“What?” Color came up beneath Jack’s cheeks. “Of course you’re free to leave. What do you think this is?”

“I don’t know. What is this?”

“This is me saving your ass.”

“Well, you haven’t exactly been forthcoming these past eight years. So forgive me if the issue of trust is in question.”

Jack let that one ring off the walls for a moment. He templed his fingers, looked down at them. “I have a fake driver’s license for you, cash, all that. You’re free to leave as soon as you’re rested up. I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

“Where’s the nearest road?”

“Four-point-three klicks downslope.” He rasped a hand across his chin. “You gonna hitchhike out of here, Evan? In the shape you’re in? That’d show me, all right.”

Evan bit his lip hard, let his thoughts boil. His head throbbed, but he pretended he didn’t notice. “How’d you get onto me?” he finally asked.

“I didn’t. Van Sciver locked on after the money wire. I keep an eye on Van Sciver. Once word went out wide on the auction—”

“You’re watching him?”

“Mostly unsuccessfully. For years now. As he tries to watch me. Shadow games.”

“You’re not sanctioned.”

“Nope. I’m as dead and gone as you are.” That half smirk. “But I’ve still got friends in low places.”

“Have you seen Van Sciver face-to-face?”

“No. This is the closest we’ve come.” Jack reached into the drawer, came out with a time-stamped satellite image zoomed in on the chalet.

Evan stared at it incredulously. “You still have access to birds?”

“Depends who you ask.”

The grainy photo captured Van Sciver’s face pointed up at the sky, nothing more than a dark oval beneath the raised hood of the cloak—the precise moment Evan remembered before blacking out. SUVs spotted the driveway around Van Sciver, a frenzy of beetles.

Evan stared at the blurry form. “The hell’s he wearing?”

“A Faraday-cage cloak. The metallized fabric blocks RF signals, X-rays, thermal imaging—even blocks him from drones.”

“He looks like Gandalf.”

“You know how he is. Trinkets and paranoia—they’re like catnip to him. He’s the only person worse than us.”

Evan’s head suddenly felt quite heavy. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

“Later, Evan.”

Evan was too weak to argue. “What did you get on René?”

“René?”

“The guy who took me. Who held the auction.”

“Everyone dispersed after your rescue—”

“It was an escape.”

Jack showed his palms. “Okay. After your escape they didn’t find much at the chalet. Auto-erase features were remote-initiated on the hard drives, so all those surveillance cams? They proved worthless.”

“How are you getting this intel if you’re off the grid?”

“Three decades in the shadow service, I still got plenty of baited lines on the inside.”