Diana eyed Valentine as he flipped through the folder. “One of our search teams sent out an encrypted message saying they might have found something. And that was the last we heard from them.”
“You don’t think they…”
“We’re not ruling out any possibility. All we know at this point is that we have to find them before the Chinese do.”
“Chinese?”
“It seems our encryption was not as robust as we thought it was.”
Valentine’s finger stopped on a page near the middle. He looked up, his blue eyes locking onto hers. “Your brother’s on this team.”
“Yes.” A whisper.
“Why me?”
“Because you’re the best.”
“I’m forty-nine years old.”
“Which means you have the most experience.”
“Diana—”
“Addison, please. I want my brother back.”
He ran a hand through his close-cropped hair that had been gray since his teens, gazing through the study’s bay windows at the barren Martian landscape. Nothing but red desolation.
He sighed. “When do I leave?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
He nodded and took a long swig from his glass.