Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
Paris, France
Noah walked around the car and held the door for Marina. “Parking lot is full.”
She glanced around, her hair blond and straightened today.
There hadn’t been much time to prepare, get ready, or do more than change clothes, but she’d spent most of the time they’d been airborne in the tiny plane bathroom.
“This is the main headquarters for Earthnet. I’d expect someone to be here.
Unless the whole company is a front for… whatever it’s a front for.”
He wasn’t going to tell her she was cute when she was angry. He wasn’t sure that would go down so well. “You look the part.”
“International inspector come to tour the facility?” Marina set off for the entrance to the main building of this campus.
Noah kept pace with her, smoothing down his tie and hoping their security didn’t have invasive scanners. “Something like that.”
“It won’t last long if their security has any kind of facial recognition.” Marina glanced over. “They’re probably reading our lips right now.” She kept her lips together, speaking in a muffled voice.
“One way or another, we’ll find out what we want to know.” Right now that was a list, and Noah wasn’t leaving here until he’d asked every question on it. “But I still think we should’ve created fake ID badges in their system and pretended we worked here.”
“If they have an AI in their system, you think it won’t flag that?” Marina said. “It knows us. I’m pretty sure at this point it knows everything about us.”
“Because it did facial recognition on Adam and found out everything about his history?”
“Then wormed its way into our system through the connection between our comms radio channel and my laptop. And spoofed Kai’s voice to make us believe there was a bomb on the boat.”
“When you say it like that…”
It actually seemed kind of farfetched, but considering the possibility that Marina’s cousin had been killed because her vehicle was hacked, Noah was inclined to believe it was possible.
Given his parents were both alive, and involved in this, part of him figured things would only get more outlandish before it was over.
Right now, the team was fractured. Kai was missing.
Ice hadn’t checked in since the last call.
Adam was livid and wanted to go get Steph back, like that was the most important thing right now.
Give him an M4 and a door to kick open, and things would certainly be a whole lot simpler. But with his injury that wasn’t in the cards for him.
The doors slid open in front of them. Three suited men who looked official sat to the right in waiting area chairs.
Two security guards were behind the desk, one a woman.
Above the first floor the hallway was visible so that anyone going about their business on the second floor could look through the glass and see down into the lobby.
Noah approached the desk. “We’re here for a meeting with Mr. Bradleigh.”
The female security guard lifted her penciled-on brows. “Is zhat correct?” she asked with French-accented English, which always managed to sound snooty even if the person wasn’t.
He turned to Marina. “Log that staff here were inclined to be belligerent.”
“Yes, sir.” She managed to sound snootier than the guard.
The guard rolled her eyes. “One moment.” She picked up the phone and spoke in rapid-fire French, having a back-and-forth conversation. Her gaze flicked to them for a second, and she spoke again into the phone. Finally, she hung up. “IDs.” She held out her hand, motioning with her fingers.
“I’m sure you already know who we are.”
“IDs.”
Noah dug for his wallet, sliding out his actual driver’s license for once.
The ID Marina handed over had the name Anne Barnes on it.
The guard took their IDs to a printer and lifted the top, laying them on the glass.
He turned his back to the desk and surveyed the lobby like he had every right to be here.
Security cameras in the corners, probably also in hidden places he couldn’t see. The guards had nine-mil pistols on their hips. Over by those waiting area chairs, one of the suited men went to a water cooler and got himself a drink in a laughably small paper cone.
A second before the guy tossed the cone in a trash can, Noah caught a decent glimpse of his face.
Richard Leesbury.
Former British Special Forces, a person of interest to the CIA.
If Noah contacted Emanuela Peraya and informed her he had eyes on the guy, would that endear the CIA to them?
His team could use all the goodwill they could get right now.
Especially when Noah was about to ask them for everything they had on Colonel Alan Montrose so he could look the guy up, pay him a visit, and put a bullet in his head.
Noah pulled out his phone and messaged her that Leesbury was here before tucking his phone away again.
“Someone you know?”
Noah slid his gaze to Marina’s and nodded slightly.
“Wear it at all times.”
He turned to the security guard and took the badge. “Thanks.”
“Go that way.” She pointed a manicured finger with red polish at the door to their right. “And stay with your escort at all times.”
Funny, the CIA had told him the same thing. “Even the bathroom?”
She didn’t think that was amusing, going so far as to sit back down in her chair and turn away from them to converse with her colleague in more fast French. Actually, maybe it was normal speed for a French person. It just sounded fast to him.
The door on the side of the lobby opened, and a guy in a black suit stood there holding it open for them. Noah glanced at Leesbury, but the guy didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything but getting more water. He’d probably recognize Noah if he looked over here.
Marina went first, holding her messenger bag with one hand, even with the strap over her shoulder.
The man stepped back, admitting them through the door. When it closed behind them, he said, “I’m Jean-Claude Petrice, head of security.”
He had a squat head that looked like someone had sat on it, giving him creases on his forehead and a flat-top skull. The guy couldn’t be more than five nine, so Noah towered over him.
“Nice to meet you.” Noah didn’t try to shake his hand. “I’m Noah Rourke, and this is my associate, Ms. Barnes. We really do need to speak with Mr. Bradleigh.”
“He’s a busy man as you can imagine, running a multinational corporation.” Petrice waved them down a hall. “This way.”
He escorted them to a conference room with sparse furnishings and uncomfortable chairs. Petrice sat across from them and laced his fingers together on the table.
“I’m sure you can understand our concerns,” Noah began.
“Earthnet hired my team to test security on one of your facilities and retrieve sensitive tech from a hostile area. We’ve incurred considerable expense, suffered injuries, and risked our lives.
Yet Earthnet has declined payment for our services. ”
Microexpressions of surprise and a little belligerence crossed Petrice’s face before he schooled his features. He wasn’t quite the poker player he thought he was. Marina would’ve made a better spy, in fact.
The head of security sat back in his chair while the clock on the wall ticked away the seconds. “Do you have a contract that outlines your assignment, and the compensation this company is required to pay you?”
“It was all arranged with an intermediary. I’m sure if you contact him, this will make sense.”
Petrice shrugged. “We have a lot of staff. Whoever took it upon themselves to contact you might not work in this building.”
“But Mr. Bradleigh does, so if we could speak with him, I’m sure this whole thing can be straightened out. After all, he probably wants to know that he has rogue staff members making deals with private security teams to fix embarrassing problems.”
The skin around Petrice’s eyes contracted.
“We know you’re looking for this staff member also,” Noah continued.
“In fact, when you went after him in Zurich, it was my team you were firing at. So you could say I have more than questions for Mr. Bradleigh. I’d like to know what he was doing in that lab in Zurich—the one under the water in that rusted-out boat.
I’d like to know why your drones tried to kill us. ”
“I can assure you Mr. Bradleigh has not been in Zurich,” Petrice said. “You only have to watch the news media to know he has been in France for three weeks preparing for a launch, and tonight he’s heading to Florida.”
Noah figured a guy like Bradleigh was the type to have body doubles, or all kinds of scenarios and lies concocted to account for his whereabouts.
Alibis. People paid to lie for him. Others paid to spin public relations and make him look like a benefactor who only cared about his charitable giving and not a money-hungry bazillionaire whose only concern was the bottom line.
“Do you have proof?”
When Adam had been winged by one of those drones and cut by whoever attacked him in the lab? Noah said, “I have an injured team leader, cut by a knife with poison on it.”
“Seems far-fetched.”
“That’s why it wouldn’t make sense for me to lie about it.” Noah paused. “What I’d like to know is what computer system your company had in that lab and how it was able to obtain classified information.”
It was risky letting them know that Noah was aware they had the information. Even if Earthnet planned to use it against them, they weren’t going to admit as much to him. Still, he had to at least bring it up.
“Earthnet and its subsidiaries are at the cutting edge of a number of fields in technology. I’m the head of security. You think I understand what they can do? These people are physicists, engineers, and software architects.”
Petrice, on the other hand, was probably ex-military just like Noah.
“One of their state-of-the-art drones drifted into Syria.” He waited a second while Petrice absorbed that, trying to gauge if the guy was aware. “My team was tasked with retrieving it, another incident that resulted in one of my people being injured.”
“Maybe you need better people.”