Chapter 162 Neither Refuse nor Agree

Chapter 162 Neither Refuse nor Agree

Nora's back hit the chair.

The chair scraped loud against the floor, the sound bouncing twice through the empty conference room.

She stared at the circuit board.

There was a tiny mark on it — smaller than a grain of rice, invisible unless you got right up close. But she'd seen it before.

In Todd's basement. Next to that map covered in markers — on the back of a photo pinned to the top.

Ryder was Todd's plant.

Todd had put someone inside her personal guard.

And that afternoon — no, yesterday afternoon — when he'd sat across from her on that call, he'd talked about Julian, about her brother's painting, about The Ashes money laundering operation.

Not a single word about Ryder.

Nora stood up, the circuit board still pinched between her fingers.

Her hand was shaking.

Her phone rang.

Todd's name flashed on the screen.

She picked up. Said nothing.

"You found Ryder?"

Todd's voice came through flat. Like he was confirming something he'd already expected.

"You should have told me first."

Nora's voice was quiet. Quiet enough that Ryder, two meters away, might not have caught it.

"If I had, your attitude toward him would've changed. And if Ian noticed that shift, he wouldn't have exposed himself so fast."

Nora pressed her back teeth together. The crown on the left side dug into her gum with a dull, steady ache.

She wanted to argue.

But she knew he was right.

If she'd known ahead of time that Ryder was hers, any interaction she had with the whole guard unit — even a one-percent difference in how she acted — could've been picked up by Ian.

Eight years at her side. Ian's eye for detail wouldn't be dull.

"It won't happen again. I won't put someone near you without you knowing." Todd's pace slowed just slightly. "But this time — I needed to know who else was protecting you besides me. And who was selling you out."

Nora didn't answer.

She flipped the circuit board over. The back was smooth, no markings at all.

Ryder sat across from her, perfectly still.

"Keep Ryder's contact protocol. If you need him later, use whatever process you two work out." Todd added, "I know about the signal sniffer. That blip from Ryder — he let it show on purpose. He'd read that Ian was already moving, so he used the scanner ping to tip you off that one of the sniffers would react."

Nora lowered her hand.

That 0.3-second signal spike from Ryder that night wasn't an accident, wasn't a code. It was a warning.

And she had almost put him on the suspect list.

Two seconds of silence on the line.

"Big Nory."

"Don't call me that."

Todd didn't say it again.

Nora hung up, set her phone face-down on the table.

She stood in the conference room for a moment. Ryder hadn't moved, waiting for her to speak.

"Go back and stay in position. Don't let anyone know your status changed. I'll handle the Ian fallout."

Ryder nodded and slipped out without a sound.

Storm came down from the other end of the hallway and glanced at her.

Nora picked up her phone and opened Oliver's chat.

She typed one line.

[Calla planted a signal transmitter near you. Are there any other Gray family people around you that I don't know about?]

Sent.

Three minutes passed.

Oliver's reply was short.

[Yes. But now isn't the time to tell you. Let's talk when we meet tomorrow. Bring your Todd.]

Bring your Todd.

Nora stared at that last line, her thumb resting on the edge of the screen.

She turned off the phone and walked to the door. She paused when she passed Storm.

"Tomorrow morning, get in touch with Todd for me. Tell him Oliver wants to meet."

Storm opened his mouth. Clearly had something to say.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just — Mr. Percy reaching out to Todd, that's kind of—"

"Kind of what?"

Storm swallowed the rest of it.

"Never mind. I'll make the call."

Nora went back to her room.

She closed the door, didn't turn on the light, and leaned against it.

A small patch of light sat on the ceiling — streetlight leaking through the gap in the curtains. It didn't move. Just held there, steady.

Something came to her.

What Todd had done to Oliver — placing a person inside, no advance warning, watching to confirm before coming clean — was exactly what he'd done to her.

Plant. Test. Verify. Then tell.

His version of trust was to treat you like someone he didn't trust first. Pass that, and you were in.

She'd always thought she stood somewhere between Todd and Oliver, her own person, her own judgment.

But she'd been the one under review this whole time.

Start to finish.

Nora stood in the dark until her legs went half numb, then felt her way to the bed and sat down.

The coin slipped out of its hidden pocket and landed on the sheet with a soft clink.

She looked down.

Taiping Tongbao. It lay face up. The worn mark at the bottom right of the character "Tai" was barely visible in the dim light.

Whatever Oliver had to say tomorrow — Todd held the other half of it.

What was that other half?

Why couldn't one person say it alone?

Nora picked up the coin and closed her hand around it. The metal warmed quickly against her palm.

Her phone lit up again.

Not Todd. Not Oliver. Not Storm.

Calla.

A third message from the unknown number.

[Ms. Thorne, the ink wash painting you brought last time received very high praise from Professor Wallace. I've been thinking it over, and I realize what I said before was out of line. I was hoping I might have a chance to apologize in person — tomorrow, perhaps? Wherever works for you.]

Nora held the phone, thumb sliding across the screen.

Sharp instincts on this one.

She'd been shut down at the viewing, and now she was using an apology as a stepping stone to get back in. Plenty of room to maneuver either way — if Nora said yes, Calla got a private meeting; if Nora said no, the message itself was perfectly inoffensive.

Nora thought for a moment.

She typed back four words.

[The day after. I'm busy.]

Not a no. Not a yes.

Let Calla wait one more day — by then, Nora would have what she needed from Oliver and Todd, and she could decide how to use this piece.

She turned the phone face-down on the pillow and lay on her side.

One last look at her watch before she closed her eyes.

3:41 a.m.

When daylight came, she'd be sitting between Oliver and Todd.

Two people who ran on distrust as a default.

She was curious what they'd actually say when she put them at the same table.