Chapter 28 #2
“Four minutes.” Max glanced down at the report.
“That’s how long Keating was inside the equipment room, and he had legitimate clearance, so nobody questioned him being there.
The room itself wasn’t covered, which means we don’t have footage of his hands on the rig.
What we do have is a message he sent Sheridan less than three minutes after he walked out.
Keating told him there would be a problem with the insertion and to expect Red Squadron to either abort or arrive short-handed. ”
“So that’s your proof.” Anger burned through Zenko again as the pieces locked into place.
“Keating walks into that room after we clear the rigs, spends four minutes alone with them, then tells Sheridan we’re going to have a fucking problem getting in before anyone else knows there is one. Where is the bastard now?”
“In custody.” Noble settled back in his chair.
“Ground Branch picked Keating up before anybody approached him about Sheridan being KIA. He didn’t get a chance to run or start destroying evidence, and his Agency credentials were pulled before he knew we had him.
Every operation he touched is being reviewed now, and from what I’m hearing, there are a whole lot of pissed-off people who want to know how long he’s been covering Sheridan’s fucking ass. ”
“Why?” Zenko looked from Noble to Max. “Sheridan wasn’t worth risking a fucking career over unless Keating had something to lose too. What the fuck was Sheridan giving him that made protecting him worth all of that?”
“Access.” Max rested his forearms across the back of the chair.
“Sheridan had spent years building relationships across the region, and Keating had been using what he gave him off-book long before any of this started. Sheridan fed him intelligence on extremist networks and weapons movements the Agency couldn’t reach through legitimate channels, and Keating made damn sure nobody asked where that intelligence was coming from.
” His voice hardened. “Then Shaun reported the Diego Garcia plot, and suddenly anyone digging into Sheridan had a pretty good chance of finding Keating buried right there with him.”
“So how long was Keating protecting him?” Shaun’s voice had lost the last of its humor. “Sheridan didn’t wake up one morning and decide to become a traitorous fuck while Keating accidentally wandered along at exactly the right time to help him. How far back does this shit go?”
“Years.” Noble folded his arms across his chest. “Keating admits he’d been protecting the relationship that long, but claims he didn’t know Sheridan had crossed the line into treason until the Diego Garcia plot surfaced.
” Noble’s tone made his opinion of that explanation clear.
“Whether anybody believes his bullshit is above my pay grade. What matters to us is the second Shaun reported that plot, Keating knew an investigation into Sheridan could expose the whole fucking arrangement.”
“Because they’d find Keating too.” Zenko watched Noble nod as the last of it finally came together.
“Sheridan knew Shaun made the report, so he grabbed him before JSOC could start digging into the Diego Garcia plot. Keating helped Sheridan disappear because the second anyone started pulling apart what Sheridan had been doing, they’d find years of his own unauthorized shit buried underneath it.
Sheridan was protecting himself. Keating was protecting both of them. ”
“Pretty much.” Max closed the folder and kept it on his lap.
“Once JSOC sent Red Squadron after Sheridan, Keating knew the clock was running out. He warned Sheridan we were coming and leaked whatever operational intel he could get his hands on. Then he saw the opportunity to fuck our insertion before it even started. He couldn’t control which one of you took the compromised rig, Shaw.
You weren’t the target. He needed one operator out of the equation because he was betting the other would abort the insertion to save him. ”
“Fucker didn’t count on putting me in there with a SEAL.” Shaun turned toward Zenko, his voice carrying the faintest trace of amusement despite how exhausted he sounded. “He fucked with my primary and my backup, and you still got air into me. Underwater really is your fucking playground, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, well, next time somebody fucks with your primary and backup air, try not to make me prove it.” Zenko’s voice came out rougher than he intended, because hearing Shaun joke about it didn’t change what those seconds in the pipe had felt like.
“What about the hospital? Sheridan was already dead when we landed, so he couldn’t have called that asshole and told him where we were going. ”
“He didn’t have to.” Max opened the folder again and pulled out another sheet.
“The guy Drax kneecapped is Rafiq Nasser. Local fixer, occasional smuggler, and apparently Sheridan’s answer whenever he needed something done without his own people being seen anywhere near it.
Drax keeping him alive turned out to be useful because Nasser started talking the second he realized nobody at the hospital was particularly interested in giving him enough pain medication to forget he had two destroyed knees. ”
“Glad I could help.” Drax’s voice came from the doorway, and Zenko looked over as his teammate stepped into the room carrying two coffees.
He handed one to Noble before taking the other for himself.
“Before you ask, yes, both knees. Fucker tried to pull Shaw’s finger out of your neck while he was the only thing keeping you from bleeding out. He’s lucky I was feeling charitable.”
“Sheridan gave Nasser standing instructions before we ever reached the compound.” Max waited until Drax had moved away from the doorway before continuing.
“If Sheridan went down and one of us survived long enough to reach a hospital, Nasser was supposed to finish the job. Sheridan gave him the aviation traffic and hospital information Keating had leaked before the mission, which was enough for Nasser to work out where we were being taken. He got onto the roof minutes before we landed, grabbed a set of hospital scrubs, and waited for his chance. He knew the arterial injury meant Shaun had to keep pressure on your neck, so all he had to do was get Shaun’s hand out of the wound before the trauma team took over. ”
“Except he didn’t count on Shaw being a stubborn fucking bastard.
” Drax took a drink of his coffee and looked at Shaun.
“You keeping your finger buried in Zen’s neck while that asshole tried to drag your hand away bought me enough time to deal with him.
Nasser is alive, Keating is in custody, Sheridan is dead, and every electronic device we recovered is being torn apart by people with considerably more alphabet soup after their names than I ever want to meet. ”