Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“Let me get this straight.” Wyatt blinked in astonishment at what Jessica had announced over the secure web call in Harper’s suite.
“You’re saying Roland Nilsson went to Seattle for an interview with Cyber X before the op in Romania back in twenty-nineteen, then landed the job along with a sign-on bonus after The Knight supposedly died in the fire? ”
“Yeah, and it gets better.” Jessica’s blue eyes gleamed.
He knew that look. She was onto something.
“Shortly after the initial interview, Roland flew to Bulgaria. Could he have been taking a vacation? Sure. Why not?” She added her usual sarcastic flair when speaking.
“But the timing to the Romania op is too suspicious, especially because he booked a one-way trip as if he didn’t know when he’d be coming back to the U.S. ”
“Did he cross the border and go into Romania when he got there?” he asked.
“Not legally, but yes. Looks like he was trying to cover his tracks and hide the fact he’d been there.
Another check mark in the suspicious box.
And it took all day for us to scour the old CCTV footage to prove he was even there.
We managed to confirm his presence outside a hotel less than an hour away from The Knight’s home a few days before your boots hit the ground.
” Jessica paused. “Then, a day after our op, Roland was back on a plane out of Bulgaria.”
Natasha settled into the desk chair next to Harper and gripped the leather chair arms. Wyatt set a hand on her shoulder, worried she was blaming herself for missing this, and that was the last thing he wanted.
She lifted a hand to cover his and squeezed as if letting him know not to worry, that she’d be okay.
It was only the three of them in the suite. The guys were all in position, keeping an eye on their targets, one of which was Gwen.
“Jasper informed me of The Knight’s location in Romania about a week before your people were sent in,” Natasha said.
“He had concerns, though. He thought The Knight might relocate. Looking back, I guess he was hoping we would jump on it, somehow cut through the usual red tape, and send in a team ASAP, which would make sense if Jasper was also working with Cyber X.”
“And our guys were dispatched because it takes forever and a day to get approval for anyone else,” Jessica said. “Plus, our people wouldn’t have to worry about coordinating with the Romanians since we don’t technically exist.”
Wyatt’s gaze cut to Jessica. “We had toyed with the idea someone hacked The Knight’s fail-safe to detonate the explosives when we arrived in Romania, ensuring we witnessed his supposed death. What’s Roland’s background? Would he have been capable of doing that?”
“He had a double masters in computer science and chemical engineering,” Jessica answered.
“And here’s the kicker, he worked for one of the cyber companies who had to close its doors after losing credibility due to repeated hacks by The Knight.
Roland lost his job, and his wife ended up leaving him. ”
“So, if someone told Roland he could take out not only a dangerous criminal but the guy responsible for flipping his life upside down . . .” Wyatt turned away from the computer, processing the news.
“What if Jasper’s role was to tell the CIA the location, and Roland’s job was to be in position and wait for an expected CIA team to show—then hack The Knight’s fail-safe and detonate the explosives to ensure The Knight died. ”
“And our people were there to witness it all to get the Feds off Cyber X’s back,” Jessica pointed out.
“So, we’re saying everyone and everything connects back to Cyber X?
” They’d thought Roland Nilsson had been a pawn in The Knight’s game, a victim.
And maybe he had been, but if he blew that house in Romania where someone on Echo could’ve gotten injured or killed, then he no longer pitied the fucker.
“Looks that way.” Natasha stood and stepped to the side, catching Wyatt’s eyes. “Maybe Cyber X made a deal with The Knight to drum up business for them?”
Jessica removed her black frames and leaned back in the desk chair. “They provided the targets, and he made money off selling the intel. It would have been a win-win for the both of them.”
“Wait.” Natasha’s eyes widened. “That three hundred million stolen from the data center in Sweden . . . what if The Knight and Cyber X shared their earnings from the hacks, and they kept it pooled together for safe keeping as cryptocurrency?”
“Why would The Knight split the money? Sounds to me like he did all the work.” And Wyatt couldn’t see either side trusting the other that much to manage an account of that kind of cash, either.
“I’m not sure yet. We don’t have all the pieces to this.” Harper’s voice was soft, thoughtful. Wyatt recognized she’d slipped into her brainstorming mode, running ideas and possibilities like computer code.
“Regardless, we need to figure out why The Knight transferred one hundred and fifty million to me,” Natasha said. “Some sort of clue to let me know Cyber X’s guilt in all of this?”
“A hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar clue?” That seemed crazy, but they were dealing with a psychotic criminal who clearly enjoyed slowly doling out pieces of the puzzle to Natasha.
Honestly, this was all starting to give him a headache.
The case served as a reminder to appreciate the ops where a target package was provided, and all he had to do was hunt and kill.
Being in a full kit, carrying forty kilos of gear in the Afghanistan desert for two days without rack time, was preferable to chasing The Knight.
This job did come with one incredible perk, though, and that was spending time with Natasha. She was a brilliant officer who could go head-to-head with this terrorist arse no problem.
“Or maybe The Knight managed to lure Felix and Kate Ward to Montreal by promising them a chance at redemption for trying to kill him?” Harper suggested. “Getting back their stolen millions must be appealing, too.”
Natasha’s shoulders slumped, the creep of doubt, or blame, appearing to sneak in, so he brought his hand back to her shoulder for support. “But this is all speculation.”
She was right. They couldn’t get ahead of themselves. There was still a lot to figure out. “We need concrete evidence tying The Knight to Cyber X.”
“And to confirm Jasper and Roland were truly working with the Wards,” Harper added.
“You manage to get a better angle of the woman at the hotel in London?” Natasha asked.
Harper shook her head. “She knew what she was doing. She never let the cameras get a good look at her face the day she was at Jasper’s hotel. But I assume she was sent by Cyber X.”
“What about Kate? Could it be her wearing a wig?” There was something Wyatt had never liked about the woman from the moment he’d set his eyes on her at the salsa club.
Her background had come up clean, but maybe that didn’t mean jack shit.
“Can we find out if she was in London that day? She has the same height and build as the woman on camera.”
Jessica placed her glasses back on. “I’ll look into it now.”
“What I don’t get is why all of a sudden Cyber X would want The Knight taken out if they’d been working together in the past?” Natasha asked, and Wyatt had felt the tremble in her body when she’d spoken. The dip of unease. He couldn’t blame her, but he’d do his best to help her get through this.
Natasha turned in her chair, and he let go of her. “We need to talk to Kate and Felix. Or Jasper. What if they can identify him?” Hope filled her voice, but he knew exactly what Jessica was about to say.
“Sorry.” Jessica’s response was immediate. “We don’t have authority to operate here. We can’t take them in for questioning.”
“So, we’re supposed to wait until The Knight’s big move to find out what in the hell is going on?
” Natasha was back on her feet. She brushed past him, strode to the window, and stole a glimpse outside between the drawn drapes.
“It’s obvious he wants revenge against everyone involved in the op in Romania. He feels betrayed.”
“He tortured and murdered Roland,” Jessica said, her voice steady. Years of experience in such difficult cases gliding through. “But he wanted Jasper at the competition. And clearly, since Felix and Kate Ward still showed up despite everything going on, The Knight wanted them here as well.”
“We also need to find out how the Wards hired The Knight to begin with,” Wyatt noted, and Natasha let go of the drapes and faced the room. “For a job like that, you don’t just trust some guy off the Dark Net.”
Natasha swept her hair to the side and twisted the long locks into a braid as she worked through a thought, her eyes on the floor. “Perhaps it was someone from their past they knew and trusted?”
“I’ll do a deep dive into the Wards’ background and take a closer look once I determine whether Kate was the woman in that hotel in London,” Jessica said.
“And where are we at on piecing together all the photos you found online taken that night at the salsa club?” Wyatt asked Harper, a sense of hope filling him that they were finally figuring everything out.
“I’ll have enough images strung together by morning, so we can look through them.” Harper spun her chair back around to focus on the screen.
“Would The Knight show his face if Felix and Kate could recognize him?” Natasha asked, raising a good point.
“He may not have let them see him, but he could’ve been there.
” Wyatt closed his eyes and thought back to the night at the club.
“Shit.” His stomach roiled, and his eyes flashed open.
“There was a guy in a hoodie offering Gwen a smoke outside. He left when I came out and never looked up. I’d been so used to seeing hoodies I didn’t think anything of it. ”
Had the son of a bitch been right there? And talking to his daughter?
“Who wears a hoodie at a salsa club where the place is hot and sweaty?” Harper scoffed.
“If he was in the competition, he wouldn’t hide his identity, he’d want to show off the fact he successfully completed that Twitter challenge.
He could be our guy. You remember anything else? I can try and find him in the photos.”
“My height. Jeans. Plain black hoodie.” Wyatt rattled off a few more details he could think of.
“This could be the break we need.” Natasha met his eyes, a slight smile at the edges of her lips. Hope.
“And you were right,” Jessica said a moment later. “Kate Ward was in London on July twelfth. It has to be her who met with Jasper. But none of this is enough evidence to get POTUS to put his neck out there and have the Wards arrested.”
“I think we need more manpower.” Wyatt looked to Jessica. “Can you send Bravo?”
“I was talking to them about that earlier, in fact.” She removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose before placing them back on.
She looked tired. Wyatt remembered when Jessica would work for days straight during an op.
Then again, she was pregnant with not just one but two babies.
Hell, he got tired just thinking about it.
“But Luke and Asher are being pains in the ass. One of them wants to stay behind in case I need help as if we don’t have ten other guys working at Scott and Scott who—”
“She’s six months pregnant with my babies.” Asher came into view of the screen, ducking his head down and scowling at the screen. Wyatt hadn’t even realized he’d been in the conference room. “I have every right to be worried. Tell her. You’re a dad, you get it, right?”
Shit. He did get it. Asher was right. “Luke should stay back. With Eva pregnant, he can keep an eye out on the both of you.”
Asher twisted his head to the side to look at Jessica. “See?”
Jessica rolled her eyes and mumbled, “Fine.” She pointed to the door.
“Go round up the guys. You’ll need to drive.
” She fisted the material of Asher’s long-sleeved gray shirt and tugged him closer to her.
“These babies need a dad.” Still clutching his shirt, she glared at Wyatt.
“Don’t let anything happen to this guy.”
“Roger that,” Wyatt said with a smile. “Bravo should stay at a different hotel and probably keep their distance from us.”
Natasha came up beside him. “As careful as we have been about covering our tracks with security cams at the hotel, I wouldn’t put it past The Knight to have figured out I have more than Wyatt here working with me.”
He glimpsed his Casio. Damn it. “The light on my watch just turned red but only for half a second.”
He started for the safe to grab a gun, but Natasha yelled out, “Wait!”
Wyatt pivoted around, his heart beating wildly at the idea of The Knight in their room.
“By the time you get there, he’ll be gone.” Natasha came closer with a palm in the air as if a request to consider her words. “If he planted a listening device, we could use that to our advantage.”
His gaze dropped to the floor as he processed what she was saying. “Set a trap,” he said with understanding, looking back up at her. “What if he suspects that?”
“Your watch blinked for what, half a second?” Natasha challenged.
“You could’ve easily missed that. Most people would have.
You go running to your room, he’ll know you figured it out.
Surely he’s got his own camera now positioned in the hallway outside our hotel door and will be watching our moves. ”
“She’s right,” Jessica chimed in. “He’ll also cover his tracks to ensure we can’t see him on the hotel cameras.”
“He’s damn good. If he looped the feeds, I can’t tell.” Harper was on another laptop, checking their hotel’s security cameras. “You sure you saw the light turn red?”
“And are you sure your spyware didn’t go on the fritz?” he shot back.
Harper smiled. “Hell no.”
He held his palms in the air as if to say Well, you know my answer, then: the light was red. And great, no chance he’d be making love to Natasha in their hotel room again, not with that son of a bitch listening in.
Natasha closed her eyes and cursed. “It’s pretty late, and if he really did just go into our hotel room, he had to have known we weren’t in there. And surely, he monitored our flight arrival.”
“Which means he may know about us,” Harper said without lifting her gaze from the screen as she worked. “Well, I’ve got our identities covered if he tries to run our names or faces.”
“But it’s a good thing we’ve got Bravo coming.” Wyatt let go of a deep breath. “He won’t be expecting them.”