Page 69 of Critical Strike
Where was she on the decryption?
She licked her parched lips. “We could back him up, you know.”
“You won’t be alive long enough to back him up, Claire.” He laughed softly, but there was a hardness in his eyes. That hardness was always there. It always had been. She had only tried to ignore it back in the day when he was nothing but her boss.
He had always been empty.
“You think you’re going to kill me now?” She snickered the way he had.Let him see how good it felt to be laughed at.“You’ve tried all this time... You think you’ll succeed now?”
“You were stupid enough to walk in here and make it easy for me.” He threw his hands into the air with a dramatic sigh. “Come on, Claire, I know you. I know everything about you. Which was why I knew you couldn’t have been brave enough to face those men if you weren’t absolutely certain they wouldn’t kill you.”
“I wasn’t certain... The other one could’ve shot me. And the fall from the bridge could’ve—”
His sharp bark of laughter cut her off. “Please. A cowardly thing like you? Sure, you might take a risk to avoid capture, but we both know you would’ve collapsed and trembled like a leaf if you hadn’t gone into that situation with at least a fair degree of certainty of your success.”
Before she had the chance to tell him off, he continued, “I know everything there is to know about you. Don’t you understand that by now? How did you think I was able to track down your former foster families?”
A lump lodged in her throat. She pressed her lips together to keep from letting out a sob.
The corners of his mouth twitched, and she realized he enjoyed watching her suffer in silence.
“I know your pain points. I know your weaknesses. Information is my stock-in-trade, Claire. You ought to know that by now. Isn’t that what this is all about?”
“Information?”
“And the power it holds. Mind you, only the right sort of person can wield that power. Only they can take that information and turn it into something useful. Even the sharpest blade is nothing in the hands of a rube.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You will keep nothing in mind.” His playful, toying expression shifted, hardened.
He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a semiautomatic. “Though I’m glad we had this time together, Claire...really, I am. I wanted to explain myself to you before bringing an end to your useless little life.”
“Useless?” She forced herself to not flinch away from the sight of the gun and maintain eye contact. “I created the program you’re going to use to steal that all-powerful information you have such a craving for. How does that make me useless?”
“Because you would’ve left it lying there! All that knowledge. All that power. Right within your grasp, and you would’ve let a golden opportunity pass you by! Too concerned with honesty and integrity and all the pretty words people use to mask their weakness. Their aversion to doing what needs to be done to get them what they want.”
“I didn’t want that. Neither did Julia.”
“Which is why you are both expendable. The world is no place for the weak, Claire. I’m only culling the herd.”
She went cold when he raised the gun and leveled it at her. His hand trembled, but only slightly. He would make the shot.
Which was when the sweetest sound in the world met her ears.
The soft chime of a program reaching its conclusion.
There was no holding back her smile. “Thank you, Mr. Ballard.”
His brow furrowed, his gun still pointed at her chest. “For what?”
“For giving my decryption program the time it needed to complete its job.”
It was all worth it.
The terror. The running. The pain. Knowing her life could end at any time.
It was worth it just to watch the brief flash of fear wash over his face.