we have dealt with the fuses—” She stopped talking, her face suddenly pale as she apparently saw something behind Adam.
The hairs on the back of Adam’s neck rose as he felt something in the dark tunnel behind him.
“It’s been a long time, old friend,” the voice said.
That voice. Adam turned, careful to keep his movements slow. The faint light of the lantern beside the kegs illuminated the form of a dead man come back to life. Adam’s heart stuttered.
“J—John?” He gazed into his friend’s face. “It’s . . . it’s not possible.”
For a moment he thought he saw some kind of empathy upon the man’s face, but it was soon replaced with a dark cunning that Adam had never seen before.
“And yet, here I am.” John held a pistol in his hand.
“You’re the one behind this? You’re the one Thistlewood was meeting?” Adam guessed.
“I am,” the man said.
John stared at Adam with an intensity that made Adam feel sick. This wasn’t his friend—this was someone wearing John’s face.
“He and his men simply needed a push to do what needed to be done.”
“For two years I’vemourned you, John. You were a brother to me. And now you do this?” Adam could barely think past the betrayal he felt at this moment. John isalive!But John was the man trying to destroy England’s government. It was something not even his worst nightmares could’ve conjured up. Thank God Caroline had already left. She couldn’t have borne this.
“You spent years avenging your own demons, Adam.” There was pain layered in the fury of John’s reply. “I spent years spying upon men who would not have done any real harm, and then I had to betray them. Innocent men died. Far too many of them.”
“You think this is the answer? Burn it all down?” Adam kept Letty behind him and out of John’s direct line of fire, given that he still held a pistol aimed at them.
“You don’t think there are people ready to propose a better way? We could have a new government, a better one. One that serves the people instead of the other way around.”
“They’d never get the chance. You always understood human nature better than anyone. There would be nothing but anarchy left in its place.”
“Better anarchy than tyranny.”
“You know that isn’t true. Anarchy hurts those with the least power. The mobs who take to the streets will only truly hurt the helpless: the children, the women, the people whose lives depend on some regularity and safety. The shopkeepers who run their businesses that feed and clothe others—those are the ones you would hurt. You would see everything burned to punish those above you?”
“Those same men keep all men down simply because they were not born with the right name, or because they don’t have enough money to deserve their notice. They deserve to be punished.”
“You are a fool if you think what you’re doing will solve anything.” Rage built inside Adam like a gathering storm, with the wind drawing up black clouds into a violence that, once unleashed, would wreck all in its path. How dare John betray him, his king, and his country. Adam’s hands curled into fists. He still held his knife, but it was no use against the pistol.
“I joined the Home Office to avenge you, John—to find your killers. Everything I did was for a lie.”
“Always so damned noble. Now you know how I felt, Adam. Well, you need not carry your burden any longer. I killed the French agents who were after me long ago. It was the perfect way to disappear.”
“What of Avery’s men? You killed every last one of them. They were innocent.”
“Innocent?” John laughed. “They were tools for the Crown, just like you. Their lives don’t matter.”
Adam drew in a steadying breath. “Every life matters, from the street urchinsto the spies who perished at the townhouse in Grosvenor Square.”
“We disagree, then.” John suddenly looked to Letty, and his pistol shifted toward her. “Unfortunately, I must be done with this quickly.”
“No. Let my wife go. She’s not part of this.”
“Not part of this? She’s one of the best spies I’ve seen in years. I can’t allow either of you to go free.” John’s voice was so cold, so hard, that Adam wondered if he’d imagined the John he’d once loved like a brother. Had that man ever been real?
“You fool, she isn’t a bloody spy. It was all a mistake that night at Lady Allerton’s ball.”
Adam thought he saw brief surprise in John’s eyes.