George touched Arena’s shoulder. It had been at least two hours since the meeting started. He held out a flash drive.

  “I think you might want to go wake him,” George said. “It might be easier if he knew before he got here.”

  Arena could see his point. She accepted the flash drive, spinning it in her fingers. Yates nodded calmly at her.

  She heard the shower running when she got to Sterling’s room. Waiting until she he was moving around, she knocked.

  “Give me a moment, Arena,” he said through the intercom. Arena unconsciously looked for cameras planted in the hallway.

  He opened the door, dressed in a light blue button-down shirt and black pants, but his dark hair was wet and curling around the edges of his forehead. He motioned her inside. The blue in his shirt intensified the blue in his eyes. The room was still humid from the shower.

  “It must be really bad, judging by the expression on your face. What did you find?”

  She held out the flash drive to him. He took it and plugged it into a netbook. His face paled as he began to read through it. “How did you get this?’

  Arena sighed. “Yates is here, with Sophia. He’s been tracking a rogue group for a while, and he thinks Celeste is a part of it.”

  She could see him gritting his teeth, but as he paged through it, his jaw relaxed. “They’re pinning him. And he knows it.”

  “He said he thought there was only one person he could trust who could trace the information farther.”

  His head whipped toward her, and then he smirked. “Of course he did.”

  Walking over to him, Arena put her hand on his shoulder. “Even if we can’t trust him completely, he did bring all of this to us. It’s enough to severely damage him and his reputation. I think he trusts us, even if we don’t trust him.”

  He took a deep breath. “You’re probably right. It doesn’t make sense, otherwise. And I was already pretty sure he wasn’t involved.” He started collecting gear, including his netbook and the flash drive.

  When they got to the conference room, George was gone and Sophia was taking notes while Yates spoke. Yates stood up and offered his hand to Sterling. She saw Sterling hesitate, but then he shifted his gear to his left hand, and shook Yates’ hand.

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  “I realize I’m not your favorite person, Flynn,” he said. “But you’re the best, and I have no hesitation in admitting that. You always have been.”

  Sterling seemed to be speechless. He put his stuff down in an attempt to cover his surprise, then cleared his throat.

  “Yes, well, it seems we have a common enemy this time,” Sterling responded.

  A flash of something passed over Yates’ face. He opened his mouth, then closed it. Then he turned to Sophia. “Agent Kershaw, would you mind checking to see if the computer expert is here yet? Acevedo?” He turned to Sterling with his eyebrows raised.

  “Correct. Anita Acevedo.”

  He turned back to Sophia. “Take a flash drive and the notes with you.”

  Yates turned to gesture at Arena. “Does she know what happened to create the Misfits?”

  Sterling nodded. “She does.”

  “Very well,” he said. He sat down in a chair. “I know you must hate me, and you probably won’t believe me, but none of that was real.”

  Sterling said nothing, but looked like he might ship Yates out to the crazy farm in a large box with a COD.

  “I was already finding evidence of the rogue group. I needed someone to help me find out more, and you were always the best person for the job.” Yates grimaced at Sterling. “I tried to cause a scene, thinking you might give in so you could keep your job, and then I would bring you in later and make you understand it was just a cover. Some of that ‘extra’ work I had you do was research for that group. I wanted to make it look like we didn’t get along, so nobody would suspect we were tracking the group.”

  Sterling’s expression changed from shock to suspicion to disbelief.

  “I never hated you, Flynn.” Yates said. “Quite the opposite. You have always been one of the few people I truly respected. When ADD Flinthaven told me he created a new unit for you, and it would be in New York, I tried to stop it because I needed you in D. C. I couldn’t afford to let you leave. I’ve spent two years trying to determine how to pull you back to D. C. or at least involve your unit here. It seems that fate did that for me.”

  Sterling stumbled backward until he found a chair, then he slowly sat down, gripping the side of the chair. After a moment, he finally said, “Strangely enough, I believe you. That explains some of those bizarre assignments.” He still looked a little suspicious, but also relieved. “I think I can trace your financial data to the real source. I didn’t look at it in detail, but I saw a few discrepancies.”

  “I never doubted you couldn’t,” Yates said. “I’ve spent hours poring over the data, but I know I’m overlooking something.” He turned to Arena and winked, “By the way, I hope you weren’t too intimidated by that meeting. I have a reputation to protect. Being known as the ambitious, power-hungry guy is harder to maintain than it looks.”

  Arena turned from him to Sterling and back and didn’t know what to say.

  “Well, I’m glad I got some sleep,” said Sterling, standing up and gathering his gear. “Let me get to work.” Sterling turned to Arena. “Teach Agent Kershaw to ride that thing, as much as possible.” Arena nodded at him.

  Sterling turned to Yates, “I don’t suppose you are staying through the mission?”

  “I plan to be on it,” Yates said. “With your permission, of course.”

  “It might not work without you,” said Sterling. “We don’t have a tank.”

  “Fair enough, I think I can manage to be your warrior. Though Agent Kershaw is quite talented as well.”