The Darkest Hour(44)

It’s Harken.

“Blaise?” he says gruffly, hobbling onto the floorboards. He must’ve injured his left ankle, judging by the way he favors the right one. There’s a notch of surprise in his dry throat. “You’re alive.”

“Yes.” That’s all that I can say. An accusation teeters at the edges of my mouth, but it doesn’t come out. My head still reels from what Sabine has showed me. “Where’s Tilly?”

He moves past me and limps down the hallway toward his quarters. “We took different trains from Reims to better cover our tracks. Did you find Dorner?”

“We did,” says Sabine, stepping out from the shadows of his room.

Harken breathes a sigh of relief, but his face soon scrunches into a scowl. “What were you doing in my quarters?”

“I had to check the radio, in case another agent contacted us.”

“I see.” He shows no hint of alarm. If he’s playing dumb, he’s doing an excellent job of it. “And did someone?”

“No, but I heard a most intriguing message,” Sabine says.

“Sabine, wait—” I start. I didn’t want to confront him now. Not until I heard that broadcast myself. But I also thought that we’d have more time before Harken arrived at headquarters. I search over his face, and I realize that he does have some questions to answer—whether he’s innocent or not. “Sir, we have a lot to discuss.”

Despite his exhaustion, Harken nods. “Into my office. Let’s talk.”

We all file in. Harken settles into the chair behind his desk while Sabine and I stand in front of him, where I study him intently, noting the hunch of his shoulders and the dark bags beneath his eyes. I still can’t see him as the double agent, but neither can I ignore what Dorner and Sabine have told me. If Harken has indeed turned, then he needs to pay for his betrayal. I’ll escort him back to the US for his court martial myself.

Before I can open my mouth, though, Harken beats me to the chase. “Look, I’ll be quick,” he says, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his first two fingers. “Delphine is dead. By the time we had a rescue plan set in place, the Resistance in Reims discovered that she had succumbed to her injuries. Agent Fairbanks and I tried to head back to Paris after that news, but there was a bombing on the railways that delayed our return.” He spits out the information rapid-fire, one fact after the other. We don’t even have time to process that another one of our agents is gone. “Tell me about Dorner and Operation Zerfall.”

“How can we be sure that Delphine is dead?” Sabine is quick to reply. “Did you see her remains?”

“We didn’t have that sort of access. I’ve taken the Resistance at their word—and that’s final. Now brief me on your mission. What did you do with Dorner?”

“I interrogated him, and we found his story to be valid.” I feel Sabine elbow me in the ribs, silently telling me to get on with it, but if she wants me to throw out the accusation, then we’ll do it my way. “He told us—”

“So what’s Zerfall?” Harken interrupts.

“That’s classified information,” Sabine says.

“Classified?” Harken’s brows cross. “On whose account?”

“On mine,” she replies.

“If you’re making some sort of joke, I’m not laughing,” Harken says darkly.

“I’m not laughing, either,” she says.

“You know what? I don’t appreciate your tone, Agent Chevalier. Maybe you’ve forgotten that you’re speaking to your superior officer.”

“Superior?” Sabine barks out a laugh. I don’t like how she’s escalating this situation, and I’m about to tell her to cool it, but Sabine snatches the reins of the conversation and gets straight to the point. “No, I believe I’m talking to a traitor.”

The room goes silent. Harken’s eyes gather with storm clouds as they fly toward Sabine. Mine do the same. Has she gone entirely mad?

Harken pounds both fists on his desk. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, you traitor,” Sabine retorts. “Show him the paper, Lucie.”

Harken turns his attention to me. “Blaise, you’re in on this, too?”

“We all need to calm down!” I say, my voice carrying over theirs. Before they can get another word in, I spill out everything. “Dorner said that we have a double agent in our ranks—an agent with the initials T.J.H.”

It takes a second for my revelation to sink in to Major Harken, but once it does, he turns bright red from neck to forehead. “How dare you even—”

“Show him the message!” Sabine interrupts, turning to me. When I don’t move quickly enough for her liking, she digs into my pocket and shoves the paper at him. “I heard that with my own ears over the radio. A message from the Germans to you.”

Harken crumples the note without reading it. “I won’t even dignify your accusation with an answer. It’s that ludicrous. Now, get out of this room before I toss you out of Covert Ops completely.”

“I’m not leaving until you confess what you’ve done,” Sabine counters, not budging.

“Stop it, the both of you!” I yank Sabine’s elbow because we’re getting nowhere with this method of attack. I don’t know what she was thinking, charging him like that. Did she truly expect him to confess to us? But Sabine has the strength of a viper and shrugs me off.