Chapter 5 #2
Admiral Chandler gripped the back of the empty chair and looked at Harper, then on to the guys, before his eyes came to a halt on his future son-in-law.
“We’d planned on making this announcement when everyone could be here, but the President and I will be phoning the others after this meeting.
” His voice was a bit raspy as if he’d smoked a cigar or engaged in a shouting match before showing up.
Wyatt shifted in his seat, clearly on edge with his fiancée, a CIA officer, in the room.
Natasha set the stack of folders on the table and tucked her blonde hair behind her ears, her gaze following the same pattern her father’s had moments ago.
“When you men first began operating for the previous administration, you had a liaison between those in charge and yourselves.” The admiral’s words had A.J. releasing his viselike grip on the bottle of water, and he let go of the tight hold of his sunglasses, as well.
A.J. hadn’t even remembered gripping them, too surprised by Natasha showing up to their meeting. Plus, that bump on the back of his head was still playing tricks on him, because for a moment, he could’ve sworn Marcus was in the room with them, in that empty seat, listening to mission instructions.
I don’t believe in ghosts. Nope. He shook his head a little too hard, attracting the attention of Roman, who was now eying him with concern instead of focusing on the new Secretary of Defense.
“As I’m sure Luke will tell you when he speaks to you later, having that separation between our men and the President didn’t work too well,” Wyatt informed the admiral. “We don’t need someone else to report to. We don’t want someone.”
“And he speaks for all of us,” Chris said in agreement.
“I thought you might say that.” The admiral pulled out the empty chair and took a seat, but Natasha remained on her feet.
“But this will be different. The President and I believe we need someone who can be the eyes and ears at the various agencies who can point out potential problems that need to be handled by alternative means.”
“We’re the alternative means, I assume?” Harper asked for clarification, and the admiral nodded.
“We’ve created a task force of agents. One highly qualified and heavily vetted agent or officer from the FBI, DHS, CIA, DIA, and lastly, the NSA,” he explained, his voice low. A touch smoother than before. A ring of decisiveness coming from a man with decades of experience under his belt.
“You’re on that team?” Wyatt’s gulp was nearly as audible as A.J.’s own swallow at the news.
“Yes.” Natasha’s voice was pillow-soft as her eyes swept to her fiancé. “But I’ll also be the liaison between that department and you all.”
Wyatt immediately stood and turned his back to the room, his hands falling to his hips.
It was obvious it was taking Natasha every ounce of energy not to go to him. To remain professional, to prove she was up for the job.
But was she really ready to be not only a CIA officer on a new task force, but also an intermediary between the government and their team?
Bravo and Echo were a shadowy group of operatives that didn’t follow the same rules as the CIA. Of course, Natasha had practically gone rogue from the CIA when hunting down the elusive hacker and criminal The Knight. What was he thinking? Natasha would fit right in.
“We can’t risk anyone else on the task force knowing about you, and since Natasha is not only already aware of your operations but one of the best officers at the Agency, it was decided by the CIA director she was the right person for the position.
And POTUS agrees. It wasn’t easy for me to come to this decision, but I trust her.
” The admiral’s voice dipped low like a challenge to Wyatt and Wyatt alone, as in, Do you not trust her?
Wyatt got the message and pivoted around, his eyes going straight to the woman wearing his grandmother’s engagement ring.
“Are we okay with having these agents essentially spy on their own departments? I mean, that’s what you’re doing, right?” Chris asked before Wyatt had a chance to respond to the admiral’s unspoken question.
“It’s not so much about spying on our own people, but about having real-time access to all of the cases within each agency that may need an assist from you all,” Natasha explained.
“Agents on my team will only flag potential issues from within their own agency and share the details with our task force. Not all situations will require your help, but in the cases that do, I’ll share that information with Secretary Chandler. ”
Secretary Chandler? Not Dad. “And the other four agents won’t know you’re coming to us?” A.J. asked, a bit alarmed at all of this. “Who do they think will be helping?”
“It’s need-to-know, and well, they know they don’t need to know,” the admiral answered as if it were that simple.
Say that three times fast. A.J. resisted the urge to reach around for the knot at the back of his head. He was still off from that fall. He’d had a lot worse over the years, and for a rock to be the straw that broke the camel’s back—well, damn.
“Most cases, this task force will be used as a way to communicate and better collaborate with our colleagues across agencies and won’t involve you all,” Natasha added.
“Can we have a word in private?” Wyatt moved toward her, and she quickly nodded, then followed him out of the room.
A.J. opened the water bottle and nearly drained every last drop as he allowed his mind to circle around the idea they’d be working with Natasha as a liaison for a covert task force.
“We’re keeping this all a family affair, huh?” Owen directed his question to Secretary Chandler. “Jess and Luke co-run the teams. They’re brother and sister. Jess and Bravo Three are almost married. Bravo Five’s dad is POTUS. And now you, sir, well . . . you get the idea.”
It also made it easier when the guys fell in love with someone who already had access to additional high-level security clearance, such as Owen’s wife with ties to the Intelligence Committee before they married. And then there was Liam’s wife, who worked for the U.S. Attorney General.
“I take it you have a mission for us already as a result of this newly formed group?” Harper brought the focus back to the immediate reason they were all there: an operation.
Admiral Chandler’s attention turned to the stack of folders. “Yes, and unfortunately, this was not the way I wanted to kick things off, but for starters, we need to be certain we don’t have a mole or a leak at the Bureau.”
Yeah, and “for starters” means that’s the tip of the iceberg. And damn, the FBI? They’d encountered an issue with the FBI in the past, and they weren’t jonesing to do it again. The wounds were still fresh.
“I’ll let my daughter explain the case when she returns,” Admiral Chandler said as Finn reached for his phone. “You won’t get a signal. This place blocks all devices. Safety precaution.”
“Just gonna play some Candy Crush.” Finn was withholding a smirk, and A.J. could see it in the quiver of his lips.
The admiral rose at the sight of Natasha entering the room with Echo One a few minutes later. Neither looked pissed. That was good news. It couldn’t be easy for Wyatt to be in this position, but bright side? They’d get to spend more time together. Maybe fit in some last-minute wedding details.
“So,” Natasha began once Wyatt was seated, “we brought you all here to do something that frankly you’re probably not accustomed to doing, and I’m not comfortable asking.”
Well, shit, way to start.
“We need you to follow a select handful of FBI agents from the Counterintelligence Division of the Bureau.” Natasha passed out the gray file folders, ensuring everyone at the table received one.
“Three, possibly more, confidential sources have gone off the grid. Any in the wrong hands would greatly threaten our national security.”
Natasha circled back around the table once the folders had been handed out and stood off to her father’s right.
A.J. had to assume she was working harder than normal to remain business-like in the presence of her father, to prove she belonged in the room despite the fact she was marrying Echo One in July.
“So, are we assuming an FBI agent,” Wyatt began while pointing at the folder he’d been given, “is behind the disappearance of the sources?” He set a hand on the folder instead of opening it, eyes on his fiancée.
“Why isn’t the FBI handling this internally?
Or, I don’t know, one of those fancy internal government agencies sent in to deal with leaks like this? ”
A.J. was with Wyatt on this.
“The agent on the newly formed task force is only asking for an assist as a precautionary measure. He also doesn’t want to tip off any agents to the fact that the FBI is onto the possible leak,” Natasha answered.
“If there’s a traitor in the Counterintelligence Division, we want to tie them to who they’re working with,” the admiral pointed out.
“And given our past experience with government corruption and betrayal, we didn’t want to hand off this case to just anyone else.” Natasha folded her arms. “So, as much as I hate requesting you to spy on agents, we need to find out what is going on. Clear the agents’ names.”
“Or find the traitor,” A.J. muttered under his breath.
Natasha gave a tight nod. “The Bureau cross-checked every badge and ID code to see which agents or analysts accessed the case files connected to the missing sources in the last few months. But no one outside the particular unit within the Counterintelligence Division, or the connected field offices working with them, opened the files related to the missing sources.”
“That doesn’t mean someone didn’t find a way around the system to get to the sources,” Harper commented. “But I’m assuming the names you’ve provided for us to surveil are on the Counterintelligence Division’s task force?”
“Unless something changes, yes, those are the names we have for now,” Natasha said. “We’d like to rule them out first.”
“What kind of sources are we talking about?” A.J. cocked his head. “What do they have in common?”
“You mentioned cases, plural. You saying these sources were connected to different cases?” Roman spoke up for the first time since Admiral Chandler arrived with Natasha.
“Yes, the three sources are attached to different cases,” Natasha clarified, “which is why we’re ruling out the FBI field offices for now since it was only Headquarters that had access to all three names and their locational details.
But the section chief in charge of the Counterintelligence Division has concerns about one of his sources down in Atlanta, so he’s en route there now to check on him. ”
“Since when does a section chief go out into the field to check on a source?” Harper asked.
“The source is an Iranian the Feds managed to turn. He now spies on Iran for the FBI and CIA,” the admiral explained.
Roman set his hands on the folder, eyes downcast as if working through the problem. “Three, maybe four, sources all go off-the-grid at the same time. Yeah, that raises some red flags.”
“Spying on spies whose job is to spy on spies. Hmmm.” Chris raised a brow.
“Sounds illegal-ish,” A.J. shot back.
“I think the ‘ish’ makes it slightly less illegal,” Chris said, no hint of a joke in his tone.
Harper cleared her throat and tipped her head in the direction of the admiral as a reminder he was in the room during their back-and-forth quips.
“It’s okay,” the admiral responded. “I remember my days in the service. Sometimes humor is the only way to make it through the tough times.”
And A.J. liked the man even more. “So, do we have access to the case files related to the missing sources as well?”
Natasha pointed to the folders. “We figured you might want to take a look at everything, so yes, that information has been provided.”
“The assets we’ve confirmed to be MIA are connected to a Russian crime group, the Chinese government, and lastly, to Hamas.
” Something in the admiral’s eyes when he’d spoken suggested to A.J.
he was holding back, not telling them everything, but A.J.
wasn’t sure if he was prepared to press the issue.
“These sources are managed under the FBI’s Confidential Human Source Program—HUMINT.
You’ll be monitoring a team of six agents, the ones operating those aforementioned sources in conjunction with the corresponding field offices under the leadership of their unit and section chief,” Natasha said.
“We were also alerted their unit is receiving an additional agent on Monday, but we’re still firming up the details on that. ”
“The President agrees you all are best suited to handle this situation,” the admiral began, drawing their eyes, and A.J.
felt something big was coming, the “whatever he’d been holding back” was on the verge of heading their way.
“Especially since there’s a small chance that the Daylight Ledger may be mixed up in all of this. ”
“I thought that was an urban legend. A myth,” Roman spoke up, since of course, Roman would know what in the hell the Daylight Ledger was when the rest of the guys, aside from Harper, looked puzzled.
Harper and Chris both opened their folders as if quickly ripping off the Band-Aid, intrigued to learn more.
A.J. wasn’t ready yet to view the possible agents who were sworn to protect their country only to screw it over.
There was a special place in hell for traitors.
He also didn’t know if he was ready to chase down an urban legend when he was already chasing ghosts from his past, ghosts that felt real since yesterday.
“Ohhhh shit.” Chris grumbled before Roman had a chance to explain more about the ledger. A few more curses under Chris’s breath stole A.J.’s focus.
Chris’s eyes landed on A.J., and A.J. just knew what that “ohhhh shit” meant. It probably had nothing to do with the damn light-of-day, or whatever it was called, list, either.
A.J. flipped open the folder and stared at the photos of the six potential traitors before him, but it was only one that caught his eye.
The redhead he couldn’t stop thinking about.
The woman he may or may not have accidentally drunk messaged last night.