“By yourself?” He looked horrified.
“Apparently.” I dug his phone out of my pocket and held it out to him. “Here. This is yours.” His horror intensified, as I’d predicted. Without the phone, he’d never be able to find me again. I was barely even on social media. And if I’d learned one thing about Julian, it was that he was very invested in keeping track of me.
“No.” He shook his head and took a step closer to me. “You’re not alone, remember? You don’t have to figure out everything by yourself.” His phone buzzed again, and he made an annoyed sound. “I really do have to go.” He considered for a moment. “It’s a long drive, though. Do you want to come with me? We can talk on the way.”
I tried not to look too pleased with myself. “Yeah. OK.”
Julian led me back to his hotel, where a fancy rich-people car was waiting. The driver held the door open for me, and I slid onto the white leather seat. The inside of the car was huge and pristine, with a small screen in front of each seat and a clear partition separating the back from the front. Water bottles waited in the center console.
“Jesus,” I murmured.
Julian laughed and pressed a button that turned the clear partition opaque. “We can talk privately in here.”
The car began moving, so smoothly and quietly that I wouldn’t have realized we were in the middle of London if I couldn’t see it for myself out the window.
It hit me suddenly that I was trapped with him. I hadn’t even asked where we were going. He said we could talk privately, implying that the partition was soundproof. Would the driver even be able to hear me scream?
I took a slow, steady breath. I had Grayson’s phone in my bag. I had weapons. I could do this.
“So,” I said, staring out the window in case my face betrayed my fear. “Are you going to tell me why you let your team walk into a trap?”
“It wasn’t a trap,” he said softly. “Grayson kept following MDG, so they retaliated.”
I looked at him. “But you knew that they’d retaliate with trained scrabs?”
“I was warned that there would be consequences, yes. But they were just trying to scare Grayson off their tail. None of this would have happened if he’d left them alone.”
“He won’t leave them alone because he wants to know what they’re doing,” I said. “Can you blame him? They’re training scrabs and using them against people. That’s terrifying.”
“I know it can seem scary, from the outside. But you’ve heard about how the Russians might be training scrabs?”
“Grayson mentioned that rumor.”
“It’s more than a rumor. And the intelligence community is pretty sure that the North Koreans have a program too. My dad told me.”
“How? There have never been scrabs in the Korean peninsula.”
“There have never been scrabs in South Korea. North Korea has one of the largest militaries in the world, and the entire country is smaller than Florida. They could have easily gotten their scrab problem under control before a single one made it to the southern border, and just lied about it.”
“How does that relate to MDG?” I asked.
“They’ve just been preparing for the worst possible outcome. What if Russia or North Korea succeeds? That’s how this all started. MDG wanted to keep us safe, and they tried to get a defense contract so that we could develop a training program in the US, but no one would go for it. They said it was too high risk. So they found private investors instead.”
“They’re training them for defense purposes? Like to work with the military?”
“That was the initial goal, yes.”
“What’s their goal now?”
He hesitated, considering his words for a moment. “Defense is still the main goal.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Why is it a secret, then? They’ve clearly made serious strides with the training program. Why not brag about it? Try to get that defense contract again?”
“Government isn’t always super open to new ideas,” he said. “And MDG feels like they can be more effective in the private sector.”
“How are they going to make money? Investors generally expect something in return.”
He looked a bit startled by that question, like it was more than he expected from me. “I can’t answer all these questions. My dad told me some stuff in confidence.”
“You must understand why I’m scared, though, Julian. Where are these scrabs going to end up? Who’s going to buy them?”
“They’re not for sale. MDG has plans for them.”
I looked at him expectantly. “Like?”
“Well, MDG’s parent company does a lot of private security work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Imagine how helpful scrabs would be there, even just as bodyguards. You can’t even shoot at these things without the bullets ricocheting back at you. And private prisons, maybe, one day. There’s always a prison guard shortage.” He smiled at me, apparently unaware of my mounting horror. “You’re safe. I promise. Especially now that you’re with me.”
I had to beat down the urge to scream, What is wrong with you? Transporting scrabs to countries that had never had a scrab problem was a horrible, irresponsible thing to do, but I got the feeling that he really didn’t care.
“Is that their main purpose, then? Sending them with private contractors to war zones?” I asked.
“Why do you care so much what MDG is doing?” he asked, suspicion creeping into his voice.
“Julian.” I gave him a baffled look. “They’ve used them against me. I’ve seen firsthand how scary that can be. Why wouldn’t I care?”
He sighed, tugging on his lower lip for a moment before answering. “To tell you the truth, I don’t actually know the full extent of what they’re doing. My dad has shared some stuff, but he can’t tell me everything.
