18. Gwen
Gwen
“According to my father, because of the compound strike in Vanuatu, that case is now with the Aussies,” Natasha shares. “They’ll do their best to identify the bodies, but it’s going to be hard given they blew up the place.”
“I take it you told the secretary everything we already know?” Easton asks her, keeping his eyes away from mine.
“I did,” she confirms. “And he relayed as much as he safely could to the Aussies without giving anything away about us specifically, of course. Not easy to do without sacrificing the identities of everyone on this plane, but he managed.”
“He needs to protect himself, too,” Carter says. “We can’t let anything we do ruin his chances of winning the nomination.”
Huh. Looks like he’s on the same page as his wife in not wanting Diana’s mom to become president.
“He’ll be safe,” Natasha promises. “And it’s not exactly his first rodeo in keeping our work buried.”
“I assume the case is also in Falcon’s hands since Gwen was abducted, and your dad couldn’t tell the Aussies she was taken,” Julian says while sitting. “Unofficially, of course?”
This is my first time seeing—and now, I suppose, operating—with Julian since the mission we worked together in August. We’ve spoken here and there, sure, but that was mostly because he was checking in on my recovery.
For a man who’s “dead” to the world, I appreciate he came running when Carter called for an assist. It looks like we’ll need all the help we can get.
“Unofficially our op, yes,” Natasha says. “Not that any of Falcon’s ops are ever official,” she adds. “Someone had to have betrayed you all, though.”
“There’s no way Jezebel knew so much about everyone at Falcon Falls without an insider,” I say in agreement, hating to think about that woman and that bloody room.
“What about your source?” Easton asks Zoey. “Any leads on her whereabouts?”
“Source?” I mumble, because this is news to me.
Zoey’s mouth tightens, and she forces out a breath through her nose.
“Someone I used to work with at MI6 provided an intel package about a trafficking ring on that island.” Her voice is tight and controlled, like she’s fighting to keep her emotions from breaking free.
I can relate to that. A lot of us on this plane can. “We were there because of me.”
And now the apologies make sense. Not her fault, though, of course.
“Her source is missing. Either on purpose, taken, or dead,” Gideon drops the bad news on us.
“My program is searching for Molly, as well as the two Aussies at the hotel we believed might be part of the operation,” Julian continues, and I assume Molly is Zoey’s source.
“I’m combing through the last six weeks of CCTV footage, starting with Brisbane and Dubai.
I’ll expand the search and timeframe if I don’t get any leads. ”
I forgot Julian doesn’t yet know an ID was made on his two suspects. Thankfully, Zoey did that for me so I didn’t have to look at their faces. Gideon fills both Easton and Julian in about that, which I appreciate.
“And if Jezebel ever came in contact with Molly, or those two men on camera, we can finally snag an image of her and figure out who the hell she is and where she is now,” Natasha picks up for him.
“But something tells me Jezebel’s smart enough to have sent expendable men to Dubai for you.
People she never would’ve crossed paths with outside the compound. ”
Shit, she has a point. “And Molly would never be caught on camera having a meeting with Jezebel if she did betray you.” Double shit. “But do you really think Molly’s in on this and betrayed you?”
Zoey’s eyes narrow on her lap, and I can’t help but notice her fingers are bare. Guess she managed to remove the wedding ring.
“I’ve known Molly for a long time. She’s been in my corner more times than I can count.” Zoey slowly looks up at me. “People change, I suppose.”
I’ll take that as a, Hope not. But that would also mean she’s in danger or dead, so that’s a horrible thought.
This whole situation is a nightmare from start to finish.
“Well, um, what else can you share about her that might help us out?” Aside from what little Easton told me at the safe house, I’m still mostly in the dark about the op.
“As many of you already know, my fiancé was murdered,” Zoey begins, eyes on the ceiling as if she can’t look at us and get through this.
“Molly left MI6 a few years ago, but she’s still very much part of the intelligence world.
So, when she heard about a trafficking organization that might have ties to someone who once operated with the assassin who allegedly stole Preston’s life, she let me know about it. ”
Zoey was still with MI6 when Preston was taken from her, and Carter was on the operation with them. From my understanding, Carter stayed behind to defuse a bomb while her fiancé chased after the man who set it. That assassin killed Preston and escaped.
He wound up getting involved in a case involving Jesse and Ella years later, which brought Zoey back into Carter’s life.
She started having doubts that Yuri—the man known as “The Chechen”—was really responsible for Preston’s death after he claimed he didn’t kill her fiancé.
She’s been searching for answers ever since, which is why she left MI6.
This is even more complicated than I already thought it was.
“The traffickers were starting a new base of operations in Vanuatu and looking for pilots, so that was supposed to be our way to infiltrate the organization,” she continues, unable to shake the quiver in her voice.
“Molly provided intel that whoever is in charge of the trafficking ring has a connection to The Chechen. She didn’t have a name or photo of anyone in charge, but she had financial records and things like that proving the criminal activity, as well as their possible ties to Preston’s killer. ”
So, you needed to get on the inside to see if it was true. Makes sense. But how am I involved in all of this?
“Did Molly tell you this in person?” I ask as Carter tosses his iPad on the seat next to him and stands.
“She did. Last month in London.”
“This is sounding more and more like everyone was being positioned like a bunch of chess pieces,” Julian adds his two cents on the matter, and I flinch at his wording, knowing how Dad will respond to it.
“Anything but that analogy,” Dad pleads.
I’ll never look at chess the same way after what we went through hunting the cybercriminal known as The Knight.
“But why would someone do all this just to get my rig? They know who we are and what we’re all capable of.
Yet they still took the chance. Risked a lot.
” Doesn’t add up. “And why would she want you two there in the first place?” I look over at Zoey, and I hate to ask her this, but I have to. “Does Molly know about Falcon?”
Zoey meets my eyes, and her chest slowly rises and falls. “She’s familiar with Carter and Jesse. No one else that I’m aware of.”
“For now, we need to operate under the assumption anyone could be a traitor,” Carter interjects. “We’ve also had a lot of operators coming and going at the hotel.” His eyes shoot to the floor as he adds, “No one I can think of who’d know so much about us, though.”
“No one who knew we were going to Dubai, either,” I add. “Not anyone we don’t implicitly trust.”
“We just sent our families to The Sapphire,” Easton grits out, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his thighs.
“My sister said she’s heading there soon.
Was that a mistake?” He steals a look at Constantine as another bump in the sky jolts the plane hard enough to force even Carter to sit back down.
Not ominous at all.
Easton, being sweet, takes the time to mouth to me, “We’re fine.” Coming from one of the best pilots in the world, I’ll trust him on that.
“No one is armed inside the hotel. Outside of us and the security team, of course. The place is secure, trust me.” Carter reaches into his pocket and .
. . aw. He throws a pack of gum at Easton.
Now that’s a good friend. He’s not a gum chewer, which means he had to have kept stock on the plane knowing one day Easton would come back to us.
Easton nods his thanks and quietly gets to work on shoving two pieces in his mouth to grind.
“But if there’s a possible snake on the inside, we’ll flush them out.” Carter scans the cabin, eyeing us one by one before he lands on my dad. “I believe we’ll be safe, or I wouldn’t let my wife and child stay, but if you think—”
“Better together than separate,” Dad says without hesitation.
“They probably want us to split up like we did back when we were fighting The Collective. All hiding out.” And thinking about that op years ago—how it started with Mya nearly being assaulted, how I almost was, and what Oliver had to do to save her . . .
Nope, don’t go there.
“So we stick together this time. That way we can control the situation.” Carter peers at Constantine, and Constantine gives him a same-page nod as well. After that, he looks to Gideon and Julian. “We could use your help. I think you should stay with us as well.”
Julian defers to his brother, and Gideon agrees, “We can do that.” He surveys the cabin.
“I also have people in Australia who can be your boots on the ground without the government knowing we’re having a look ourselves.
We worked with them in New Zealand on the op my sister’s best friend was involved in. The one you all helped out on.”
Carter nods, then focuses on Zoey.
“No,” Zoey says before he can even ask.
“Yes,” Carter grunts back.
She glares at him and rasps, “I need to look for Molly and get to the bottom of this myself. She could be in danger, or, well . . .”
Betrayed you?
“It also wouldn’t be right for me to stay at The Sapphire,” Zoey tacks on after an uncomfortable moment.
“Not right?” Gideon echoes back in confusion. “What in the bloody hell am I missing?”