Chapter 14 #2
The guys all nodded. They knew how easy it was to track people down.
It took a well-trained person not to leave a trail.
Most did. It was simply the way modern life worked.
Cameras in stores, gas stations, restaurants, banks.
Neighbor’s door cams. Online tracking through receipts and phone records.
Most people went about their daily lives in predictable ways, using grocery delivery apps, ordering a shit ton of crap from online retailers like or Walmart, getting packages delivered to their homes, asking Alexa or Siri for information and directions, and never thought about how easily they could be found.
Not to mention the mobile phone in their hands, pockets, purses.
Those digital leashes that went everywhere they went.
Trey would know how to find her. He probably already had, even if he’d done nothing with the knowledge. He wasn’t the kind of guy to accept that he didn’t have the right to know her whereabouts.
Ethan pulled in a breath. “She’s scared of him, scared he’ll track her down. She said he told her he’d kill her if she left him. And while it could just be the shit thing you say when you’re pissed, seems as if Trey’s the kind of guy who’ll take it to the next level if he’s motivated enough.”
“Not if we’ve got anything to say about it,” Blaze growled. The others backed him up, and the hard knot that’d formed in Ethan’s gut as he’d talked loosened a fraction.
Kane reached over and put a hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “You aren’t alone and you know it, you stupid asshole. Can’t believe you didn’t ask for help installing that security for her. Or tell us this days ago.”
Ethan grinned at his friend. “You’ve been a bit preoccupied yourself, asswipe. Until this shit happened over the weekend, I just thought I was helping keep her safe with a warning system. Didn’t know some asshole was gonna start threatening her.”
Chance looked thoughtful. “Rory says that Fern’s a bitter, jealous woman and always has been. And while I could see her sending the text because it’s pretty hands off, do we really think she’d sneak over to Paisley’s house in the middle of the night to smear red paint on the door?”
Ethan frowned. “I get what you’re saying, but I’d think Trey more likely to use real blood. And string up the animal he killed while he was at it.”
“Sick fuck,” Seth muttered.
“So how do we find out if this Fern woman has red paint stashed in her garage?” Kane asked.
“We break in when she’s gone or asleep,” Chance said.
Ghost shook his head. “No breaking into her house. We’ve got enough to worry about without that kind of incursion. Figure out if she bought red paint recently. Figure out if she picked up a burner phone. But no trespassing on her property, you got me?”
A chorus of yessirs sounded around the table.
“All right. If I can have your attention, we’ve got other fish to fry right now. Lemme make it clear, though: Paisley Allen and her kid are under our protection. Don’t get your panties in a twist about it, Dragon. You aren’t alone on this one. Understood?”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
Ghost shook his head. “Now we got that out of the way, let’s knock it off with the sir crap. All of you. Time to get down to business.”
Ghost dragged his keyboard toward him and typed in his password. The overhead screen blazed to life. “Colonel Brent Gannon, USAF Retired. Works at the Missile Defense Agency on Redstone Arsenal. He’s still a person of interest.”
“Was he Jackson O’Malley’s contact for the Stingers?” Ethan asked, wondering if Ghost had gotten confirmation from the FBI.
Daphne Bryant, whose real name was Josephine Daphne O’Malley, had turned out to be a mafia princess whose father and brother were involved in all kinds of disgusting shit until they were arrested recently.
But it was her brother, Jackson, who’d been in Huntsville with a stolen shipment of Stinger missiles he’d been intending to sell to an unknown contact.
But since Jackson had taken Warren Trigg hostage in an effort to smoke Daphne out, and since Daphne had gone to save Warren, the Ghost Ops team had to intervene before the buyer arrived.
It was that or let Jackson torture Warren and then kill him and Daphne both—and that hadn’t been about to happen.
Kane would have torn that warehouse down around their heads if anything happened to Daphne.
Diana Corbin, the FBI agent who’d ended up sticking her nose into their mission—because she had friends in high places and found out who they really were—had been pissed about losing the buyer.
Too fucking bad. Daphne was alive, and Warren was back to managing the Piggly Wiggly and dating the nurse who’d taken care of him when he’d spent a few days in the hospital after the incident.
“The FBI thinks it likely. I don’t disagree, but I also don’t think he’s the only possibility.
There are a couple of militia groups in the area, and while none of them have openly embraced the Dashevsky Group, it’s a safe bet those groups are more likely to get involved with Dashevsky’s brand of authoritarianism than your average person.
Since we don’t know the identities of all the members of those groups, any one of them could also work for a defense contractor involved in the project. ”
Viktor Dashevsky was a Russian oligarch who espoused humanitarian causes, but his organization was really just a front to supply more weapons to war zones and recruit disgruntled and desperate people for his own ambitions.
According to Agent Corbin, Dashevsky was recruiting his own private army. Not just at home, but globally.
And Huntsville was in his crosshairs.
The Athena Project, a military shield intended to protect the United States from nuclear threat, could be a weapon in the wrong hands.
If Dashevsky wanted control of Athena, then he’d need contacts involved in the project.
A former colonel working for the Missile Defense Agency was a good possibility.
“Is Gannon working on the project?” Blaze asked, clearly thinking the same thing.
“Officially he works on GMD, but Athena is closely tied into GMD and its concepts.”
The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system was intended to fire upon missiles in space once they’d been launched at the US, but it only had about a fifty percent success rate in tests.
Athena was a step up, meant to cast a net over a geographic location that stopped any nuclear attacks, period.
It was ground-breaking and revolutionary—and terrifying at the same time when you considered what it could do in the wrong hands.
No doubt this was one of the things that kept the president and her staff up at night.
“What are we supposed to do about Gannon?” Seth asked.
“I’m glad you asked, Phantom. Not that she’ll admit it, but Diana has trouble getting people in the Huntsville office to do what she wants. Kinda like when she brought us that Glock so we could research the trigger mechanism because she couldn’t get anyone over there to take her seriously.”
Ethan exchanged a look with Blaze, who was closest to him.
He knew what Blaze was thinking because he was thinking it.
Since when did the boss call Agent Corbin by her first name?
He didn’t even like the woman, and she certainly didn’t like him.
But they’d reached a truce of sorts when it came to information.
Mostly because Diana used the sledgehammer of her connections in Washington to make sure Ghost assisted her inquiries.
“Can’t she just call her uncle in the CIA? Or the FBI director who’s such a close personal friend of the family?” Chance drawled.
“You’d think so,” Ghost said. “But apparently her superiors in Huntsville get a bit put out when she goes over their heads.”
“Over their heads?” Kane said with a snort. “More like she springboards into the stratosphere to ask God for help squashing a bug.”
“Probably why they don’t like her much,” Ghost replied. “Anyway, since she can’t get her superiors to see the light and approve her plan, we’re going to shadow Gannon and learn his secrets for ourselves.”
“And for her?” Seth grumbled. Seth wasn’t inclined to like Diana after the way she’d seemed to ignore the danger to Callie and Nikki when she’d been chasing after the Russian spy Dima Smirnov and trying to connect him to Viktor Dashevsky.
Smirnov took Nikki hostage, and though it was resolved quickly and without harm to the girl, the fact that the US government gave Smirnov back to the Russians in a prisoner swap still had Seth spitting fire whenever it came up.
“I’ve agreed to share information, yes. She kept Daphne out of the public eye when the O’Malleys were arrested, and she’s kept her end of the bargain to make Daphne’s current identity her official one. I know she didn’t handle the Smirnov situation well, but she went the extra mile this time.”
“For which I am profoundly grateful,” Kane said.
Seth was still grumbling. “I’m not a fan, but I can acknowledge she’s learned from her mistakes.”
“We need to figure this out,” Ghost said.
“See if Gannon has any connection to the Dashevsky Group, or to Jackson O’Malley.
Official information on him is light. He was offered early retirement in lieu of charges when he was accused of sexually harassing a female airman under his command.
Then he transferred to Huntsville to work at MDA as a contractor.
He’s been here for about a year now. Divorced.
Ex-wife stayed in Virginia. Kids are grown, in their twenties, and on their own.
Gannon’s potentially lonely and probably has a grudge against the government.
Doesn’t mean he’s looking to join a cause, but we can’t rule it out. ”
“We should find out where he lives first,” Ethan said, turning it over.
He could always see a plan come together like a big map in his head.
It was one of the things he loved to do.
“That’ll give us a range of where he likely shops, eats, drinks, and hangs out.
Then we can watch him, see if he makes contact with anyone on Agent Corbin’s list.”
“Got it,” Seth said, studying his computer. “Research Park. He’s renting an apartment near Bridge Street.”
“Dude,” Chance said. “That was lightning fast even for you.”
Seth grinned. “Maybe I’ve worked with Ethan long enough to know where that brain of his is headed. I started searching while Ghost was talking.”
“Work your digital magic,” Ghost told him. “Get me a report by end of day and we’ll decide our next move.” He looked at his watch and sighed. “Meanwhile, I have to teach a ladies beginning shooting course in an hour.”
Blaze laughed. “The testimonials Daphne’s been getting from these women are gold. What did she offer them?”
“Nothing,” Kane said. “It’s our magnetic personalities making it happen.”
“You mean our washboard abs,” Chance snickered. “I heard Daphne telling Mrs. Blodgett that she was sure to get a peek at some abs during the class if she praised us in her review. Said it swelled our heads and made us want to preen.”
Ghost barked a laugh. “That girl is a marketing genius. Hell, I may just let her start that events side hustle she wants to run on the property. Bet she’d increase profits astronomically. We could be men of leisure once this is over.”
They looked at each other. Then they burst out laughing.
Leisure? Them? No, they’d be warriors until the day they died.