The control room fell silent. Stone stood frozen, his pistol still raised, his mind refusing to accept what he was seeing. Claire. The woman who'd helped them, fought beside them, bled for them. The woman who'd been feeding them information for months. The woman who'd led them straight into a trap.
"Claire," Stone said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Why?"
Claire smiled, a cold, calculating smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Because you were so easy to manipulate. You wanted to believe in me. You needed to believe in me. And I gave you exactly what you wanted."
Stone felt the rage building inside him, hot and familiar. "You used us. You used all of us."
"I used you to destroy the competition." Claire stepped closer, her hands clasped behind her back. "My father was getting old. He
