Before guilty-looking Riley and Ethan could reply to Clara, Tom stormed in.
"We've checked the chip," he said, slightly breathless. "And it's just as we guessed. He is tracking both Riley's location and her conversations, so we need her to talk to Clara. Failure to do so, he will know we are on to him."
Clara just stared at him, stunned, as she asked, "Someone is tracking Riley? Since when?"
Ethan stepped toward her, voice urgent and low, and briefed her in less than two minutes only the essential parts, the danger, the chip, Mateo's plan skipping everything else that could send her spiraling.
Within five minutes, the four of them had gathered close, heads bowed together in the study, and had come up with a script clean, simple, believable one that Riley would say out loud to sell to Mateo.
A script to convince him nothing was wrong.
A script to keep Clara alive.
