Chapter 22 #2
“Bullspit.” Dillon didn’t buy that for a second. “You’re Pike Auberon. Omen has a reputation.”
“We have that reputation because while we get things done, we do them through the front door.”
Dillon frowned.
“We don’t come in the back door, break laws.
We respect the countries we operate in and with.
If we have US government backing, we have a little more freedom and flexibility, but when that vanishes, so does our ability to operate.
I don’t want Omen to end up on the headlines of a scandal tabloid, so we play by the rules. ”
More of the shock that pushed him back a mental step hit Dillon. “That’s why you’ve been helping me…” Which still messed with his head that it hadn’t been Helios all this time. “Because I haven’t been playing by the rules…”
“Taking matters into your own hands is not something I condone, but you have been able to get done what I couldn’t touch.
I sent you leads because you were too skilled, had too much potential for me to just walk away from.
So this was part me protecting Max’s son, part me wanting to find your dad.
And I had this gut feeling you were like him. Driven. Intense. Focused.”
That definitely described Dad. Not so sure it applied to him.
“And thick-skulled.”
“Now you sound like my mom.”
“She’s who I heard it from first.”
Wariness parked at the corner of Hesitant and Eager in his mind. “You talked to her?”
“Don’t worry,” Pike said. “She doesn’t know where you are.”
Relief made Dillon breathe a little easier. “She doesn’t need to worry.”
“Not knowing doesn’t stop the worry, son. She’s your mother,” Pike said, “but she’s also been married to an operator for nearly three decades. This is old hat for her.”
Dillon nodded. “Fair.” In his periphery he noted movement in the surgical bay and stood as a female doctor came toward the window removing a scrub, which she stuffed in a bin, then stepped into the hall. “How is she?”
The late-twenties woman glanced hesitantly to Pike.
“What? Tell me!” Dillon demanded, panic drenching his actions. He told himself to get a grip, to stop reacting, but Cove…
The chief joined him in the hall and indicated for the woman to go ahead.
“She’s critical but will survive,” the woman said, her expression and words tight.
“The bullet nicked her spleen, so she had a lot of internal bleeding, but we got it under control. Had it been five, ten minutes later before we got to her, we’d be having a very different conversation.
” She gave Pike another nod, then excused herself, retreating down the hall.
“She blames me,” Dillon said, moving to the window.
As she should. “I had no idea… When we fled the warehouse, she stumbled, but said she was fine. We ran…” Holy fire, she’d been bleeding that whole time…
“I nearly got her killed.” Angry at himself, he felt his breathing go shallow.
Knew if Pike— He turned to the chief. Met his gaze, mustering all the contrition he had left.
“Thank you. If you hadn’t been tailing us… ”
“But I was. And she’s going to make it. That’s what matters.” Pike shifted toward the window where the other doctor was applying a bandage.
“She just wanted to prove her dad’s innocence against rumors that he was taking bribes.”
“He was.”
Dillon faltered. “What?”
“That’s a whole different convo.” Pike angled his head toward the corridor. “Tariq will let us know when you can see her. For now, let’s get back to the team. I can fill you in there.”
Not really wanting to leave Cove, Dillon hesitated for a second.
“She’ll be okay.”
He’d failed to protect her, and he had the unrealistic thought that staying at her side would keep her safe. Truth was, she was probably safer without him. He returned to the large open area with Pike and found the team gathered around the long table.
“You met Brick,” Pike said, indicating the burly guy Dillon had put into a chokehold.
Dillon nodded but the big guy didn’t return it.
“Luther is my right hand.” Pike pointed to the black man, who was athletic and amused. “Crow Rawlins is our sniper.” The Native American. “And Dade Tycho is your pizza place hacker.”
Something in Dillon tightened, grateful he’d been sparing with details while communicating with Helios.
“Casey is our analyst,” Pike continued with the introductions, pointing out a woman at a bank of computers. “Okay, why don’t you run us through what you know and found in the warehouse.”
Dillon sat in a chair and looked up just as Brick pitched something at him. He caught it and found a paper-wrapped hoagie from a local place. “Peace offering?”
“Or poison,” Brick said with a lazy shrug as he sat down.
Right. “Guess I deserve that.” He set the sandwich on the table and tried to gather his thoughts. “So y’all know about Paris and Italy?”
“We know the basics,” Luther said.
“Any intel come out of those?” Pike asked.
“No, I—wait. Yeah, maybe,” Dillon said, remembering unibrow.
“At the event, Cove said one of her dad’s business partners had brought a man she didn’t know.
That man turned out to be Yusif Rasulov, also known as Qanli Qilinc.
” He gave the chief a blank stare. “But you listened in on all that, so you already know.”
Brick clapped. “A mite slow, but he’s getting there.”
“Not slow with your weapon,” Dillon bit back.
“Okay,” Pike said, knowing that was heading south fast. “Dial it down. Jacobs, we only had visual on you tonight. Audio wouldn’t sync. Lay it out for us.”
“Qanli Qilinc showed up at the warehouse. He’s the one who shot Cove when we escaped. That footage you sent tonight proved he was here more than two years ago when my dad went missing, so he’s in deep. He demanded the triggers.”
“Which your pop stole?” Luther asked.
There was an intimacy of knowledge there in his words. “Yeah.” Anger tightened Dillon’s chest. “Hold up—so you knew all this and you—”
“We knew he was in Yemen, but we lost contact with him,” Pike said. “Keep talking.”
Dillon hesitated at first. “Well, you saw the footage—he searched the warehouse. Seemed to know exactly what he was looking for. Found a crate, broke into it. Stuffed the contents in a backpack and left. Cove was there that night, unwittingly videoed Dad boarding a trawler. I had no idea what he took until we ran into Rasulov. Dude demanded to know where the triggers were. That’s when I put it together, the one thing that would convince my dad to leave us, to do whatever it took… nuclear triggers.”
Pike stretched his jaw.
Surprised there hadn’t been more of a reaction from the chief, Dillon studied him. “You knew.”
“Suspected,” Pike confirmed. “Had zero proof. No idea where to look. Your dad was brought onboard to help rout the truth about GIS when we started seeing ties to Rasulov.” He shifted to a dark-haired man. “Dade, you got her phone?”
“Yep.”
“Find that video and find that boat.”
“On it, Chief.”
“Why are you looking for the boat? My dad ended up in Tanzania.”
“Washed ashore.”
Dillon stilled. Shouldn’t be surprised at this point that the chief knew so much. “You sent me the images.”
Another demeaning applause from Brick. “Not sure he’s up to Max’s level with that slow brain.”
Dillon glowered, but focused on the chief again. “What do you care about the boat?”
“Think about it. Your dad shows up in Tanzania. What’s he missing?”
Nearly cursing himself, Dillon should do the applause for the slow brain himself. “The backpack.”
“Dude,” Brick said. “That’s record time. See? Being around OTG is good for him.”
Why hadn’t he thought about that? “So, the triggers… If Qanli Qilinc didn’t have them, then maybe we can prove her dad’s innocence too. That’s what Cove wanted.”
“Got that backwards, son,” Pike said. “We were out to prove his guilt.”
“What…?”
“Galtieri’s company is a big-tech company with access and authority to get sensitive materials into and out of ports around the world. They’re reputable and powerful—primed to be manipulated. And that’s exactly what we believed RHB did by killing Galtieri’s wife and threatening his daughter.”
“Killing his wife?” Dillon balked, knowing it’d devastate Cove to know her father’s business partners had murdered her mom.
“It makes sense—why else would a man appoint his daughter, who has no training or experience in leadership, as comms director?”
“Because she’s intelligent and astute.”
“Don’t doubt it,” Pike stated blandly, “but she wasn’t qualified. Your dad believed RHB forced Galtieri to let them ship through GIS. Max was meeting with Galtieri, hoping to convince him to let your dad insert and dig around to find out the names involved.”
“Good news, bad news, Chief,” Dade called from the computer. “Found the boat—it’s based out of Tanzania. Ship was attacked by Houthi pirates and sank.”
Biting back a groan, Dillon realized… “That’s why my dad washed up on the shore of that resort, looking like a vagrant.”
Pike’s gaze sharpened on Dillon with a quiet nod. “That tracks.”
“So, the nuclear triggers…”
“Could be at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.”
“Chief.” A Middle Eastern man appeared in the far corner and thumbed over his shoulder. “She’s coming to.”
The words punched Dillon out of his chair.
He hustled over to the doctor. “Where…?” But even as he asked, he spotted her laid out on a bed in an adjoining room.
The female doc who didn’t like Dillon was adjusting an IV taped to Cove’s hand, which rested on the light blanket.
He all but threw himself into the chair next to the bed and caught Cove’s free hand.
Couldn’t believe how pale she was, the color leeched from her pink lips and cheeks.
He cursed himself for not realizing what had happened. “I’m sorry.” He kissed her hand.
Lashes fluttering, Cove gave a soft moan, her gaze drifting to him.
“Hey,” he said quietly as he bent toward her.
A smile quavered on her lips. Sound hummed in her throat as if she was trying to talk.
“Your throat will be raw for a while,” the female doc said as she touched Cove’s shoulder. Her blue eyes glittered at Dillon with no little amount of anger.
Yeah, message received and duplicated. I hate me too.
“What…?” Cove’s brow furrowed and she wet her lips. “What happened…?”
“You wanted a souvenir.” He wanted to take back the words as soon as they left his mouth.
“You got shot when we were fleeing Rasulov.” When her eyes widened, Dillon cursed himself.
Worked his jaw, remembering her collapsing in the alley.
The way her eyes had rolled and she went down…
“You nearly checked out on me, Gelato.” Man, his throat felt thick.
Worry shaded her gold eyes as she peered at him.
“Bullet hit your spleen. You were bleeding internally.”
“I thought I was too sweaty,” she noted wryly, then she looked around. “Where are we?”
“Safe, Miss Galtieri,” Pike intruded, coming to stand at the foot of her bed. “I’m Pike Auberon with Omen Tactical Group.”
Cove’s gaze found Dillon’s again, and it did something strange to him that she sought reassurance and understanding from him. It shouldn’t affect him—the simple fact was that she did not know anyone else here.
“We pulled you and Achilles from the street last night.”
Last night? Wait—what time was it?
“If you don’t mind, I think time is against us, so I need to borrow Mr. Jacobs.”
“No,” Dillon said, standing. “I’m not leaving her. She just had surgery—”
“Both your fathers and six nuclear triggers are missing.”
A buzzing started at the back of Dillon’s head. “How do you know how many there were?”
“Because I’m informed,” Pike stated frankly.
“You’ve known this whole time,” Dillon snarled, anger rising through him. “You let us chase leads that made me tell you what you already knew?”
“My job demands I stay abreast of situations and escalations. I would call anything related to the nuclear proliferation of Iran an escalation. Every piece of intel is critical. I had to hear it from your mouth to know if I was missing anything.”
“You have been playing me—”
“Dillon,” Cove whispered, squeezing his hand. “It is okay.”
“No,” he countered, glaring at the chief. Every time he thought this guy could be trusted…
“I’m tired,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed.
“Your attitude is not going to serve you well in this, Jacobs.”
“My attitude is what has gotten me this far.”
“On the contrary—that instinct you inherited from Max is what did that. The training he gave you over the years instilled in you a deep suspicion and need to find the truth—that is what got you here. It also is why you neglected this young lady and nearly cost Galtieri her life.”
“How dare—”
“I do. Because you’ve jumped with both feet into a race against Iran’s nuclear capability.” Fire lit through Pike’s face. “Now, are you done throwing your tantrums over the illusion of control and ready to get this thing resolved, or do you need more time alone with your attitude?”
Outrage charged through Dillon. His jaw felt like it’d crack as he stared down the chief.
“I have a proposal for you, if you can get rid of that and hear me out.”
Hand fisted, Dillon struggled to keep himself in check. “I wouldn’t work with you if you were the last person—”
“I am. I am the last person, the last chance you have to save your dad.” Pike stepped back. “When you’re ready to act instead of whinge, come find me.”