Chapter 9
Bean worried about Garnet’s safety. She’d been targeted and taken hostage. She wasn’t just some anonymous computer geek. Now she was known to a group who didn’t need to know anything about her.
He didn’t want to leave Beirut without her. Once they landed, he would talk to his team about staying close and keeping a watchful eye on her.
The rest of the flight passed uneventfully. About halfway to the embassy, Garnet rested her head against his shoulder. When he glanced down, he saw that she was sleeping. She looked peaceful, even after everything that happened.
He didn’t want to wake her when they arrived, but he needed her up. She rubbed her eyes and stretched after they left the helicopter. She looked incredibly cute. They weren’t in a relationship, but he wished they were. Even tired, she looked good.
She needed to be debriefed, but first, she was allowed to shower in one of the secure apartments that wasn’t open to the public. They happened to have an empty apartment after one of the employees left a few weeks before and hadn’t been replaced.
One of the other embassy workers had gone to her hotel to retrieve her bags, so she had clothes to change into. She looked refreshed after the shower, but he could tell she needed rest.
“You okay?” Bean asked.
Garnet nodded. “I’m fine. A little sore, but okay.”
“They want to talk to you.”
“Who?”
“I’m guessing it’s the CIA. Those guys are a little shifty. I’ll be in there with you.”
“Thank you.”
Garnet was thankful Brady would be in the room with her. She didn’t want to talk to anyone alone. The fear after being abducted still hadn’t worn off.
The room Brady led her to was small, with only enough room for three chairs and a small table. She’d been given coffee and a breakfast sandwich. She appreciated both since she hadn’t eaten much in the last few days.
The man who came into the room smiled and shook her hand, but didn’t introduce himself.
“Thank you for talking with me. We’re trying to get to the bottom of how this happened. So could you walk me through what happened after you arrived?”
“Here at the embassy, or the hotel?”
The guy’s lips tipped up a little before he answered. “How about you start with your arrival at the embassy?”
She gave a rundown of everything she’d done after arriving, and how she’d started to wonder if some of the problems she saw had been set up by someone who wanted to purposely create havoc.
She explained how she’d been tired, so she went to the hotel. Once she was in her room, she realized she hadn’t been given water, so she put on her jeans and headed out to get a bottle of water.
“And that’s when the guy jumped me in the elevator.”
“What happened?”
“He put a cloth over my mouth that was filled with fumes. Then they took me to their compound.”
“They?”
She nodded. “Yes, another man joined him. They knocked me out, and I regained consciousness once I was in the room where Brady and his team found me.”
“Did you recognize Brady when he broke into that room?”
“No. They were all dressed in black. I couldn’t have recognized anyone. It wasn’t until much later that I knew it was Brady.”
“So the person who damaged the network here. Do you know exactly who it was?”
She shook her head. “Not one hundred percent. But it’s obvious it can only be someone who works here.”
The guy interviewing her nodded. “We need a list of people who have access.”
“I made a list of people who could have possibly had access.”
Brady leaned in and put his elbows on the table. “We want to stick around as security. I don’t think she’s safe.”
The guy met Brady’s gaze and held it. “You think you could keep her safe?”
Brady nodded. “Absolutely.”
The guy turned back to her. “Are you going to stick around and fix the problems with the computers?”
“Of course.” There was no way she would leave them without fixing the issues. Now that she understood what had happened, she would have her guard up and wouldn’t trust anyone.
Bean was glad he and his team were staying in Beirut until Garnet left. She said it would only take her a few days to fix the issues and get the site up and running. While she worked on the computer situation, he and his team would be looking into the staff at the embassy.
Someone wanted to attack the US. It wasn’t unusual in his line of work to run into someone who wanted to attack the USA. That was why his job existed. If everyone stopped wanting to kill people in the USA, his job would be irrelevant.
Bean stayed close to Garnet while she worked, searching for issues to fix. He knew computers, knew basic coding, but the stuff Garnet was doing was beyond his understanding.
The rest of his team began interviewing people who worked at the embassy. They had narrowed down the pool of people who could have had anything to do with the computer and networking problems.
One of the women hadn’t shown up at work for the last few days. That was concerning. Then there was another guy who had left on a planned vacation. Both of them seemed suspicious.
Around three that afternoon, Chase thought they had enough information to head over to the woman’s flat and check on her since she wasn’t answering the phone.
Before leaving with his team, Bean made sure two Marines were around to keep an eye on Garnet to make sure she wouldn’t be harmed. They both knew Garnet had been taken by terrorists and that someone might try to get to her again. He made the Marines promise they wouldn’t leave her alone.
All the way over to the employee’s flat, he worried about Garnet, but he had to push that away when they arrived. They probably looked odd to the neighbors. The seven of them stood out, but they had to check out this lead.
The woman didn’t answer the door when they knocked. Stanley moved around to the back of the building, and Bean followed. “Do you think she’s even here?”
Stanley’s eyebrows rose, and he angled his head toward the building. “I’m going to use the emergency ladder to find out. Looks like her shades are raised a few inches.”
“I’ll stay down here and watch for you.”
“Thanks.”
This wasn’t a war zone, and both of them didn’t need to be on the escape ladder at the same time. If the police came looking into why they were climbing the fire escape, it would be awkward. They had a good excuse, but the local police might not see it that way.
Stanley made fast work of the climb and was on the metal grate outside her windows in seconds. He bent, cupping his hands around his face to shield his eyes. He jerked back and then glanced over the railing, calling down to Bean.
“Tell Chase to call it in. She’s dead. From the looks of it, it was a violent murder.”
“Shit.” Bean texted Chase, telling him to call it in. The local authorities would have jurisdiction over the crime scene, but the embassy would be given the courtesy information once it was available. This could just be a random murder, but he didn’t think so.
This whole thing just got a lot more convoluted.
One embassy employee was dead, the other on vacation.
That didn’t bode well for any of them. He hoped Garnet wouldn’t be implicated in this woman’s death.
She’d been in the country, and terrorists abducting her wouldn’t make her look innocent.
He just hoped whoever investigated this murder would look elsewhere to lay the guilt.