7. Libby
LIBBY
The last door opened, allowing us to slip inside the building undetected.
For now.
We probably had five minutes, at best. This was our only opportunity to get the intel we needed. If we got out alive, we’d never get back inside. They would know within minutes who had breached security, and then they would come at us hard.
“He’s not going to keep hard files of anything,” Jack said as we rushed into the room.
“Check anyway,” Jason snapped. “We can’t afford to leave anything unchecked.”
I rushed over to the cabinets and picked the lock, then started rifling through the papers, hoping to find anything that might point us in the right direction.
I vaguely heard Johnny on the computer, trying to figure out how to hack in.
Thankfully, I’d convinced them to contact Rae. She was our only chance at succeeding.
“Alright, I’m in,” Johnny said.
The first cabinet didn’t have anything of use, so I moved on to the next cabinet, coming up with the same. But when I got to the third cabinet, my breath hitched in my chest at what I found.
My name was scrawled across a manila file folder tab, along with everyone else in this room. And everyone who worked at OPS. I carefully pulled out the thick file, marking where I’d taken it from. This was unreal.
Opening it, I shook my head when I saw the details of my life described so thoroughly on paper. Everything from my birthplace to where my eighth birthday party was held was detailed in black and white. It was disturbing, to say the least.
I knew they were watching us and gathering intel, but this went so much further. There was an entire section of the file dedicated to photographs, and some of them were so fucking private that my blood boiled.
“What did you find?” Jack asked, walking over to me.
When he saw what was in my hand, he snatched it up and immediately started looking through it.
“This goes beyond surveillance.”
“It’s like they were following us all along,” I murmured.
His finger followed one line. “Look at this.”
Suspected of working for another agency.
His head whipped up to look at me. “That was when we first met you.”
“All this time,” I said, shaking my head. “I assumed Rafe just caught their attention, but…”
“No, this is fucking detailed shit. They’ve been watching for years.”
He handed it back over and dug through the cabinet until he came up with another name. I assumed it would be his own, but he surprised me by pulling out Michael’s folder.
“This guy dug into Michael.”
“Because he’s part of the Shadow Government,” I surmised.
He nodded. “And he was watching Rafe from a young age. Cash, too. He’s been tracking their movements from when they were in the military.”
I shivered at the thought, wondering why they would be so interested in his kids. “Is there anything in there about other Shadow agents?”
He slid the drawer closed and opened another. But it was clear that this cabinet was dedicated to anyone related to Michael. Even spouses had their own folders. Brett was very thorough, gathering intel on anyone who came in contact with Michael or his sons.
“But if Brett knew all about Rafe and Cash, why did he allow them to continue? Why not just kill them?”
“Playing both sides,” Jack surmised, reading through another file. “Look at this. Brett was watching the whole time when Izzy was taken. He has photographs of the kidnapping.”
“What?” Jason asked, storming over and snatching the file from him. The rage grew in his eyes with every line he read, every photograph he flipped through. “Son of a bitch. This asshole knew she was taken, and he didn’t fucking care.”
“Because it played into the Shadow Government’s plans,” Jack said.
“How’s that? How does taking Isabelle help anyone?” I asked, not understanding a single part of this.
“It keeps Michael in line,” Jason snarled. “Take his daughter and it ensures he doesn’t do anything the Shadow Government doesn’t want.”
“Wait, so you’re saying Brett had a hand in this?” I asked incredulously.
“Either he orchestrated it or he watched it happen. Not sure it really matters. This guy is fucking dangerous.”
“I’m in!” Johnny called out, drawing our attention.
We all hurried over as Rae walked him through what to do over the phone.
He had linked up to her, allowing her to take over the computer from her end.
I watched as the cursor moved, though Johnny’s hand was nowhere near the mouse.
File after file opened until finally, we found what we were looking for.
“Holy shit,” Rae muttered as Johnny put her on speaker. “Do you see this?”
“What are we looking at?” I asked, not understanding what I was seeing.
It was an email, but since I wasn’t familiar with what was going on in their lives, I didn’t understand it.
“It says that President Codi is the target,” Jack said, pulling out his phone and dialing.
“Okay…Target for what?” I was so fucking confused.
“The Peace Summit. It’s today,” Johnny answered.
I read the words in the email, about the target, about the plans for the Peace Summit. It was all there in black and white.
“It’s a fucking setup. Cash is going in to take out Al-ahmar, but the real target is President Codi.”
Okay, I knew this was bad, but I didn’t understand enough of what was going on to put the pieces together.
“So, they’re sending Cash in to do a job, and then?—”
“And then they’re changing the target,” Rae finished. “If he doesn’t pull that trigger, he’s fucking dead. It’s a test.”
“He’s not answering,” Jack snapped.
“Because he’s already on the job,” Johnny said. “The Peace Summit is today. He’ll have gone dark already.”
“So, what do we do?” I asked, sure there was some way we could contact him.
The screen went on the fritz, and Rae’s concerned voice came loud and clear through the speaker. “Uh…you guys might want to get out of there. I’m locked out. They know you’re there.”
“Well, no shit,” Jack snapped, stomping over to the file cabinet. He started ripping out files, tossing them on the ground. I didn’t know what his intentions were, but I joined him, pulling every file this asshole had gathered on us.
Jason already had a lighter out and was setting fire to all of it, setting off the smoke alarms before we were even finished.
“Time to go,” Johnny said, pulling his gun and firing the whole magazine at the glass wall.
Jack grabbed a chair, flinging it through the glass wall.
Shards sprayed everywhere as Johnny took a running leap for the window, covering his head as he jumped through the broken glass and landed twenty feet below on the adjoining roof.
“Your turn,” Jack said, shoving me toward the window as he pulled out the last of the files and tossed them on the heap.
I followed suit, landing in a roll and jumping to my feet.
I was off in seconds, heading for the next roof.
It was our only way out, and the end would be a giant leap of faith that we would all get out of this alive.
My feet pounded across the roof as I leapt through the air, pulling the cord on the parachute attached to my back.
I held my breath as the landing rushed up all too quickly.
My jaw clenched hard as my feet hit the ground. I was nearly free when the chute caught wind and started dragging me toward the street. Luckily, Jason grabbed my arm and prevented me from flying into traffic. The line was cut and I was free.
“Thanks.”
“Thank me when we get out of here,” he retorted, then snatched my hand and we took off running, praying that each of us made it to the rally point.