The Last Dive

Elena pressed her forehead against the cold glass of the forty-third floor, watching the heavy rain blur the city into abstraction. Behind her, the coiled bundle of fiber optic cable lay like a dark serpent on her desk—her extraction project, due at midnight.

She wasn't supposed to be here. Thomas had sent her home hours ago with that gentle smile she'd come to both crave and dread. You're working too hard, El. Go swim some laps. Clear your head.

He'd suggested swimming three weeks ago, after she'd broken down in the server room. Now she wondered if he'd known all along.

The email had arrived at 3:17 AM—an automated alert triggered by someone accessing the offshore accounts. The IP address traced back to Thomas's home connection.

Elena closed her eyes. The corporation called it their bull strategy—aggressive market domination, charging through competitors. But she knew what they really did with the money they siphoned from those smaller firms. And Thomas, with his Harvard MBA and his kind eyes and his terrible taste in whiskey, had been their inside man.

Or maybe he was playing both sides. The fox who'd convinced the hens he was one of them.

Her phone buzzed. A text from him: Coffee? Your favorite place.

She should walk away. Report him. Let the firm's internal security—real spies, with wiretaps and subpoendas—handle the mess.

Instead, Elena found herself typing: Meet me there in 20.

She grabbed her coat and the cable, suddenly understanding the appeal of double agents. Not the morality of it, but the thrill of straddling two worlds, of swimming in dangerous waters with people who might pull you under or teach you to breathe.

The rain was still falling as she stepped out, her reflection in the lobby glass showing someone she almost recognized—a woman who'd stopped being surprised by the ways good people justified doing terrible things.

Thomas was waiting. He looked tired, and Elena felt something dangerous and hopeful bloom in her chest.

"I know what you're doing," she said, sliding into the booth.

His expression didn't change. "I was hoping you would."