The helicopter flew southeast for forty minutes. The world below got smaller as they crossed into airspace. Kevin finally gave Eva a set of coordinates. She did not bother asking what came next. Two weeks with him had taught her that when he got quiet. His jaw tight his gaze locked on a place miles away. He was not finished yet. He was already thinking about the move already chasing things nobody else could see.
They landed on an airstrip outside Providence. The hangar smelled like fuel and fresh-cut grass. It was enough to make Eva forget for a second that the world was in trouble. One black SUV was waiting for them. The engine was humming,. The driver was nowhere to be seen.
Eva got out of the helicopter. Stood on the gravel. She looked at Kevin. "So who is driving the SUV?" she asked.
Kevin just smiled. "Nobody you will ever meet. That is the point."
Inside the SUV a tablet started working on the dash. Kevin picked it up. Looked at a lot of messages. Red alerts, news stocks going down. "Fontaine Holdings is down thirty-one percent after hours " he said. He sounded casual like he was talking about the weather. "The board is trying to get rid of the shell companies. Eleanors lawyers are trying to make a deal that nobody will like."
Eva raised an eyebrow. "You sound a little disappointed " she said.
Kevin put the tablet down. When he looked at her he seemed older. Tired. "I wanted Eleanor to feel it. I wanted it to hurt her slowly.. The internet did it all in six hours. It was not fair. It was just noise."
Eva squeezed Kevins hand. "You do not get to be sad about someone who tried to hurt you " she said.
Kevin said, "I am not sad about Eleanor. I am sad about what I thought would happen tonight. I wanted to see her realize what she had lost.. She will just spend twenty years talking to people who will never understand."
Eva laughed. It was a laugh. "You are a guy " she said.
Kevin did not disagree. "You knew that when you threw the drive in the ocean instead of giving it to me " he said.
Eva pretended to salute him. "I would not do anything differently " she said.
Kevin pulled her hand to his mouth. Kissed it. For a second he did not seem tough. "We still have problems " he said.
The SUV turned off the road onto a small track. The gravel turned to dirt. Tall trees pressed in black in the headlights.
Eva kept her voice low. "What problem? Eleanor is in trouble. The drive is gone. Are we not supposed to hide "
Kevin rubbed her palm with his thumb. He did this when he was nervous. "We cannot hide yet. Eleanor was not the one in charge. She did the work but she was not the one paying for it. Someone ordered your fathers death. Someone paid for the plan to hurt you. Eleanor had access. The money was not hers."
Eva felt a lot of weight. The relief she had been feeling was gone. It felt like she was standing on the edge of something. She did not know if she would be safe.
"Then who is behind this?" she asked.
Kevin did not answer away. He reached into his jacket. Pulled out an old black-and-white photo. He handed it to her.
Eva took the photo. There were three men in suits arms around each other. She saw Kevins father away. The second man was a mystery.. The third man she knew. He was a guy.
"Senator Marcus Whitfield " she said.
Kevins voice was quiet. "He was at your fathers funeral. He was in the row. I always thought it was weird since they had not talked in years."
Eva stared at the photo. "He gave a speech at your dads memorial too. I saw it on the news."
Kevin said, "He is good at funerals. He has been to a lot of them."
The SUV stopped next to a gate covered in ivy. The moon shone on a hangar, hidden behind trees.
Eva frowned. "What is this place?" she asked.
Kevin opened his door. "It is a place Eleanor did not know about. It is a place my dad built a time ago. It is where we start again. Where we figure out what is left to fight for."
Eva got out of the SUV her hand on her gun. "I know what I am doing " she said.
Kevin looked at her. He did not seem scared anymore. He seemed dangerous.
"Then lets see how big this problem is " he said. ". How much we can do before anyone notices."
The helicopter flew away its lights disappearing into the sky. In a house in Washington a phone rang. It was next, to a photo that nobody talked about anymore.
It turns out the story was not yet. It was just getting started.