“That’s not going to happen. Not this time,” I said, and that ghost of a smile returned.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Kitty. We both know eventually you’re going to directly disobey me and do something monumentally stupid, and once again, I’ll be the one cleaning up the mess.”
“I’ll try my best not to, then,” I said. He nodded.
“That’s more like it.”
A moment passed, and we could have easily slid into comfortable silence. Instead, I watched him, and he held my gaze, and in that moment, I felt as if I could ask him anything and he wouldn’t say no.
“What was your brother’s name?” I said, before I even realized I was speaking. But I didn’t regret it, unlike most things I blurted out, and while his eyebrows twitched upward, he didn’t shut me out like he could have.
“Maddox,” he said. “I called him Max, because I couldn’t pronounce Maddox. He couldn’t say Lennox, either.”
“And that’s where Knox came from?” I said, and he flashed me a tight smile.
“Exactly.”
Despite the pain in his eyes as we spoke about his brother, there was also a warmth that emanated from him, unlike anything I’d ever seen from him before. He told me about some of his favorite memories with his brother who barely spoke—only to him, he admitted, and even then, those instances were rare—and as he went on, answering my steady stream of questions openly, I realized what was different.
I’d never seen him talk about someone he loved before.
This was the Knox who was my friend. The one I trusted, the one I believed in. And there, in the middle of the sky, with nothing but air between us and the rest of the world, I was grateful to have a glimpse of him again.
Eventually our conversation died down, but I sat across from Knox for the rest of the flight, staying away from the others. Occasionally one of us would say something, spurring a short exchange, but we always reverted back to companionable silence. It was nice, in a way. But it didn’t do much to quell the anxiety forming in the pit of my stomach over what we were about to do.
As we began our descent outside D.C., I couldn’t help but wonder how many of us would make it back alive. Because if there was one thing I’d learned working with Knox, it was that nothing ever went completely according to plan.
“Soldiers,” said Knox as soon as we’d landed in the middle of a snowy field. “Your job is simple. Protect the plane.”
Several of them gaped at him. “Excuse me?” said one man with a blond goatee.
“You heard me. Protect the plane,” said Knox. “It’s our ticket back to Elsewhere. If the government spots it, we’re on our own, and believe me, it’s a very long walk back to safety.”
He led me down the ramp and across the snowy field, toward a waiting black car. I glanced over my shoulder to see the soldiers circling the plane with their weapons at the ready, as if there were battalions of government agents waiting for us to land in this very spot. At least they were taking their mission seriously.
“They thought they were going to come with us into the city,” I said as I climbed in on the passenger side. Knox sat in the driver’s seat and turned the key hanging in the ignition.
“Strand and Benjy and the entire lot of them would never have let us come if they knew it was only the two of us,” said Knox as the engine purred to life. “We’re both too important to go anywhere without a security detail tailing us.”
“But that’s exactly what we’re doing.” I wasn’t afraid, not exactly, but the more guns we had, the better our chances were. If someone took Knox out, I would have no idea what to do or where to go. And if someone took me out—Knox didn’t know where to find the file. Our mission would be a failure.
“What they don’t know won’t hurt them, and the only way to get this done quickly and efficiently is if it’s essential personnel only,” said Knox.
“Us,” I said, and he nodded.
“Us.”
I examined the screen on the dashboard. The radio was muted, but red arrows pointed along the road, no doubt heading straight for Somerset. “Did this car appear out of nowhere?”
“I made a call before we left. Celia restored communications after she took over Somerset, and Sampson dropped it off for us. No one knows we’re coming but him.” Knox pressed the accelerator, and we took off down the dirt road. “Where did you hide the file, Kitty? Are you going to have to go into the vents to get it?”
I nodded. “It won’t take me long.”
“Are you going to tell me where it is, or am I going to be surprised?”
I shifted in my seat to face him. “Remember when you pretended to kill Benjy in front of me and let me believe he was dead for days?”
Knox’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Surprise, then. Never been a fan.”