42. Mya
42
The safe house should’ve been active with chatter and weapons preparation, calls coming and going, but it was the opposite. Nearly dead quiet with half of our team not there.
Jack and Griffin were meeting with the McGregors and Sebastian Renaud about the final plan, and likely multiple contingency plans. Sydney and Easton were doing the same with our Marine friends. Jesse and Oliver were downstairs prepping for the fight. Wyatt, Teddy, Bravo and Charlie Teams were doing a recon mission at the island. And honestly, I had no clue where Carter and Gray were.
So, it was just myself, Mason, and Gwen in our temporary command center, going over everything we knew for the millionth time.
When the information on my screen started to become a blurry mess, I removed the blue light glasses Sydney had lent me and rubbed my eyes.
We were four hours from go time, and if Oliver didn’t come up soon from practicing, I’d have to go and drag him away like I had the night before. He needed to preserve some of his energy before the fight.
When I’d gone looking for him that time, I’d been pleasantly surprised to see him laughing at something Mason had said. I hadn’t even known Mason had offered to spar with him, but seeing them get along felt like another step in the right direction for us. The laugh passed between them was the cherry on top of that moment.
Now, Mason sat on the edge of Gwen’s desk as she worked on her laptop. When he began going over the facts about our destination as if we hadn’t already done it a hundred times already, my eyes glazed over. Maybe I needed to rest before the big night myself?
“Seven hundred and fifty acres of land. A man-made island constructed from reclaimed sand. Several linear corridors. Ninety percent of the place is terrain, not buildings, without many positions for overwatch.” Mason flicked the iPad screen in his hand. “The entire north side of the island has absolutely no cover. Anyone caught out in the open there would be picked off, so that’ll be a dead zone for both sides.”
“And if we have the blueprint of the island before it became deserted,” I grumbled in frustration, “then so do the Sorens.” That was also a fact we’d brought up so many times I’d lost count. It really would be a “fair” playing field.
“Anyone else feel like we’re all being dropped onto this island like we’re inside the Hunger Games?” Gwen pushed her laptop away and leaned back in her swivel chair. “While a bunch of assholes watch over us and make bets? We’re from District Good Guy. The Sorens from District Hell.”
“Or from District Bird Shit.” Mason’s comment drew a soft chuckle from Gwen.
“The inside of the small practice arena is what really worries me, though. Especially the fact the two of you will be in there.” Mason’s tone was back to a somber one at that point. “We’re all going to be sitting there, unarmed, up until part two of the night, and I don’t trust the Sorens won’t violate the terms and conditions of the deal.”
“Trust?” I fake laughed, set aside the laptop on the couch, and stood. I rotated my neck, which hurt from looking down at the screen so much since yesterday. “We should most definitely not trust anyone from District Bird Shit.”
Mason’s lips twitched at my comment.
“That’s why my dad and the others snuck onto the island today,” Gwen said. “You know that growly man will ensure we’re safe in there before he lets me step inside.”
“I’m not going to lie, I kind of feel bad for the guy. Also, whatever man decides to marry you one day.” At Mason’s words, Gwen leaned over and playfully swatted his forearm.
Gray strode into the room, joining us a moment later. “Anything from the hacker?”
“Would’ve come and found you if that were the case, Uncle Gray.” Gwen winked at him.
“Smart-ass,” he teased her, but the tease was short-lived, and his expression quickly became sour.
“Bad news?” I really hoped I wasn’t reading him correctly.
Carter’s scowl as he entered the room, cutting straight over to Gwen’s desk, gave me my answer.
“You could say that,” Gray answered while Carter abruptly snatched Gwen’s laptop.
He balanced it on his palm and began typing with his other hand, muttering curses under his breath. Pretty sure one of them was cocksucker.
“I’m right. It’s him. Fuck.” Carter passed the laptop off to Gray and pulled his phone from his pocket, his fingers moving fast on the device. Gray scrutinized the laptop screen as Carter shared, “Raymond Pecker.”
“Pecker, huh? Sounds like a real dick.” Mason was on a roll distracting us with jokes. Guess he was filling in the void without Jack or Oliver there to do it.
“Raymond’s the former CIA station chief in Thailand,” Carter let us know.
Thailand, of course.
“Rumor is he stepped down to handle our government’s black sites there. He did some really fucked-up shit to the prisoners that even I’d say was going too far.” Carter stowed his phone in his pocket. “That was one of the dark chapters in CIA history, and Raymond basically wrote the handbook on dark government shit.”
“And are you about to tell us he’s here in Abu Dhabi?” Is that what’s going on? “Why am I not surprised a station chief would be corrupt and working with our enemy?”
At Carter’s nod, Gwen commented, “It’d be more shocking if there wasn’t corruption within the highest levels of our government.”
“I’m not worried about Raymond being here, even though he’ll for sure have a group of highly trained mercenaries here,” Carter said as Gray set the laptop back in front of Gwen. “It’s who he’s talking to that concerns me.”
Gwen dragged the screen closer and beat him to the punch. “Brutus Uri? The guy who owns the island we’re going to later?”
“Why does the name Brutus sound familiar?” Mason asked, stepping aside to give Carter and Gray more space by the desk.
“He’s from the Julius Caesar play. Torn between loyalty of a friend and his country,” I told him, and despite it being a random off-the-cuff remark, it felt oddly relevant to our situation. “Do you think Nicholas knows the Sorens went around him to Brutus?”
“Doubtful,” Carter gritted out, “but he will now. I just texted Nicholas with an urgent message to call me.”
“So, now there’s a guy here who even you think is too dark, and he’s presumably working to get Brutus in bed with the Sorens,” Gwen reiterated our shit situation. “None of this sounds promising.” Her eyes shot to the doorway, and I turned to see Wyatt and Teddy filtering into the room.
Please, no more bad news.
“Find an exfil plan for the two of them?” Gray asked, diving into the main reason Wyatt and his people had infil’ed the island ahead of time.
“There’s only one ideal insertion method for all of our teams.” Wyatt hung back away from the rest of us, clearly still in a foul mood the plan was moving forward. “We have a yacht anchored far out, but positioned close enough to other boats not to stand out. We also have two Zodiacs at our disposal, but we’ll be using them as a distraction.”
“Good thinking,” Carter agreed. “Power them on, keep them empty, and direct them toward the island as a diversion. Draw the Sorens’ fire while we get Gwen and Mya out from the other side of the island.”
“And by out, you mean swim to the yacht you have anchored?” Better than jumping from a plane, I supposed.
He nodded. “You’ll have an underwater sea scooter.” Wyatt jerked a thumb toward the window, the vast expanse of the Persian Gulf’s waters the only thing in sight.
“Not having us Phelps it out to the yacht, then?” At least I could still make a joke at a time like this, but based on Wyatt’s confused expression, that joke was lost on him.
“Anyway, I think we should get your parents off the island as early as possible as well.” Ah, there was the reason for the facial expression, not because of my comedy attempt. “The yacht will serve as our TOC, and Jessica will be there, too.”
Jessica Hayes was married to Asher, Bravo Three, and she co-ran Bravo with her brother. She often stayed back at their tactical operations center while the guys went out, similar to what Gwen and I did on missions.
My mood soured at the mention of my parents, though. No more teasing to break the tension. Not from me, at least.
“Who’s taking us to the yacht, and who stays with us once we’re there?” I hated leaving Oliver and the others on that island, but I also didn’t want them to be distracted by trying to keep us alive in the midst of warfare. God forbid Oliver needed to sacrifice himself for the hundredth time to protect me. Nope, not on my watch. Not again.
“I’ll personally escort you, and Teddy and Easton will work to secure your parents and get them out to you. We can’t be present in the arena for part one of the night, since we’re not part of Falcon, but we’ll be there waiting for what comes next, I promise,” Wyatt remarked in a steady voice.
The Sorens hadn’t mentioned Teddy or Easton last night, which was why they’d be infil’ing with Wyatt and the others after we arrived. Even though I was sure the Sorens knew about them, because of what happened in Canada because of Steve, we weren’t about to bring up their names at the party.
“They’ll have to knock your parents out with something, then pull them through the water.” Wyatt swapped a quick look with Teddy who’d remained quiet. “Two SEALs from Charlie Team will be at our TOC with Jessica. I recruited them to the team myself, so they’re who I want watching you.” That comment was definitely meant for Gwen’s sake, her father’s eyes fully locked on to hers. “Once you’re all on board, Teddy will remain with you while I head back to the island to help the others.”
“Won’t you need all the help you can get on the island? Maybe not leave three or more people to babysit us,” Gwen suggested.
I was glad she said it, but I still didn’t want to think about how much help the team might truly need. Definitely not if there was going to be some crooked CIA guy there trying to help the Sorens one-up us by seeking out Brutus’s help.
“This is non-negotiable. If I don’t feel you’re safe when I leave you on that yacht, then?—”
“Fine, fine,” Gwen cut off her father. “I suppose they can also be backup in case you need an extra hand at any point. You will be on comms, right? Or will the signals be jammed so we can’t use them to talk with you all?”
Signals blocked? I blinked at the reminder that . . . “Do you think my parents did know what happened in Thailand? Did my father steal intel from Sydney’s dad about our trackers and pass that information over to the Sorens to help them? Maybe he didn’t know they planned to kill me.” Why am I thinking about this?
“It’s possible your signal was blocked with some premium tech, and that’s why the trackers stopped transmitting. The Sorens would cover all bases.” A valid point from Gray. “Regardless of whether your parents helped them in Thailand or not, I doubt they knew their plans when you were held captive, or that they’d planned to take down our jet once we took off in Singapore. If they wanted to save you in Canada, then . . .” He let go of his words, opting to let me draw my own conclusion.
The only one I could draw was that it didn’t matter at this point how much they knew and when they knew it. Because they didn’t care about my friends, who were now more of a family to me than they ever were. They’d tried to have them killed in Canada by threatening Steve’s mother and sister, and that was enough to convince me they were evil.
Gray cleared his throat, likely trying to kill the awkwardness and redirected to Gwen’s original question. “They won’t jam the signals. Hell, they can’t.”
“Oh, shit, you’re right,” Mason said. “Nicholas is livestreaming the whole event back to his guests. Can’t exactly kill the signals.”
Good point. One less thing to worry about. At least we’d have comms. I dropped that train of thought when Jesse came into the room, pulling a shirt over his head.
“Doesn’t mean the Sorens won’t try to do that, though.” And there went Gray, killing my concerned-about-one-less-thing moment. “We’ll anticipate the worst, hope for the best,” he added.
Pivoting to Jesse for now, and away from doom-and-gloom thoughts, I asked him, “Where’s Oliver?”
“Taking a shower,” he answered. “I forced him to stop practicing, or he won’t have any energy for the fight tonight.”
“Which is in four hours,” Mason reminded us.
But I didn’t need the reminder. There was already an eerie countdown ticking away in my head, impossible to forget.
“I’m going to check on him. Let me know if anything new comes up before Nicholas sends his team here to escort us to the island.” I scanned the room, prepared to take off when Gwen stopped me in my tracks.
“Shit, it worked. Our hacker got my message. They’re inside the chat box with me now and typing.” Gwen slumped back in her seat, a puzzled expression on her face. “All it says is, ‘Message relayed. Be in touch.’ Then they exited the chat.”
“Wait, relayed?” More puzzle pieces clicked into place. “The hacker works for our insider but isn’t actually our insider.”
“Which means it has to be someone in Sly’s tight circle, and presumably back in Arizona,” Gray responded as Gwen began typing. “Narrow down a list of everyone close to Sly and?—”
“His wife,” Carter interrupted him, dragging his hands through his hair. “It’s Sly’s wife. She’d have access to his laptop and could go through his files the way . . .” He shook his head, closing his eyes as bad memories must’ve come to mind.
The way his wife did to him. Only Rebecca helped the enemy, and Sly’s wife is helping us.
“Why would she do that?” Mason asked, moving to stand behind Gwen as she worked.
“Because most parents will do anything to protect their children,” Wyatt pointed out. “She must have had a change of heart about her husband’s business dealings, or only recently found out about it all sometime before Thailand.”
“But she knew her limitations in trying to get away from a group like The Collective,” I said in understanding, everything clicking into place. “It’s possible she had some cyber friend helping her in the background, and when she learned about Thailand from Sly, she saw her chance to save her kids.”
“It’s a smart play, and probably the only play Alyssa Soren had to make given her husband’s family is in league with the devil. Save the people who have the best shot at taking down her enemy.” Gwen’s words had the hairs on my arms standing.
“Call your father and have him tell POTUS what’s going on,” Carter said, eyes on Gray, but Gray already had his phone out, presumably thinking the same thing. “Get that woman and her kids protected before Hugo Soren can take her out.”
“Should I keep trying to figure out who our hacker is?” Gwen asked after Gray left the room. “Or just leave that for another day now that we know our insider?”
“Leave it for another day.” Carter surveyed the room, attention moving to me last. “For now, let’s focus on surviving tonight.”