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The second Brooke and I were in the car, and she’d turned it on and set the radio to the faux station that was progra devices, Brooke leaned her head back against the headrest, closed her eyes, and sat that way for several seconds

“Brooke?”

Her eyes snapped open, and it was suddenly like nothing had ever happened Tea Guys hadn’t told the two of us to leave A crazy driver hadn’t almost turned me into a Toby pancake

“What?” Brooke’s tone was high and clear and absolutely brittle

“What just happened back there?” I’d gotten the general gist of the Big Guys’ orders, but I wanted specifics

“We went shopping,” Brooke said, playing dumb “We ate ice cream and Chinese food and talked about boys It was fun”

“That’s one word for it”

“Just drop it, Toby”

I snorted If she thought that was going to work, she wasn’t nearly as s

“Are the Big Guys sending a team in?” I decided to try my luck with a very specific question

“No” Brooke’s answer surprised me She didn’t elaborate

“What do you mean, ‘no’? An individual e think is in Bayport to purchase a biological weapon just went into the evil law fir Guys don’t think this merits a team?”

For a split second, I foundthe conclusion I’d reached about the CIA knowing about Alan Peyton’s connection to the firent and nobody realized it butthe shots on ourfor the enemy? What if…

“Amelia doesn’t have the weapon” Brooke finally ieneral direction, and it stoppedin its tracks “Our superiors have ID’d the seller, and whatever the bioweapon is, he still has it The deal isn’t going down until later this week”

Well, that was the first piece of good nee’d had all day Incidentally, it also made me feel like an idiot for every ridiculous question I’d let entermyself for that, I pressed on

“And?” I prompted her for more information

“And what?”

“That’s not all they told you” Somehoas sure of this fact

Brooke bleisp of hair out of her face and took the car around a corner a little faster than was strictly necessary “Do the math, Toby If Amelia doesn’t have the weapon, ould we stop her fro with Peyton? We still have an audio feed in one of their offices The signal’s scrambled, but some intel is better than none”

I felt every bit as stupid as Brooke’s tone said I was for notthe connection earlier I was the one who’d planted the bug at Peyton This was our chance to use it

“What about the weapon?” I asked This was about as far into “sharing” ot, and since the two of us were stuck in a car together anyway, I was going to press her for as ested that this course of action ht not be in my best interest healthwise