Chapter 18
Joseph sat at his desk, staring at the blank screen.
He’d never admit it, but he was what a normal person would call a helicopter parent.
Blake’s next assignment go-no-go meeting was scheduled for today’s discussion.
He would be brought into the meeting by Jewell.
Yes, Blake was an adult. Yes, he trusted his boy.
He had the best instincts of anyone he’d ever trained, but it was the father in him that insisted he know what was going on with his kid.
Jason had approached Blake to ask permission to include his father in the briefings.
Blake had laughed and called him back within two minutes.
“Dad, are you fucking joking?”
“No, damn it. I want to know what you’re doing. If I didn’t, I’d go fucking insane. I know the job. I know you have a penchant for working alone, so I want to know where I have to go to bail your ass out if you need help.”
“One, I’m an adult. You don’t get to say yes or no for me, and I won’t need your help.”
“I didn’t fucking say that, Blake. I said I want to know what you’re doing. I’m not going to stop you. Unless you’re doing something astoundingly stupid. Then you’re on the same plane as everyone else. I’ll fucking hook you up by the short hairs and remind you of your training.”
“Two, I set my mission parameters; you don’t. If I say I can do it, I can. I’m not going to get into a debate with you in front of my employers.”
“I can deal with that as long as you accept my call afterward, and we can discuss my concerns.”
“Discuss. Yelling isn’t discussing.”
Fury rolled his eyes. “Noted.”
“Good, now, for the third requirement …”
“Yes?” He grit out that word. He hated not being able to affect Blake’s decisions, but he’d raised him the best he could.
He’d taught him how to feed the animal inside him but to keep his humanity.
It was a thin line, but it was a very important one.
One his mother probably helped establish more than he did.
He’d take Ember’s help every day, all day.
“Third, none of the job goes to Mom. She doesn’t need to know about it.”
“I can’t do that, son. If she asks, I’m going to give her the information.”
“If she asks, that’s fine, but don’t let my work cause you to be more of a dick. She’ll figure out you're worried about me or about Beth.”
Yeah, when he was worried about his kids, he could be a dick. Fury nodded his head and then frowned. “More of a dick?”
Blake laughed, “Yeah, Dad. You’re a dick, we all know that. I think you take pride in it.”
“That’s true, and I’m never a dick to your mom. I mean …”
“Holy hell, Dad, I don’t want you to finish that statement. Jesus, I’m begging you, don’t finish that statement.”
He smiled at the computer screen. His kid was his best friend. Didn’t matter how much distance was between them.
“What caused that smile?” Ember’s hands gripped his shoulders and started to massage them.
He leaned back into her chest and closed his eyes.
God, this woman was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
If it weren’t for her, he’d be dead by now.
Because of her, he had Blake and Beth and a life he’d never imagined he’d have.
She was literally the air in his lungs and the blood in his veins. She was the reason he was alive.
“Come on, fess up.” She kissed his ear and held him tightly against her chest.
“I was thinking of Blake and a one-liner he said to me.” Which wasn’t a lie.
“Is that why you’re at your desk? He has another mission?”
Joseph sighed. “You don’t need to worry about anything.”
“Which means yes. Where is he?”
“Hungary.”
“Does he have backup?” Ember stopped massaging his shoulders.
“Don’t stop, that feels good, and yeah, of course.”
“You say that like he always has backup.” Ember dug her fingers into the muscles at his neck. He groaned and dropped his head forward, giving her more access.
“Most of the time, unless he gets cocky, and I always call him on that shit.”
“Anything unusual about this case?” she asked and dipped her hands down a bit, hitting the muscles of his upper back.
“No, well, yes.” He moved to the right, and she got the message, zeroing in on a knot the size of a baseball. God, her hands were golden.
“Explain that, King.”
Joseph chuffed out a breath and spilled the beans.
“He’s doing double duty. He’s been protecting a reporter from getting herself killed.
She was the protégé of one of our assets.
He was killed because he got too close, and she picked up his work and started down the same road.
So, he was tasked with keeping her alive and with his mission. ”
“Oh, I bet he was thrilled. Did he threaten duct tape?”
“Probably. But you’ve got to admit, duct tape is a cure-all.”
Ember laughed. “I won’t admit it. When does the briefing start?”
“Any minute now.” She stopped her massage, and he groaned, straightening. “Did you have to stop?”
“Yes. He doesn’t need to know that I know. He’s emphatic that I shouldn’t worry, not that I can stop. You can tell me everything tonight.” Joseph turned, and she dropped a kiss on his lips and whispered, “Won’t you?”
“Depends.” He smiled wickedly at her.
She lifted an eyebrow and licked her lips. “It depends on what, exactly?”
His eyes tracked that sexy as fuck tongue on its path. Fuck, he was already hard for her. “Whether or not you pass out from exhaustion after I make love to you.”
“Well, challenge accepted.” She trailed her finger along his shoulder and turned, walking out of the office. Her hips swayed seductively as she left. Damn, that woman still turned his crank. He adjusted himself and turned back to the computer. Jewell was looking at him. “Everything okay, there?”
“You didn’t see or hear a thing.”
Jewell laughed, “Right.” She opened her hand and circled it in front of her face. “These are not the droids you’re looking for, either.”
“Damn it, Button …”
“Okay, okay. This is me, pretending I didn’t see or hear anything. Ready to go live with the rest of the group, or do you need a minute to fix your clothing again?”
“Damn it, Jewell—” The screen went live, and he was looking at his brother Jason, fucking Con, Jewell, Anubis, Charley, and Smoke. Quite the fucking convention.
“Okay, on to Havoc’s file,” Jason said and glanced up. “Joseph, things going okay at the Rose?”
“Fine. We’ve taken care of that issue I briefed you on earlier this week. Everything is green.”
“Perfect. Anubis, give us the brief.”
“Havoc was assigned to Marek Zajak when he was coded by the Council. Since then, he has been assigned an adjunct task, a reporter named Elise Serra, who picked up our asset’s last investigative report and started following the clues. Jewell, you can pick it up from here.”
“Right, long story short, she’s stubborn and won’t take roadblocks as a stopping point.
She was getting dangerously close to discovering that Zajac is behind the synthetic drug epidemic and a whole lot of other not-so-nice stuff.
I zapped her computer, and Blake has kept her offline since then.
Tomorrow, her computer, equipped with all the research I could find, will be delivered to her.
She deserves to get this byline, especially after the video. ”
“Video?” Charley looked up from her tablet.
A frozen frame dominated the screen—clear, sharp, and disturbingly real. Then the video started. They all watched in silence. Joseph narrowed his eyes. That woman was cold-blooded. She didn’t even flinch when the gun fired. Damn. “Who is that?” he asked.
“Elise Serra. Supposedly,” Jewell answered him.
“This isn’t real,” Con began, his tone clipped, deliberate. For once, Joseph was impressed by the computer geek. Con tapped his keyboard. “It looks real. It sounds real. But it’s manufactured. What you’re staring at is a deepfake.”
Leather creaked as Joseph King leaned back, arms folding across his chest. He’d killed with his bare hands and then taught others to do the same.
His eyes, sharp and assessing, cut through Con.
“Explain it like I’m breaking down a hit to a recruit.
No technical garbage. Step by step. How’d they do it? ”
Con inclined his head, and Joseph waited for the smartass comment, but Con didn’t display his usual lack of respect.
Instead, he answered Joseph’s question. “They fed a system everything they could get their hands on. Specifically, these include pictures, interviews, and surveillance clips. Hours of data. Enough for the machine to learn every nuance of a face. Every blink, every twitch, the way the jaw tightens before a word. Then they lay that onto someone else in an existing video, frame by frame. They polish the seams until the cracks vanish.”
Charley shifted forward, her hands clasped tightly together, the knuckles blanching.
Fear wasn’t in her nature. She’d stood beside Smoke through years of blood and shadows, but this invisible threat seemed to unsettle her.
Her gaze flicked between the frozen face on the wall and Con.
“So, it’s a mask,” she whispered. “But one you can’t peel off. ”
“Exactly.” Con didn’t soften the word. “This isn’t a disguise. It’s rewritten reality.”
Smoke’s fingers tapped against the table, the rhythm precise.
His jaw flexed, sharp and controlled, and his voice carried a clipped skepticism.
“Wait, from the briefings we’ve had, there’s always a tell.
Lighting that doesn’t match, eyes that blink wrong, something in the frame if you slow it down. Why can’t we prove this one’s a fake?”