Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Harper’s POV

“Who?” I asked.

“Leo Chen,” Ethan said. “A friend from years back. Disguise work, identity fabrication, close- quarters extraction. He’s good. And he doesn’t exist on any database you’d care to check.

Lily raised an eyebrow from the sofa. “You always manage to know the strangest people.”

Ethan shrugged. “You always manage to know the loudest ones. We all have our types.”

She threw a cushion at him. He caught it without looking.

I sat on the arm of the chair and let the silence settle. Then I spoke.

“Ok, fine. Here’s what happens.” Every eye turned to me. “Leo goes in alone. He sits at the table. Marcus brings the USB. Leo needs to get him to put it on the surface-just for 2 second. Long enough for the swap.”

I looked at Ryder. “While they’re at the table, your team creates a distraction. Something loud. Something that pulls Marcus’s attention away from the table for one to two seconds. Marcus will look. That’s human reflex.”

Ryder nodded slowly. “No problem.”

I turned back to Ethan. “In that window-while Marcus is looking away-you walks past the table. Bumps it. Drops the duplicate. Leo palms the real one and slides the fake into its place.”

“Get it.” Ethan nodded.

“Okay. It’s up to you now.” I looked at them seriously. They nodded.

The next afternoon, I sat in the back seat of a grey sedan parked two blocks from the Central Public Library.

Through the windshield, I watched the library’s second-floor windows. I couldn’t see inside-the glass was reflective-but I knew the layout. I’d pulled the floor plans online. The reading room,

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Chapter 39

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second floor, east side. Long wooden tables. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Sightlines terrible for surveillance, which was exactly why Marcus had chosen it.

At 2:03 pm, Leo walked through the front entrance.

He was a figure in a dark jacket, moving at a casual pace, then he went upstairs. Out of sight.

I checked my watch.

At 2:11 pm, Marcus arrived.

He came through the front door. His shoulders squared, eyes scanning, hand always near his jacket pocket. He walked to the staircase, paused, checked behind him, then went up.

I pressed the earpiece tighter against my ear. Static. Then Ethan’s voice, low and even, from somewhere inside the building.

“Leo is seated. Marcus approaching. Table four, east reading room.”

“Copy.”

Inside the library, Leo sat at the table by the window, a paperback open in front of him like he’d been reading for hours. He didn’t look up when Marcus pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down.

Marcus didn’t put the USB on the table. He kept his left hand pressed flat against his chest, right over the inner pocket where it lived.

“You look unfamiliar,” Marcus said. His voice was rough, suspicious. “Are you really Everly’s assistant?”

“Of course. But not for long. Everly wasn’t an easy person to work with. “Leo replied.

Marcus hummed. “How do you know about the USB?”

“I was his assistant.” Leo closed the book. Set it aside. “When he died, his things went through my hands. I paid attention. The USB was one of the things he mentioned. More than once.”

“Why help me?” Marcus’s voice dropped. “You don’t know me. You don’t know what’s on that drive.”

Leo shrugged. “I don’t need to. I want money. A lot of it. You want the files decrypted. I know the encryption system. We each get what we want.”

Marcus studied him. The silence stretched. Then, slowly, he nodded. People are greedy. With so

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Chapter 39

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