Mild befuddlement, perhaps. Concentration. No fear.

Hope grew inside her. She had to push on.

“It was the second program discussed, after HARBINGER,” Pryce said. “You remember that one, yes?”

Stockton’s brow knit a tiny bit more in concentration. “You may have to… refresh my memory. But just cut to the chase here.”

Confusion. Blood pressure rising the tiniest bit. Impatience.

One more. One more test.

“Yes, sir,” Pryce said. “Well, if you’ll think back to SENTINEL…”

Stockton shook his head slightly. His lips parted in apparent frustration.

Pulse rising the tiniest bit. Blood pressure also. But no real spike, no shock of recognition. No shock of being found out.

“Carolyn. Just tell me: what did you find out?”

Pryce took a breath.

God I hope I’m right about you, she thought.

“Miles Jameson ordered the creation of the PLF, Mr President. I’d bet my career on it.”

In fact, she thought, I already have.

“What?” John Stockton replied. The spike came now on screen. Icons showed his pupils dilating, his carotid artery pulsing harder and faster, betraying a rising blood pressure, a more rapidly pounding heart.

“How do you know?” Stockton demanded.

“The code words I just gave you are real, Mr President,” Pryce told him. “They were tied up with the PLF’s creation. But they weren’t in the memo that was leaked.”

Stockton was staring at her. “You were testing me.”

Pulse still rising. Blood pressure still rising. Pupils narrowing now.

Pryce pursed her lips. “You passed, Mr President. Miles Jameson didn’t.”

“Pryce,” Stockton said, his voice rising. His face was growing red. His carotid was pulsing wildly in the false color imagery.

“I have to go now, Mr President,” Carolyn Pryce said. “If anything happens to me, Jameson’s probably the one behind it.”

“Wait!” the President said. “Pryce, what are you talking about? Where are you?”

Pryce cut the connection.

Pryce pulled out her second phone, the new one Kaori had used cash to buy her for this trip, and sent a single message to Kaori. “01” Zero for Jameson. One for Stockton. She popped the data card out of her primary phone and swapped it into the new phone, tunneled the new phone to an offshore anonymizer, and started beaming the video to a pair of remote accounts she’d created for herself and Kaori.

The primary phone started ringing.

She ignored it.

Someone overrode her, forced a connection to open against her will.

She reached over and hung up on them.

This video was, if not proof, then at least circumstantial evidence of Stockton’s innocence of the PLF’s creation.

The bandwidth was terrible out here. But she had other things to do. Pryce rotated her seat to face backward, to the wide open cabin configuration many preferred. Then she opened her gear bag and started pulling out the heavy Special Forces parka, snow pants, hood, face mask, and the rest of the gear.