Chapter 22
Chapter twenty-two
Roger
Iraise an eyebrow at Agent Simms after his last remark. “I want the truth as much as you do, but I won’t force Harper to leave. She knows the stakes and the risks involved. It would go against her very nature to turn her back on an injustice.”
Simms shakes my hand. “I understand. We’ll be in touch.”
“I’m sure we will.” I close the door behind him and exhale deeply, relieved they’re gone. I make my way to the back door and open it.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Jessie asks.
I point to the boat covered in scratches and dings. “I need to check the boat for a tracking device. The Demon Kings had to be tracking either Zurkowski or us. I’m going to assume it’s us because we’re the softer target.”
“Wouldn’t our cameras have caught someone tampering with the boat?” Carter asks.
“If they came by land, then yes. If they came by sea, then no,” I reply.
Elijah chuckles. “You make it sound like we’re about to be in the middle of a revolutionary war.”
I’m sure he expects me to smile at his quip, but I can’t. The comment hits a little too close to home. “Maybe that’s what this is all about. But what I meant is that with scuba equipment, our cameras wouldn’t have detected an approach from under the water. I need to check the hull.”
“I’ll do it,” Carter says. “I was only here to stay with Harper until the handoff and your return. I’ll be leaving for Marathon to join Jaxon. You guys take a load off and breathe for a few minutes.”
Harper stands beside me and takes my hand in hers.
“We could all use some time to process. I may not have been involved in what went down out there, but it didn’t make it any less stressful.
Now I know how military wives feel when their spouses go on a deployment.
The worry and waiting are almost too much to bear at times, especially when you know your loved one is in mortal danger. I don’t know how they do it.”
“Faith,” Elijah says. “Faith that either their loved ones will return home to them, or that they died serving a greater purpose other than themselves. Not everyone is cut out for that type of life.”
Jessie slides her arms around Elijah to comfort him, and I watch as her body visibly shudders. Aware that Elijah had been in the Air Force and an officer for the Office of Special Investigations, I can assume there is more to their story, but I’ll get it from her at another time.
“What do you want me to do with the tracker if I find one?” Carter asks.
“Put it in a Faraday bag for now. It may come in handy later, and our location is already known,” I say. “We can’t afford to be tracked when we go to the other set of coordinates tonight. Jordan and his crew are set to pick up another package and ten additional people.”
Harper’s grip tightens on my hand. “You barely survived this last outing. You’re in no condition to go out again.”
“What choice do we have?” I ask. “We don’t have cameras on the boat that Jordan and his crew will be piloting, and Finnegan’s men are expected to show up and “seize” the property.
According to Thomas—the resort owner—this is the last delivery.
If Jordan is expecting to be boarded, then it should be by us.
In order to make that happen, we need to get there first.”
Carter shoves his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. “I have to agree with Harper on this one, Roger. It’s possible that you’re suffering from a concussion and you aren’t in top form. You need to rest. What we should do is inform Whitman and let his men handle it.”
Jessie and Elijah remain silent and avoid meeting my gaze. “Do the two of you agree with Harper and Carter?”
Jessie, never one to shy away from speaking her mind, bobs her head up and down.
“I’m in a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ kind of mood, which isn’t a good place to be.
If the circumstances were different, I’d be gung-ho and ready to go, but they’re not.
We need to take a pause and utilize the resources available to us.
As much as I don’t care for Agent Monroe’s personality, he’s a good agent. So is Simms.”
Elijah slings an arm around his wife. “I see no reason why we need to do all the heavy lifting when the FBI is supposed to be helping us out. On top of it all, I prefer to keep our near-death experiences to once a day, and we’ve hit our quota.”
Outnumbered and overruled, I sit down and tug Harper onto my lap.
“Carter, see if you can locate the tracker. It’s the only explanation I can think of for how The Demon Kings found us so quickly.
I’ll call Simms and inform him of what’s expected to go down tonight.
They just left and couldn’t have gotten far.
Then, I’ll brief Ethan, Ben, and the rest of the team.
After that, we’ll rest up and recuperate. ”
“Do you have some swim trunks I can borrow?” Carter asks.
I point toward the bedroom. “In my suitcase.” While Carter gets changed, I text Ethan to schedule a video chat with the rest of the team.
While we wait for him to get ahold of everyone and coordinate the meeting, I call Agent Simms and explain the situation.
Simms isn’t happy to learn that we had kept the information from him until our hand had been forced.
Simms heaves a deep sigh. “Roger, we’re on the same team, and I assure you that we want the same thing as you do—the truth. I guess I should be thankful that you reached out, even though you didn’t leave us much time to formulate an action plan.”
“I should have shared the information with you while you and Monroe were here ten minutes ago. I’ll send you the video of the conversation between Thomas and Jordan so that you have proof that we aren’t sending you on a wild goose chase.”
“You have too much integrity to do such a thing,” Simms replies.
“After what happened earlier, I know you’re chomping at the bit to bring this case to a close, Roger.
Since you can’t be a part of the action tonight, I’ll send you a link that will enable you to listen in on the operation tonight. Maybe you’ll learn something.”
Simms disconnects the call before I can respond. I’m staring at the dark screen of my phone, contemplating Simms’ cryptic statement, when Jessie pipes up and shifts the laptop toward me. “We’re connected with the rest of the team.”
With exhaustion taking hold and feeling a headache coming on, I forgo any formality and relay the events to Ethan, Ben, Patrick, Jerry, Savannah, and Jaxon.
Once I’m finished, Savannah is the first to chime in. “If The Demon Kings aren’t working for Finnegan, as evidenced by the attack on Finnegan’s men, then who are they working for?”
Harper shifts from my lap to the spot next to me, and I let out a groan of discomfort as my body begins to feel the effects of being jostled about and falling overboard.
Oh, the joys of getting older. She rests her hand on my thigh, and her face is full of concern.
Answering her unasked question, I tell her I’m fine.
She gives me a small smile before turning her attention back toward the screen.
“What about the CIA? They’ve worked closely with The Demon Kings before.
If someone from the CIA believes my father is building a nuclear weapon, maybe they outsourced help to stop him.
The Demon Kings are a disbanded cartel without a steady source of income.
It stands to reason that they were hired to kill my father and the men under his command. ”
Jerry swivels back and forth in his chair, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
“Hmm. You might be onto something. The CIA is currently being reorganized, and newly-elected President Kershaw will be appointing a new Director after taking office in a few weeks. Uncovering a nuclear terrorist plot would be a big boon in re-establishing their credibility.”
Patrick steeples his fingers, his mouth forming a thin line.
“True. The CIA lost a lot of power due to Director Borshardt’s actions.
But power doesn’t disappear; it’s merely transferred.
The FBI has been given greater surveillance authority, more funding, and their reach is slowly beginning to creep beyond the US borders.
The FBI is forced to fill in the gaps while the CIA is being restructured. The CIA wants that power back.”
Elijah contributes his thoughts. “And Finnegan wants to keep it.”
Harper leans forward and glares at Elijah, not pleased with his comment. I rub her back in a calming gesture. “Hear him out, Harper. We need to figure out your father’s motivations, and this is basically a brainstorming session.”
She harrumphs but then leans back into the crook of my arm. She fits perfectly, and I find the tips of my fingers take on a life of their own as they stroke the upper portion of her arm.
Elijah clears his throat. “Beyond the obvious, how would a nuclear weapon being detonated in the US affect the FBI?”
Ethan places a fist against his lips and shakes his head, but Harper beats him to the punch when answering.
“The FBI would be blamed for not discovering the threat before such an event occurred—similar to what happened on 9/11. How does that support your theory that my father is orchestrating all of this to retain power when the end result would be a loss of it?”
“Briefly,” Ethan retorts. “After 9/11, all the three-letter agencies were blamed for not sharing information and not having the resources needed to uncover the plot before it happened. As such, they were granted authority for unconstitutional wiretapping, spying on American citizens, and delayed warrants for search and seizures. Money was funneled into those organizations, including the FBI. For a time, they had virtually unlimited and unchecked power to do as they pleased.”
“What if Finnegan is planning on blaming the bomb on the CIA?” Jessie asks.
“Then the CIA would be decimated, and the powers of the FBI would be expanded,” I say. “The FBI would be allowed to police other government agencies. Policies would change, and we’d get the Patriot Act on steroids.”
Jaxon, who has been staring at his other computer screen, finally speaks up. “If you want to know what he’s up to, we can ask his wife. Eloise Finnegan just entered The Lean Bean coffee shop carrying a laptop and a backpack.”
Jerry’s fingers start flying over his keyboard faster than I can register. “Keep your fingers crossed that she’s going to access Finnegan’s computer and the encrypted file.” A few minutes pass by, and then Jerry whoops and hollers. “We’re in!”