t productive. No one’s blaming you, and blaming yourself at this point is an indulgence you can’t afford.”
“I’m entitled to a little brooding time when I’ve been technologically raped, for God’s sake.”
“Brood later. How do we remove it?” Caro asked Roarke, then shifted her gaze to Eve. “Or do we?”
“I thought about leaving it in. It’s an option, but I’d rather have it out. I’d rather, if anyone’s still listening, that they know we’re onto them. It could bring them to the surface faster.”
“They killed Blair and Felicity, and set me up. Why?”
“The setup? I’d say because you were convenient. As to the hit, I don’t know yet. Maybe it was HSO, maybe it was the other side. Either way, they knew how to get in, how to corrupt data, and how to get you where they wanted you to take the fall. All that took some time and some planning. Either Bissel or Kade, maybe both of them, were marked for termination. When I find out why, I can work from there.”