Chapter 22 #2
JASON: No problem, but make sure you message me later. I want regular check-ins right now. You scared the crap out of me when Brett told me you were gone. And Kai wasn’t much better.
FELIX: Will do. At least I’ll try, anyway. Hazard of the job is that I can’t guarantee I’ll have time to message.
He sent the message and then re-read it, holding his breath for a second. The words were so true, and it made him wonder how Maddox could’ve kept his routine for messaging his father when they were busy on rotations or investigating.
“Where is Maddox’s phone?” he mumbled to himself, standing and looking for any evidence bags they had. Nothing. He picked up his phone and dialled Brett.
“Brett Cage.”
“It’s me. Where is Maddox’s phone?”
“The store cupboard. The green box on the second shelf. Why?”
“Something occurred to me while I was messaging Jason. How could Maddox keep his routine of messaging Malcolm every day when we didn’t know if we’d be around or not at that particular time?”
“What are you thinking, Felix?”
He went into the cupboard behind Brett’s desk, where they kept all their toys and essentials, and found what he was looking for. He opened the phone and put in the passcode Felix already knew.
“I’m thinking that either he definitely wasn’t doing his job—and I believe for some of the time, he was—or he had an automatic timer on it.” He flicked through the phone.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Felix. If they have eyes on us, they will have seen us dragging Maddox in.”
“But if they didn’t, we can try to use that to our advantage.” He cursed, deflating. “Nothing.”
“How to our advantage?”
Brett’s voice grew louder, and Felix turned around as he entered the room, turning off his phone when he saw his face.
Felix stepped closer, the urge to touch him stronger than ever before. He swallowed it down. “There must be some way we can throw them off the scent. I would suggest turning up on Friday in Maddox’s place, but I’m not sure what that would accomplish. What did Christian say?”
Brett blinked at him and then nodded. “Oh, I asked him if he or his contacts could find out whether the military had been looking at us at any point over the last few weeks or months. He said it might take a bit, but they should be able to tell. That will tell us if she’s using military resources for personal gain.
It’s not the best thing to get her on, but it’s something at least. And it will tell us whether or not she is part of it. ”
“You think it’s her, don’t you?”
Brett nodded slowly. “It makes sense. Although I can’t figure out her why. What does getting rid of me do for her?”
“Would it be something as simple as because she could?”
“It’s possible, but that’s not her. That’s not how she works. There will always be something to gain from her moves. She doesn’t do something for an empty win.” He frowned. “I can’t see anything she would gain from removing me.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want you gone. We just can’t see the complete picture yet. We have puzzle pieces that don’t go together,” Felix said, his mind trying to fit all the pieces into imperfect holes. “We’re missing something. We need to get everyone together.”
Brett raised his eyebrows. “Do we now?”
Felix flushed but stood his ground. “Yes, boss. I think we do. Get everything out on paper and move them around until something makes sense.”
Brett stared at him for a long moment. “You’re right.” He lifted his phone and sent a message to all guards, requesting those who were free to meet at Sec HQ. “Let’s get brainstorming.”
When everyone arrived, Brett and Felix stood before them and laid out their intentions. “We have so much information, but nothing seems to fit together, so let’s go through every piece, and figure some shit out.”
“Didn’t we do this before?” Eric asked. “We couldn’t figure it out.”
Brett nodded. “We did, but now we have new players in the game. Let’s see if that helps us.” He thumbed towards Felix. “And we now also have eagle eyes over here.”
They set about writing a list of all the puzzle pieces they could think of.
“One thing, Adelaide Thompson. How did she find out about Felix’s sniper ability, and where did the info come from about the so-called drugs and trafficking offences?” Owen asked.
“Did we ever get an answer from her about her contact?” Brett asked Nick. “I know you were going to talk to her.”
“I did speak with her. She wouldn’t tell me to begin with, saying they were both anonymous.”
“Both?” Brett interrupted. “She had more than one?”
Nick nodded. “She had two people contact her about it. One mentioned drugs and trafficking, the other mentioned being a highly trained sniper.”
“She said the words ‘highly trained?’” Felix asked.
Nick tilted his head, and he could see he was recalling the conversation. “No, she said…civilian trained.”
Felix glanced at Brett. “It’s rather specific.”
“It’s another nudge towards the military thing that Ian Jacobs mentioned when he trapped us,” Nick said. “He didn’t believe anyone should survive who hadn’t had military training.”
“I’m still a little stuck on the two-person thing,” Brett said. “To have one person give you a tip, that’s understandable, but to have two, and at a similar time… It’s either a huge coincidence or it was planned.
“You think it was part of the setup?” Felix said.
Brett nodded. “Nick, can you talk to Adelaide again? Promise her whatever you need to get her to reveal those contacts. We need to know who they were.”
“Yes, boss.”
“The next thing, Austin Tomlinson,” Brett said, and Felix snapped his head towards him.
“What? Why Austin?” His stomach churned. What did they know that he didn’t?
Dominic passed over one photograph that had been found on Felix’s phone when they had retrieved it. “Austin is holding the same roses that have been used in all these incidents.”
Felix shook his head, his body releasing some of the tension. “He couldn’t have anything to do with that.”
“Why?”
“Because that rose was never actually in the photo.”
Brett frowned at him. “What?
“That photo was one I superimposed a flower onto to show Austin how it could be done. We were talking one day about the photographs in the media and how it was so easy to manipulate what is seen. I told him it was easy to fake photographs, and he didn’t believe me, so I used a photo of us both and put that rose there to make it look like we were romantically involved just to show him how easy it was. ”
“Why was it on your phone?” Dominic asked.
Felix shrugged. “No idea. As far as I knew, that photo was never on my phone, only Austin’s laptop.”
“Do you think he was pulled into this as a diversion?” Nick asked.
“It makes sense. But I’m more concerned that if they got that off Austin’s laptop, what else did they get? And when?” Felix said.
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