Chapter Twenty-Four
ANDRE SCRUBBED HIS face with his hands. Oh, man.
Riley was right. The teams didn’t have any other options.
They had to go after Cowan, or he’d bolt.
If the agent slipped past them, finding him again could take a long time.
Andre preferred not to look over his shoulder all the time, wondering when Cowan or one of his hired thugs would take a shot at him or Riley.
“All right. Lucky for us, Zane found Cowan’s current whereabouts and sent me a message with the spook’s address. ”
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense.” Elias made a rolling motion with his finger. “Where is Cowan, and please tell me he’s not in D.C.”
“You’re safe, my friend. Cowan is in Franklin.”
The other operatives stared at him. Andre shrugged. “My guess is he either wanted to supervise or gloat when his hired man caught Riley. I’ll wake Seth, and then we’ll go from there. Elias, wake Grant and Rayne, then gear up. I’ll need you with me. The rest of you wait here.”
He walked to Seth’s door and knocked. Since his friend had the hearing of a bat and was always half alert even when he slept, Andre knew Seth would wake easily.
Less than a minute later, Seth opened the door and stepped back for Andre to come inside. “What is it?”
He updated his team leader and waited.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Seth’s narrowed eyes and reddened face clued Andre in to how angry his teammate was.
“Elias and I had this under control until we talked to Berkley. Riley remembered that the two men had an arrangement to check in with each other even during the night hours.”
“Neat way to control your partner, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Give us two minutes. And, Andre?”
“Sir?”
“This discussion isn’t over.”
He swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.” Great. Just great.
Now he’d ticked off his team leader to where he had another session coming.
That session, Andre knew, wouldn’t be pleasant.
He’d be lucky to escape the censure with his skin intact.
Seth was a great man and leader, and he didn’t tolerate insubordination in the ranks. Andre sighed. Yeah, he was toast.
At two minutes on the dot, Teagan and Seth entered the living room. Andre stood. “Sorry to interrupt your night, Teagan.”
“Worth it if we’re able to take the monkey off your back and Riley’s.”
“Thanks.” He opened the door to the corridor and led the way back to his suite. The rest of the team was waiting for them.
Seth said, “I hear we have an enemy combatant to catch in Franklin. Let’s make a plan in the next fifteen minutes, and get to it.”
For the next few minutes, they came up with six plans, choosing the one most likely to succeed. Seth looked at each member of the two teams. “Are we set?” Heads nodded.
Grant wrapped his arm around Rayne’s shoulders. “How many of us are going on this mini-operation?”
“Echo only.”
Iona scowled. “Wait a minute.”
“This isn’t about Artemis having only women on the team.
This is about having too many people on an op in a residential neighborhood.
We can’t afford to draw attention. Ten strangers going into a house will definitely draw the eye of anyone awake at this hour.
Look, you know the plan. Capture and carry Cowan back here.
You won’t miss anything except the initial contact. ”
“I still don’t like it. We can be a normalizing factor, Seth.
You said having ten people going into Cowan’s home would draw the eye, and I agree with you.
I don’t agree that sending in five men will be a better option.
If your goal is to appear normal, couples visiting a friend looks more natural than five men. ”
Andre’s mouth curved. “She’s got you there, Seth.”
His friend stared at him, a promise of retribution in his eyes. “Who do you suggest going in, Iona, and why?”
“Andre, you, Riley, Elias, Violet, and me.”
“Why you?”
“Leader’s privilege. I want to see for myself what we’re up against. I doubt Cowan will give us much information, but it will be something.
Also, if Cowan treats women as pretty things to play with and dump back in the box, he won’t think twice about me being there.
Riley could be a catalyst like she was during Berkley’s interrogation.
Cowan knows her. With an ego like his, he’ll believe he knows what makes her tick, but he won’t know how to handle the woman Riley has turned out to be. ”
Seth was silent for a moment, then gave a slight nod. “All right. We’ll do it your way.”
Grant stared at Seth. “What about the rest of us?”
“Keep watch. We can’t afford to let anything slip past us. Also, make sure our interrogation area is ready. Although Riley did a great job, you might think of something else useful that our interrogators can use. Those of you going to Cowan, gear up. We leave in two minutes.”
Andre grabbed his Go bag and strapped on his gear.
With a Ka-Bar, two Sig Sauers plus multiple magazines, bullet-resistant vest, more knives, throwing stars, grenades, and flashbangs, he looked more like he was going to war than on a catch-and-cart mission.
The chances were excellent that Cowan was prepared to defend himself and whatever flavor of the night was in his bed.
Like Berkley, Andre figured Cowan was ready and willing to throw his co-conspirator under the bus if it made him look better.
When he finished gearing up, Andre slipped the strap of his Go bag over his shoulder and joined the others in the living room.
Seth glanced at everyone. “You know the drill. Stay focused. That especially goes for you and Riley, Andre. You two have the most to lose in this game. Don’t hand the enemy a victory by letting down your guard.”
“Copy that, sir.”
“Let’s load up. Two SUVs. Andre, you and Riley are with me. Violet, you’re with Elias and Iona. Stay alert when we’re driving. I don’t like that Berkley found us. If Berkley knows where we are, so does Cowan. He’ll be ready.”
The group walked down the corridor and into the stairwell. Soon, they drove out of the hotel parking garage and turned right toward Franklin. Seth glanced at Andre. “You’re navigating. Zane’s bots came up with the address where Cowan is staying just in time.”
“He always comes through.” He couldn’t remember a time when Zane had disappointed them. The SEAL was incredible.
“Is he on board with being our tech support tonight?”
“Yes, sir. He’s awake and ready. Zane is waiting for our signal. We’re taking Interstate 840.”
Seth nodded. “I figured as much. So, Andre, what’s the real reason you didn’t wake me when Berkley showed up at the hotel?”
He stilled. Seth knew? How? “I….”
“Before you finish that sentence, remember I can read you like a book, so don’t bother lying to me. I want the truth unless you want to run five extra miles every day until you retire. Am I making myself clear?”
“Crystal, sir.”
“Talk.”
Boy, he’d put himself in the doghouse with Seth this time. “Riley isn’t the only one who’s worried about teammates being targeted to smoke her out. So am I.”
“You didn’t work for the CIA unless I missed something in the past few decades. Did I?”
“No, sir. However, if the person targeting Riley and me knows me at all, he already has a target on Echo’s back.”
“We’ve established that we’re all targets, Marsh. You better have a stronger explanation than that because I can see you needing another pair of running shoes by the end of the month.”
“Look, you’re married now. I didn’t see a point in making you even more of a target than you already were.”
“Did you alert Noah?”
“Not until we finished interrogating Berkley. We needed Violet to knock him out, and that required an explanation to Noah first.”
Seth was silent for a long moment. “While I appreciate you protecting me and my wife, the next time something like this happens during an overnight watch, I better be the first person you contact. Otherwise, the need for those running shoes will definitely be on the agenda. Am I clear?”
Andre swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.”
“Same goes for you, Riley.”
“Copy that, sir.”
“What do you know about Cowan?”
“He’s a creep and a jerk.”
Seth laughed. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“Like a need a shower every time I talk to him.”
“What is it about Cowan that causes you to want a shower?”
“Everything.”
“Try harder. I don’t have time for a day-long discourse. Give me the abbreviated version.”
“Every time I dealt with Sam Cowan in person, he couldn’t keep his eyes on mine. His gaze always traveled to various spots on my body that attracted his attention. I can’t tell you how many times Sam talked to my breasts instead of to me.”
Andre’s hand clenched tighter around his phone. What he wouldn’t give to have one minute alone with this guy. Yeah, he’d probably end up in jail, but the punishment might be worth the crime.
“What else?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“No. You have good instincts, Riley, and you’re extremely intelligent. What did you notice during your encounters with Cowan?”
She frowned. “He took the information I gave as though it meant nothing.” Riley paused.
“No, that’s not right. He took the information as though he didn’t care because he already knew everything.
Sam never asked me to repeat something. He never wrote things down or asked for clarification regarding the Obsidian Storm mission.
How could he know information I hadn’t told him? ”
“You may not have been the only agent in the field to report in. Maybe he’d heard the news from someone else.”
Andre grunted. “Or he knew the information because he was involved with Obsidian Storm.”
Seth narrowed his eyes. “Proof?”
“Nothing yet.”
“That’s not how this works. We must have proof if we’re to point the finger at him and Berkley. At the moment, we’ve got nothing except a lot of supposition. That won’t cut it in court.”