Page 34 of Silent Watch
She moved past him without a word, dropping onto the couch and staring at nothing.Her hands were trembling slightly.She pressed them flat against her thighs to make them stop.
"Show me," she said.
He turned the laptop toward her.On screen, the black SUV sat motionless at the end of Inlet Drive, a dark shape against the fading light.
"How long?"
"Over an hour now.They circled twice before parking."
"They want her to see them."
"Yes."
Harper's mouth thinned."We have to get her out."
"I've been thinking about that."Caleb sat across from her."Geri's lived in that house for thirty-one years.If she suddenly leaves, they'll know something changed.They'll assume she gave us more than she did."
"She gave us everything she had."
"They don't know that.Right now, they're guessing.Watching to see what she does next."He leaned forward."If she runs, they'll escalate.If she stays, acts normal, pretends nothing happened?—"
"They might leave her alone."
"It's possible."
"It's also possible they'll kill her anyway."
The surveillance feed hummed between them.Caleb didn't argue.She wasn't wrong.
"I'll reach out to her," he said."Let her know what we're seeing.Give her the choice."
"And if she chooses to stay?"
"Then we watch her as closely as they do.And we hope we're faster if something happens."
Harper was quiet for a long moment.On the surveillance feed, the SUV's running lights flickered on—not moving, just settling in for a long watch.
"How did you survive it?"she asked.
The question came from nowhere.He turned to look at her.
"The NSA.The whistleblowing.Whatever happened that turned you into—" She gestured at the cottage, the surveillance equipment, the encrypted laptop."This."
Caleb looked at the feed.Geri's house sat quiet in the gathering dusk.A woman inside who either didn't know how much danger she was in, or knew exactly, and chose to stay anyway.
"I was twenty-six when I joined," he said.His hands found the edge of the coffee table, fingers tracing the grain of the wood."Young.Idealistic.I actually believed we were protecting people."
Harper didn't say anything.She just listened.
"For a while, we were.Or I thought we were.The work was classified, but it felt important."He stood, moving to the window, needing to look at something other than her face."Then I started seeing things.Programs that went beyond surveillance.Operations that had nothing to do with national security."
"What kind of operations?"
"Domestic monitoring.American citizens tracked without warrants, without oversight.Journalists.Activists.Politicians who asked the wrong questions."His voice flattened."I raised concerns through official channels.Filed reports.Talked to supervisors.Everyone told me the same thing—it was above my pay grade, I should trust the people in charge."
"But you didn't."
"I couldn't.Not after what I'd seen."He turned from the window to face her."So I documented everything.Copied files.Built a record of every program I could access that violated the law.Eight months."
