Eva barely made it three blocks before Kevins van pulled up. The side door opened long enough for her to jump in and then it closed as they drove away through Georgetown. They blended in with all the delivery vans on the streets.
Kevin looked at the monitors. Watched the townhouse erupt into chaos. Guests ran out onto the sidewalk and security people talked into radios. A black SUV sped away from the curb and Eva saw Whitfield in the seat talking on his phone.
"That went well " Kevin said quietly.
Eva took out her diamond earpiece. Caught her breath. "He did not even try to deny it. He just told me I had no idea what I had started. He said that twice."
Kevins face got tight. He got that still look the one Eva had seen before when he was thinking fast. "That is not a denial " he said. "That is a warning."
They left the flashing lights behind. Got on the parkway. Eva took off her heels. Put the sidearm back in her holster. She finally let herself breathe.
"So what did we actually start?" she asked.
Kevin did not answer away. He switched to a feed. This was not the townhouse anymore. He brought up a tracker and Eva saw three dots moving around the East Coast.
"I put something in the files I sent " he said. "Not just financial records. I put in a tracker. If certain people downloaded and opened it people whose devices were flagged in my fathers systems it sent their location to me."
Eva thought this was about exposing Whitfield.
"It was " Kevin said. ". It still is." Kevins jaw got set. "I thought Whitfield answered to somebody. I did not expect three people to open that file within four minutes after it went to two hundred inboxes." He turned the monitor toward Eva. She saw three blinking dots, one in McLean, Virginia another in Geneva and the last one on a private boat in the middle of the Atlantic.
"Who are they?" Eva asked.
Kevin shook his head. "I have no idea. Their devices are encrypted, grade, not corporate. Whoever they are they are not investors or lobbyists. They are something " His voice got low. Eva heard the fear under it. "Eva I think tonight was not about laundering schemes. I think we knocked on a door that goes far deeper than Eleanor, Whitfield or even my father."
Eva stared at the three dots and she felt that old feeling, like the plan was getting out of control. It was like standing on a rooftop edge the ground shifting. It was getting farther away.
"How deep does it go?" she whispered.
Kevin looked at her. "I do not know. My father built a server farm, something hidden just in case someone came looking.. He was not afraid of Eleanor or Whitfield. You do not spend thirty years building a server farm to protect yourself from a stepmother and a senator." For the time since Tangier Eva saw something in Kevin that was not calculation or grief or lust. He was really uneasy. "I think he was afraid of whoever's on that boat."
It got quiet. The only sounds were the tires humming and the trackers quiet ping. The three dots were still like they were waiting, until they vanished at once.
Kevin leaned in fast. "That is not a signal drop. That is a kill switch. Someone figured out we are watching."
Eva felt a cold clarity wash over her. It was the kind that steadies you when you are really scared. Fear stops being fear. Becomes just information.
"Well " she said quietly "it sounds like we are not the ones hiding in this story."
Kevin looked at her back at the blank screen where the three dots lingered in memory.
"No " he said, ". I do not think we just became the ones looking for answers tonight. I think we just told something than Eleanor, older than my father exactly where we are."
Outside the vans headlights shone white, across the sign. Beyond three phones had gone dark and they were already being handed to men who did not answer to senators, CEOs or governments. Not at all.