Stories and examples followed, and those produced names, and of those names, Liv Wilson kept coming back.

She was the redhead whose face filled the tablet screen right now.

Wilson didn’t hold the most senior position in the kill-team hierarchy, but as second in command and the one responsible for so much of Kara’s current predicament, she would be the easiest for Kara to give up without violating her conscience, and conscience mattered. Karma could be a bitch like that.

Jill drank down the last of the coffee and carried the tablet next door.

Kara looked up, closed the book she was reading.

Jill said, “We’ll be arriving in Chicago in a few hours.”

“Is that where you plan to let me go?”

“It’ll be another few days before this is over.”

Kara shook her head, as if reiterating what she’d said at their first meeting just wasn’t worth the effort, and she looked away.

Jill sat, tucked her feet up, placed the tablet on the table.

Kara, like Jack, valued information more than just about anything, and information was what she’d held back.

Information was where this was headed now.

Jill said, “Explain to me why your people want to kill my brother.”

Kara hesitated, as if she wasn’t sure if she’d been asked a trick question or if she needed to state the obvious. She said, “He’s an assassin they can’t control, and they want to eliminate future risk.”

“Yes, but in the immediate sense.”

“To prevent an immediate assassination.”

Jill said, “Do they know who the target is?”

Kara didn’t answer.

Jill said, “Yeah, I didn’t think so. Makes sense, really, because my brother isn’t the assassin they should be worried about. The same guys who, quote-unquote, ‘hired’ him—and trust me, there’s no money involved, only blackmail—they’re the ones who pointed you to him in the first place.”

Kara’s gaze slowly tracked her way.

Jill could see her mind running, reorganizing, and categorizing existing intelligence to accommodate new data, so much like her brother’s. She said, “You don’t think it’s odd that you’ve known what cities he flies into and where he’s meeting but not who he’s killing? Moscow has been playing you—your branch, division, whatever it is you guys are—keeping you focused on him so you don’t look at me.”