Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
They were asleep in one of the hammocks ten meters away off to the right of where Asher and Jessica were sleeping.
Elaina had tucked her little body against Emily’s as if she belonged with her.
He couldn’t imagine what the kid was going through after losing her mother and now this.
A damn nightmare. And he hoped they weren’t about to walk her straight into a trap when they got to London.
“Hey, you’re awake.”
“Well, my eyes are open, and I’m sitting upright, so yeah.” He looked over at Harper.
“Smart-ass,” she said with a grin. “I was making a statement not asking a question.” She flicked her wrist, motioning for him to get up. “I have news, and you’re the only one not asleep.”
He followed her through the maze of stacked cargo away from the military personnel, and she brought him to her temporary workstation. Her laptop was positioned atop three stacked boxes of MREs. “Should I get Jess and Asher?” She fiddled with the mouse on her screen and woke up the monitor.
“Let them get a little more sleep. Once the bird hits the ground they’ll be going nonstop.”
“Right.”
He focused on Harper. “So, what do you have?”
“The Spanish authorities seized Carballo’s cargo earlier at the port in Adra. Clearly, Carballo didn’t know Elaina could give up the intel.”
“What’d the police find on board?”
“Weapons and other explosive devices, but my friend on overwatch saw three suspicious men who’d been waiting at the port before the police raided the ship. They all made a run for it the second the police arrived.”
“Tell me they were detained.”
“Two guys were gunned down, and one got away. But my friend snagged a photo of the man who took off.” She showcased three images on screen.
“The first two are known couriers for the Taliban.” His team had known Carballo sold weapons to terrorist organizations in the Middle East, and so two more dead bad guys eliminated was a relief.
Of course, it would’ve been nice to track the pricks back to their bosses, but fewer guns in the hands of terrorists was a win.
“The couriers were the two killed.” She pointed to the third man next. “I’ve been running his image through our software, and I got a match.”
He leaned in to view the image of a blond man. Late twenties or early thirties. His hair shaggy and a bit long—not a military cut but that didn’t rule out spec ops.
“Connor Grady’s from London with no prior record.
Hell, no job listed in the last two years.
” She tapped at the screen. “I looked through the last few months of the CCTV footage, and I got two more hits on him at that same dock unloading two containers. Once in February and another time this past April.”
Liam crossed his arms at the news, hope beating like a drum in his chest.
“And guess what—those were the only two times a ship came from the San Lorenzo port out of Argentina this year, too.”
“So, if this Connor guy is connected to our buyer, he would’ve known Elaina wouldn’t be on that ship. But since he went there anyway, that means an arms deal was going down, too.” He took a moment to process. “Did he leave a vehicle behind?”
“Yeah. The authorities seized it, but if this guy is a pro I doubt they’ll find anything helpful.” She held a finger between them. “But I did pick him up on camera buying a train ticket out of Barcelona to London.”
“When does he get in? Instead of intercepting him at the station we should follow him and see where he goes. Whether he’s working with our buyer or not, he works for someone we need to take down.” He glanced at his wristwatch. They had an hour of flight time left.
It’d be three in the morning U.K. time when they arrived, and they’d have a two-hour drive from the Royal Airforce base in Suffolk to London once the bird landed.
Harper scrolled through the train schedule. “He has a layover in Paris before switching trains to London. He gets in at midnight. We’ll have time to set something up.”
“If we’re lucky, he’s connected to the buyer, and if not, we’ll still take the fucker out.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Nice work.”
“Thanks.” She smiled.
He started to turn but an idea caught in his mind. “You said February and last month?” He faced her again.
“Yeah.”
He scratched his chin, already in need of another shave. “I assume Jessica mentioned to you the information about Blackburn Technologies before she fell asleep?”
“Yeah.” It only took her a second to catch on to his line of thought, and with a determined nod, she refocused back on her screen and began typing.
“February and April . . . you’re right. The first Weston Tech fire in Nottingham was one week after Connor received a shipment at the port in Adra.
And the second one in Bristol was a few days after Connor was at that port in April. ”
He tilted the screen up so he could get a better look. “Check every camera in Bristol and Nottingham around the time of the fires. I assume the security footage was destroyed since there were no signs of foul play found, but—”
“If he was in town I’ll find out.”
“Can you get a detailed list of the cargo seized in the raid earlier? I’d like to know exactly what kind of weapons were sold.”
“Like something to burn down factories without evidence of arson being left behind?” She typed at the keys.
“If Blackburn Technologies is behind this, Manchester’s probably the next target—a chance to secure the British defense contract,” he said, thinking aloud.
“Carballo’s in South America. The cargo drop sites have been in Spain.
If our theory is right, Blackburn’s trying to maintain distance from what they’re doing.
It’d make sense why they wouldn’t want to try and grab Elaina themselves.
Too risky to have a kidnapping connected to a defense company. ”
“It’s going to take me some time to go through everything, but I’ll see what I can come up with.” She glanced off to her left, and he followed her gaze to Emily and Elaina’s makeshift hammock-bed. “How are you doing with all of this?”
He assumed she was referring to his growing attachment to Emily and Elaina. He wasn’t normally so easy to read, but then again Harper wasn’t just anyone. She’d been trained by the CIA, same as Jessica.
“Taking it a day at a time,” he said, which had always been his motto.
“‘The only easy day was yesterday,’ right?” she asked, repeating a common SEAL phrase.
“Yeah,” he whisper-said, thinking back to the wedding vows in Vegas that felt like light-years ago.
“She makes you happy, I can tell.”
“What makes you say that?”
“You have that after-sex glow. Yes, men get it, too. But I don’t think it’s from sex.
Well, not just from sex.” She smiled. “I don’t know you or Emily that well, but from where I’m standing, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to fall so hard you hit the ground.
” She lifted one shoulder. “And you’ll know she’s the one if she’s there to help you get back up. ”
An unsettling pain hit his chest at the impact of her words, and his gaze flicked to the tattoos on his arm. To the black band on his wrist.
“Yeah,” he said under his breath, the throbbing pain worsening, “but what if I hurt her instead?”