20. Andrie
Andrie
Iwas so cold. The kind of cold that seeped into your bones, down to your very being. The blankets wrapped around me didn’t so much as touch it. Jasper, the Iron Wraith’s doctor, appeared in front of me, taking over from where Xander had been applying pressure to the cuts that ran down my forearm.
Xander pulled himself up onto the bar top next to me and reached his arm around my shoulders. Vik was somehow on my other side, pushing a shot of tequila into my hand.
“Really?” Xander murmured, even as he helped raise the glass to my lips.
Vik’s chuckle sounded strained. “We’re in Texas now, not Russia. Not everything calls for vodka.”
The alcohol burned on its way down, making me sputter, but Xander wouldn’t be deterred from making me drink the entire shot. Eyes watering, the heat finally spread enough to allow me to start thinking again.
Before I could say a word, though, Jasper dumped some sort of disinfectant down my arm. I hissed, trying to pull back, but he and Xander held me firmly.
“Knife wounds can be nasty,” Xander said, kissing the top of my head. “Let Jasper fix it up, yeah?”
“Some butterfly bandages will be enough in most places, but I’ll likely have to put in a stitch or two where he went in deeper,” Jasper’s soothing doctor’s voice mirrored my own professional one when I was with patients, but I could see the rage in his eyes, the same way I could hear it in Vik’s voice. The men were pissed I’d been hurt.
“Ready to tell us what happened?” Grimm asked from where he’d been watching us a few feet away.
Xander started. “Andrie got a call this morning from a patient who needed to see her. Because her office is still a mess, she offered to meet him at his home. I tagged along and was planning on staying in the car, but Andrie forgot her phone. I went to give it to her so she could let me know when she was done, but something didn’t seem right.
I cased the house and saw a man dragging Andrie onto a chair in the dining room, where he tied her up. So, I went in after her.”
I took it over from there. “Steve tasered me the second I walked into the house. By the time I was back in control, he’d tied me to a chair and was going through my briefcase.
I had an external hard drive in there—an empty one since I hadn’t seen any patients yet and haven’t had time to get my laptop replaced.
He was pissed when he saw it was empty. He said he was looking for my patient files.
That while each military branch had records, none would have each other’s.
Basically, I had a bigger, more inclusive list. And that he had a buyer already lined up for it. ”
“And the whispers?” Lessia asked from her seat at one of the nearby tables.
I shook my head. “I’m not sure if he meant that the way we’re taking it. He mentioned something about how if I had clearance for a bunch of agencies, like the CIA and NSA, that I’d have others as well. He said something about whispers and ghosts.”
“But you’re not sure if he was talking about WHSPR?” Matteo asked.
“He asked if I’d heard any whispers about ghosts in the night,” I recalled. “We all know beyond black ops, there are ghost operatives and WHSPR. That doesn’t mean he knew what he was asking.”
“You think he was fishing,” Grimm commented, and I nodded.
“If he’d known for sure, I think he would have worded it differently. Yes, he’d heard the rumors, but there are plenty of people out there that have. In certain circles, anyway. A former SEAL would definitely have the access to hear such things.”
“How did he become a patient of yours?” Matteo asked. “And did he mention how he tracked you down?”
Tilting my head, I struggled to think through the fog that still lapped at the edges of my focus.
“Same way as the others. I get a call from them—on my secure line, the one the government provided me. I set up an appointment, and he came with his files and the release from his superior, or whoever is needed to sign off on it, to speak with me about his work. I kept the files, going through them before the first appointment. After I transferred everything to digital, I shredded the paper copies. But even those files, while supposedly complete, are often barebones or missing key details. I might have clearance and need to know certain things about a mission not typically discussed, but I don’t need or receive the entire outline or description of a mission, let alone someone’s past mission’s list.”
“Why not email them?” Xander wanted to know. “Paper seems very old-fashioned, considering the world we live in.”
“I don’t have internet in my office. No way of being hacked that way.
In fact, Dr. Andrie Demming has no digital footprint, apart from basic information about when I graduated.
There are no pictures of me anywhere online, nor a website about my practice.
I have a personal email, which I use at home or on my cell if they's a need, but it contains no connection to my practice aside from Hardy's contact information. The government-assigned landline at my office is forwarded to my cell phone. One of the Cyber triplets set it up, so I have no idea on how it works, other than I’m told it’s as if I take and send out calls through my office, even when I’m not there. ”
“And your other patients?” Grimm asked.
“The pro-bono ones have a separate phone number. It’s a burner phone I picked up in Houston. I pay cash for the minutes every few months at a shop that doesn’t have cameras. I check that phone once a day for messages and to call to set up times for appointments.”
“And the rest of us?” Lessia asked quietly.
“You have your own phone number. Technically, it’s the one all my military calls are forwarded to, but it’s as secure as yours is.
The triplets said the number actually routes through a proxy—or several—before it comes to me.
But all y’all come to me through Matteo or Grimm.
I never meet an operative alone the first time.
One of you is always with them to introduce me.
That’s so the operative can verify who I am. ”
“And the files this guy wanted?” Xander still had his arm around me, but he’d turned to face me a bit more.
“Here,” I said simply. “I wasn’t lying when I told Steve he’d missed it when he’d broken in. There’s a hidden storage area in the bookcase itself. Shade and Whisp went in and retrieved it for me.”
“And you asked them to hide it here,” Xander recalled.
I nodded, taking a deep breath. “Steve probably thought I was lying when I said I gave it to someone else, but I wasn’t. I knew it was safe here.”
“How did he get your name?” Xander asked. Everyone looked thoughtful as we tried to put the pieces together.
“My name and what I do aren’t exactly secrets, even if I work with classified information.
Like Steve said, I see a lot of Tier One operatives and government assets.
He didn’t even ask about the few people I council from WITSEC.
There aren’t many of us throughout the country that have the clearances I do.
All it would take is one person talking …
” I trailed off, frowning. “Something he did say stood out. He knew I was about to move offices to Accardi Tactical. I hadn’t called anyone yet when my office was broken into.
Except for Hardy, Gideon, Harrison, and whoever they would have spoken with in DC, no one had been notified of the change yet. ”
“At least that narrows things down a bit,” Matteo grumbled. I couldn’t blame him. A leak at the top level, involving multiple agencies and military branches, would be a nightmare to investigate.
“Shade’s at the house doing cleanup,” Lessia said, looking at her phone.
“Whisp is taking photos, DNA, and fingerprints from the dead guy before Brody and Savage get rid of him. Cyber is waiting for the photo, then they’ll run it.
They’re already pulling together files of all SEALS discharged in the last ten years. ”
“I’ve got his laptop in the car as well,” Xander was looking at Lessia, even as his hand rubbed up and down my good arm in lazy circles.
“I’ve got it,” a tiny sprite of a woman said as she walked in, practically bouncing.
Juniper might be the size of a high-schooler, complete with the backpack and sneakers—and meal preferences—but that was where the similarities ended.
She was, hands-down the smartest person I’d ever met.
What she lacked in people skills, she made up for with pure genius when it came to anything involving computers.
Her sisters, Jolene and Josie, trailed in after her.
The “triplets” looked nothing alike, save they had similar blonde hair.
Which made sense, seeing as they weren’t actually blood sisters.
Still, blood didn’t make family, and the three were close enough to fool even those who knew better into thinking they’d been together their whole lives.
Juniper’s somewhat teenage appearance was enhanced by her choice of hairstyle, which was cut short, standing up every which way on her head in a spiky mess with various faded colors of pink, green, and purple coloring most of it.
Jolene’s fell down her back in waves and was the darkest gold of the bunch.
Josie’s was pale yellow and stopped at her shoulders.
Juniper was by far the shortest, while Jolene was closest to Lessia’s tall height. Again, Josie fell between them.
“Always nice to see you, Junie,” Grimm said, his lips twitching, as he strode to open the secured room I knew was hidden behind the back wall.
“Back ‘attcha,” she said, giving him a smile. “I’m starving. I don’t suppose you have any chips?”
“I’m afraid we haven’t stocked up lately, but I do have some cereal, if that works?” Grimm asked.
“Got any Fruit Loops?”
His smile finally broke free. “I’m sure Savage has a supply of something suitable. Anything else?”
“Mocha latte, extra-large. Double espresso, double chocolate would be great.” She plopped her backpack down on a chair.