Chapter 24
Long moments ticked by before Tatiana spoke, “Anyone?”
I suppose she was waiting for someone to say something, but it wasn’t going to be me. I was too fucking pissed to utter a word.
“Let me see if I understand,” Declan started. “Leon agreed to lend you to Z Corps for the mission. Then he calls you and gives you a side job to take out Sefa, but wants it kept from the team. I get that right?”
“Yes.”
“There’s no interpretation? Straight out he said you were not to tell us?” he asked again.
Tatiana’s eyes rolled and she answered, “Yes, Declan. His words were, it was need to know and none of you needed to know. He gave me two hours to complete my assignment.”
“Then why are you breaking security protocol?” I asked.
“Huh?” Her eyes moved from Dec to me and they looked wounded that I’d questioned her.
“You were specifically ordered not to tell us, yet here you are passing on information on a mission you were given. One I assume, would be classified as top secret. Your ass should be out the door carrying out your task.”
Tatiana squared her shoulders and the woman who I’d met the first day in Bahrain was back. Expressionless. Assessing. Cold.
“The order from my team leader was hold fast and wait for new intel. Not only that but we’d all agreed more information was needed on Sefa before we moved. Zane has not weighed in and given further instructions. Until that time, I’m following Declan’s direction.”
“Leon Brown is your handler. Not Zane. Not Declan. So, again, why the hell are you standing here and not following orders?” I pushed.
I needed more. More than Leon Brown and Zane Lewis having what I believe was a pissing contest with Tatiana stuck in the middle.
“Declan said?—”
“Bullshit. You work for The Company, not Z Corps.”
“I work for Z Corps on this mission,” she argued.
“Again. I call bullshit. What you’ve done is akin to subversion. Best case, you’ll be terminated. Most likely they send someone after you to eliminate what they’ll feel is a loose end.”
Tatiana’s face lost the mask of indifference and she leaned forward, unleashing her fury.
“It feels like a lie,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Something is not right. Sefa Nazari has never been on radar for a hit. Why now? Why her and not Matek? He’s always been the one we’ve watched.
Now after tonight and what we saw, why is Sefa suddenly on The Company’s list? ”
“What feels like a lie?” Declan asked, beating me to it.
“Sneaking away and killing a woman we all agreed we needed more intel on. Leaving and not telling anyone. Leon telling me that my team doesn’t need to know. All of it. It’s all wrong.”
That was what I needed to know. Where her loyalty was. Even though her telling us about Leon’s assignment should’ve told me, it didn’t. Her explaining she didn’t want to be dishonest was what I needed to hear to continue to trust her.
“How are you supposed to carry out the kill?” Kyle asked.
Apparently, he, too, had gotten the answers he needed.
“My discretion.”
“And weapons?” Thad inquired.
“I should be getting a text any minute if I haven’t already with a nearby location where someone will supply me with what I need.”
“Did he tell you that?” Declan questioned.
“No. Standard operating procedure. I can’t have a weapons cache when I’m supposed to be working for the UN or relief organizations. There’s always someone who provides me with anything I need.”
“Does this happen often, getting a kill order in the middle of a mission?” Dec continued.
“Not often. But it’s happened a few times.”
I had to admit I didn’t like the mission shift with an order to kill a woman we’d just finished surveilling.
The calls to Tatiana started before Declan had called in what we saw to Zane.
So how would Leon Brown, who was presumably in the United States, know we’d had Sefa in our sights earlier in the night?
I looked around at my team and they, too, were all trying to puzzle out why the kill order had come in at that moment in time if there had never been any mention of her being a target before.
Maybe it was something as innocent as Leon finding new intel on the woman and deeming her a high threat.
But that didn’t explain why he wanted Tatiana to go in alone.
“Are there any issues between Leon Brown and Zane?” I asked Declan.
“Not that Z said.”
“Zane told me working for him was a better option than working for The Company,” Tatiana added. “But he didn’t elaborate. He also said he didn’t have as much intel on them as he’d like.”
Declan pulled out his cell and dialed, putting it on speaker. It took four rings before Zane answered, “Yeah.”
“Is there an issue between you and Leon Brown we should know about?”
Zane’s laughter filled the room. “Wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve pissed off a lot of people. Why?”
“He sent Tatiana on a mission. Need to know, with us in the dark.”
“What kind of mission?” Zane’s tone had changed from humorous to deadly.
Tatiana spoke up, filling Zane in on what Leon had told her. Once she was done, he remained quiet for a moment. When he finally spoke again you could feel his anger rolling off in waves, over the phone, and thousands of miles away, it didn’t matter. When Zane Lewis was pissed the world knew it.
“The Company is a division of the CIA. Their latest and greatest attempt at complete anonymity. When I say complete, I mean, complete. Off the books and black ops. No records are kept. None. Only verbal communication between the handlers and their operatives. Handlers verbally report in to one man. No paper trail whatsoever.”
“If there’s no electronic footprint, how’d you find it?” Thad asked.
“I have my sources. Take the mission. If Leon is keeping tabs, he needs to think you’ll still follow his orders. I need a few hours to figure out what game Leon is playing.”
“Take the mission?” Tatiana questioned. “We don’t have all the intel. We were going to wait.”
“Brooks, take her back. You’re a shadow. I don’t want you seen unless shit goes sideways. This could also be a trap. Get Tatiana separated from the team so he can take her out. Be ready for anything. I don’t trust a goddamn thing the CIA does.”
“I want to be clear, Zane,” Tatiana said. “Are you telling me to execute the order?”
“No. I want you to accept the mission. Pick up your weapon. Go to the location and wait. Garrett is almost done. What he’s finding doesn’t look good for Sefa Nazari, however it doesn’t amount to a death sentence.
Unless Tex comes up with something more, you’ll report back to Leon and explain why you failed. ”
“But I’ve never failed,” Tatiana complained.
She was cute when she grumbled about having to report an unsuccessful mission.
“I think your stats will survive,” Zane joked. “Twenty-and-oh is nothing to sneeze at.”
“Twenty confirmed?” Kyle asked, his voice laced with respect.
With a nod she verified his question. Nothing about her posture indicated she was proud of the number of assassinations she’d carried out or the fact that she’d executed his orders without fail. Another bit of information slid into place and I was beginning to understand her a little more.
“Goddamn. Thought you said this type of thing doesn’t happen often,” Kyle continued.
“Define often.” She wasn’t asking him a question, simply offering an answer. “Okay, so I fail the take down. What then? Call him back and tell him I couldn’t get to her?”
“Yes. Unless Tex or Garrett finds something. But so far, I’m not seeing anything.”
“Fine,” she huffed.
“Declan, if this is a trap you need to be ready for anything. Maybe this has to do with us. He could want her out of the house so he can take out the team and save her. Be ready for anything. Trust no one outside of you six.”
I was happy to see Zane had included Tatiana in the circle of trust.
“One more thing. Good work, Tatiana.” Zane, always the one to get in the last word, hung up.
Declan immediately started putting together a plan.
He, Kyle, Thad, and Max would stay behind.
He and Max would take patrol around the block and Thad and Kyle would take watch inside the condo.
I’d be shadowing Tatiana. I hated not having a clear understanding of any given scenario, but I really fucking hated walking into a trap.
“You ready? Time’s ticking,” I told Tatiana after Declan was done.
“Yeah. Let me grab my phone.”
Max had been suspiciously quiet throughout the entire conversation, but when Tatiana left the room, he spoke.
“Watch your back.”
“Always do,” I answered, as I finished strapping my tac vest on.
“No. I mean, watch your back. Z was polite enough not to run through one more option in front of Tatiana, but there’s a chance?—”
“I got it,” I snapped, unwilling to listen to Max tell me there was a possibility Tatiana was in on whatever play Leon was making.
“All right,” Max muttered and walked away.
His acquiesces couldn’t have happened at a better time.
Tatiana entered the room kitted out in her gear.
I looked her over and still had a hard time reconciling the dichotomy.
Soft, beautiful, sexy female to the cold, tough, assassin with twenty verified kills and zero misses.
Yeah, that was something I would’ve never guessed.