The drive to the cabin took four hours. Marcus drove the whole way in silence. Tanya sat in the passenger seat, staring out at the dark trees passing by. Her fingers stayed tucked inside her jacket, curled around the silver thumb drive. It was the only thing that felt real anymore.
"We're almost there," Marcus said. His voice was rough. He looked exhausted. The purple bruises on his neck from the sonic trap looked painful in the dim light of the dashboard.
"Is it safe?" Tanya asked. She hadn't spoken in an hour, and her voice sounded thin.
"It's as safe as it gets," Marcus replied. He turned the steering wheel hard as the road changed from pavement to dirt. "No cell towers out here. No smart-meters. If they want to find us, they'll have to do it the old-fashioned way. They'd have to track our tires in the mud."
The car bumped over rocks and fallen branches. Finally, the headlights hit a small wooden building. It looked lonely and cold against the dark woods.
Inside, the air was freezing. Marcus went straight to the hearth to start a fire. Tanya sat at a small wooden table. She pulled out the silver drive and set it down. It looked out of place against the scratched, old wood of the table.
"I need to see what's on it," she said.
Marcus pulled a heavy, older laptop from his bag. "It's air-gapped. That means no internet. If we plug this in, the drive can't send a signal back to the Agency. They won't know we've opened it."
Tanya nodded, but her mind was elsewhere. She was thinking about Roman. She wondered if he was sleeping, or if he was still awake, staring at the empty side of their bed. She didn't know that at this very moment, Roman was miles away, putting on a tuxedo for a gala. She didn't know he was stepping into a world of bright lights and expensive lies with a woman named Anya on his arm.
Tanya felt a sharp pull in her heart. It was a strange feeling, like a warning. She wanted to call him. She wanted to tell him she was alive and that she had found a lead on Angie. But she couldn't. To the world, she was a dead woman. If she showed her face, the people who stole her daughter would finish the job.
"Tanya?" Marcus called softly. The laptop was open now. The screen cast a pale blue light over the room. "Ready?"
She stood up and walked over to him. "Do it."
Marcus pushed the silver drive into the port. For a few seconds, the screen stayed black. Then, a single loading bar appeared.
0%... 12%... 24%...
"It's encrypted with a slow-roll timer," Marcus muttered. He rubbed his eyes. "It's going to take a few hours to unpack. We should try to get some rest."
Tanya looked at the fire. The flames were small and orange, eating away at the damp wood. "I can't sleep, Marcus. Every second we wait, Angie is alone in that Zero-State place. Wherever that is."
Marcus stood up. He didn't touch her, but he stood close enough that Tanya could feel the warmth from him. It had been a long time since anyone had stood that close to her without wanting something.
"We're going to find her," Marcus said. His voice was low. "You've come further than anyone else ever has. The Protocol works because people give up. You didn't."
Tanya looked up at him. The silence in the cabin felt different now. It wasn't just about the mission anymore.
"Why are you really here, Marcus?" she asked. "You're a detective. You could have stayed out of this. You're risking everything for a woman who technically doesn't exist."
Marcus looked at the fire, his expression hard to read. "Maybe I'm just tired of the bad guys having all the power. Or maybe I just want to see the look on their faces when someone they tried to delete ruins their whole plan."
He didn't mention the way his heart hammered when she looked at him. He didn't mention that he hadn't felt this alive in years.
"Sleep, Tanya," he said, turning back to the computer. "I'll watch the bar. When it hits a hundred, we'll have the coordinates."
Tanya nodded and lay down on the small sofa by the fire. She closed her eyes, but sleep wouldn't come. She saw the blue strobing lights from the gallery. She saw Roman's face. She saw the silver drive on the table, pulsing with the secret location of her daughter.
The hunt was moving into the light. In the city, Roman was hunting for answers at a gala. Here in the woods, Tanya was hunting for a map.
Both of them were looking for the same thing. They just didn't know they were on the same side yet.