Chapter 23
CHAPTER 23
G abby waited as Con cleared the conference line. “Dad will be here shortly,” she said when he turned to her. He nodded and walked over, wrapping her in his arms. She let herself relax. “I need this right now.” She sighed and let him take her weight. God, it was wonderful to let someone take care of her.
“Believe it or not, I do, too.” Con chuckled. “Shit is about to get real.”
She nodded. “In our line of work, real is the only venue we operate in.”
He shifted his weight, so they were almost dancing while standing in place. “Vacations are authorized.”
She chuckled. “I could use one. A week or so on the beach, soaking up the rays and just relaxing.”
“That sounds amazing. Let’s do it.”
“What? When?”
“After this crisis is over.” Con pulled away and looked down at her. “My mom has a private island in the Maldives. She’ll let me use it, especially if I tell her I’m taking someone special with me.”
Gabby frowned and asked, “Who are you taking?” She couldn’t keep the smile from her face and Con laughed with her. “If you can get the time off after this, I’m in.” She toed up, and he kissed her. She sunk into the sensation of his arms wrapping her up and his tongue dancing with hers. The sound of the door chimes pulled them apart. “To be continued.” Gabby pulled out of his arms.
“I’ll keep you to that promise,” Con said and sat back down at his station.
She trotted over to the front door, checked the monitor to verify it was her father, and opened the door. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. She looked behind him. “Where’s Mom?”
“I have a better question. Is that a bullet burn?” Gabriel reached up and touched just below the red mark on her cheek.
“Yes, it got rough out there.” She wasn’t going to lie to her father. She’d try to keep the worst away from Con because he didn’t need to worry about anything but his job at the moment.
Her father’s eyes narrowed. “But you did your job.”
She smiled at him. “Yes, sir.”
He dropped a kiss on her head. “I love you.”
She looked up at him. “I know, Daddy. I love you, too.” She looked out the door. “And Mom is where?”
Her father caught her change of topic and went with it. “Jason suggested I send her shopping with Anya. Malice has overwatch on both of them, and half our security team is overwatching him.”
“So, Malice knows who Mom is?”
“No. Absolutely not. He knows she’s a high-value protection mission and that she has private security.”
As they walked into the library, her dad took command immediately. “Archangel has briefed me. Show me the video.”
Con pulled up the video and played it again. Gabby watched the film, looking for anything she’d missed on the first pass.
Her father leaned in. “Stop the video, please.” Con did as he said. “Is there any way this video has been altered to put those people in it?”
Con shook his head. “I’ll run it through my system, but even with AI, merging two people into a dated video of this nature would be hard, and you should be able to tell.” He turned to his computer, and his fingers flew across the keyboard. He turned back around. “It’s running now. We should have an answer by the time you finish looking at the rest of the video.”
Gabby stood by her father as he watched. His eyes narrowed at Eisenberger’s words. When the video was over, he turned and walked into his node. “Con, get everyone except Archangel on a conference call. Both he and I will join you when we’re done talking.”
“Yes, sir.” Con turned and started the call.
“What?” Fury snapped.
“Dude, Saint wants you on the call. Don’t bite my head off,” Con snapped back at her Uncle Joseph. Gabby smiled and winked at her uncle when Con wasn’t looking. The man’s face softened, and he gave her an almost-there smile. The rest of the executive crew joined the conference.
Jewell popped on. “I see you’re running a program on the video. I already did; it’s legit, but it doesn’t hurt to double-check.”
“Too right,” Con agreed as her father walked back toward them.
Her dad was strategic about staying out of the camera’s view; even though he didn’t need to hide on the secure link, he wasn’t disclosing his likeness unnecessarily. Her father was the king of caution. “Rundown of personnel on the line,” he said.
“CCS, Brando, Ethan, Alpha, Fury, and now Archangel.” Con moved the mouse around. “Sir, the connection is secure.”
Her father crossed his arms. “Fury, what’s the status of the Shadows going to the sites?”
“They are en route. None have entered Russia as of yet.”
“Coordinate their entry. I want those launchpads destroyed.” Her father stared at the floor as he talked. “I want all five to go at the exact same time.”
“Roger that, sir,” Fury acknowledged.
“The safe houses Eisenberger talked about; how many are there?”
“Six, sir. Two in London, one in DC, one in Madrid, one in Paris, and one in Canberra.”
Her father nodded. “The same goes for these locations. I want a Shadow at each location. We’ll coordinate the entry to the safe houses at the same time as the missile pads blow.”
“And anyone inside the safe houses?” Fury asked.
Her father didn’t hesitate. “Assume they’re hostile and coded.”
“We have one asset available in London. The other asset is in question,” Fury said, not giving shit away.
Gabriel looked at Con and made a slicing motion across his throat. Con tapped on the keyboard. “You are muted, and the screen is blank, sir.”
Her dad looked at her. “You told your mother and I you were inclined to leave the Shadows.”
Con’s eyes widened, and he whipped his gaze to her but didn’t say anything. She nodded. “I did. I realized when I was helping Con with the data he’d gotten I could do other things to support catching these bastards.” She rubbed her arms with her hands.
“I can fly another Shadow in.” Her father offered her an out.
She shook her head. “No. I want to finish this. I killed four men this morning to get that information to you and the others. This will be the last time. After this mission, you can retire me completely, and if Con will train me, I can help him when he needs it.”
“And your design career?” her father asked.
“Dad, I’m good, but I’m not great. I can do that in my spare time if the urge strikes me. I mean, it's not like Con will need me every second of every day.”
Con stood up. “Yes, I will.” He looked at her father. “However, the workload probably won’t support a full-time position.”
Her dad almost smiled, but he didn’t waste any time. “Put us back on the conference.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Saint is back online.”
“You have two assets available in London. Pull in the other Shadows and brief them. Give them as much information on the layouts of the homes as you can. If they have interior security systems, I want the Shadows to be able to see what’s waiting for them.”
“I copy,” Fury said.
“Rog-O,” Jewell said at the same time as Fury.
“Alpha, we need six teams, perhaps more; I’ll leave that to your discretion. They’ll take down that two-block area in Switzerland.”
“Are we clear from any government interference?” Alpha asked.
“We have the green light from Switzerland,” her father replied.
“I’m bringing up the Plume Pharma location on a map. You might want to pull up the locations of the sites.” Con spoke low so as not to disturb the conversation the others were having.
Ethan spoke up. “I’m here. I have them.”
“I’ve got the correct addresses of Molchalin’s safe houses. I’ll put them on the screen,” Brando said.
“That’s a lot of territory to cover,” Jacob said as the maps converged on the screen.
“We have the resources,” Fury replied.
“No, I mean the Plume area. We’ll need to find the access point to the underground facility, and the warehouse would be the logical place to look.”
“Don’t think logically.” Fury shot down his brother’s idea. “Where would you hide a secret entrance to a nuclear missile construction site?”
“As far away from the warehouse that was raided as it could get,” Jewell said. “Wait … We have pictures from when Phantom went to the warehouse.” Just a few seconds later, the pictures were up on another screen. There were some great shots and some that looked as if the Shadow had been right out in the middle of the street. Gabby shook her head. The man had big brass balls; that was for sure.
“Jewell, can you get me a satellite view of this area?” Jacob asked.
“You got it.”
“I can give you live feeds on the bordering areas, so you can see who’s going in and out and at what times. There are no cameras or any digital footprint I can find in that two-block area.”
Con frowned. “None? Do they have utilities going in?”
“I would imagine so,” Ethan said.
“Then they have a way to get digital in and out. Fiber is my guess, and it's buried.”
“But we can’t see it,” Brando reminded them. “If we can’t see it, we can’t tell the teams where to look.”
“Because it’s shielded and probably underground. But if we find out where the fiber ends, we have a damn good idea of the location.” Con’s fingers furiously danced across the keyboard. “We need to go back maybe ten or fifteen years and look for utility projects in the area.”
“I can do that,” Ethan said. “I’ll let you know what I find.”
“Sir, for the timed incursion, can I suggest we take down the power at the residences and this two-block area?” Con said as he typed.
Her father nodded. “Make it happen. Fury and Alpha, make sure your people know at what exact time that will occur.”
Jewell raised her hand, and her father smiled at the woman’s gesture. “Yes, Jewell?”
“Ah, what happens if we cut the power to the Plume lab and something isn’t contained anymore? I mean, I know the lab was raided and searched, and they didn’t find anything then, but what if there’s something there now?”
“Good point. Alpha, make sure your people have the required defenses, physical and medical, in place.”
“I’ll have to fly Dr. Montrose over there to do it,” Alpha said. “I can’t get all the teams to her and then back out in time.”
“Do it. Send Billy as overwatch with her. I don’t anticipate anything happening to the product, but we’ll make sure it’s secure. I’ll send one of my jets. Get her spun up. The jet will be on its way as soon as we’re clear here.”
“Roger that, sir,” Alpha acknowledged.
“Are there any questions or concerns?” her father asked the group. When no one responded, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a huge mission. We need to stay in each other’s minds. Don’t assume anything. Let’s get this spun up—whatever it takes.”
“As long as it takes.” The response came from everyone all at once.
Her dad gave Con the sign to kill the conference and went into his node again. The shield dropped as he sat down at his desk.
Con glanced over at her. “You’re quitting?”
She walked over to stand beside him. “The bullets are getting a bit too close for comfort.” She pointed to her cheek.
He stopped typing and shot out of his chair. “A bullet did that?”
She nodded. “I figured if you knew, it might distract you, so I wasn’t completely honest this morning.”
He cupped her cheek and stared at her. “I don’t want you to do this again.”
“One more time.” She smiled up at him and then lowered her eyes as her stomach turned into knots. She could take out a man without any emotional trauma, but Con made her crazy with all kinds of feelings. “I assumed a lot when I told Mom and Dad I’d like to work with you.” She glanced up at him. “I can find something else to do.”
His brow furrowed as deep as she’d ever seen it. “Why? Did I do something?”
“What? No. I just didn’t want to speak for you.”
“You didn’t. I spoke for myself. I do want you with me every moment of every day.” He framed her face with his hands. “I don’t want you being a Shadow anymore. And I’m sorry for that, but it’s true. I about lost my mind this morning when I saw what happened to you.” His thumb gently slid over her cheek, which had to be black and blue by then. He placed a kiss on first her bruised cheek and then the burn on the other cheek. “I know this between us is new, and right now, it’s hotter than sin, but I’m telling you, I’ve never felt this way about a woman before. I’ve never had this soul-crushing ache to be near someone. I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you. Can I promise what’s between us will last forever?” He shook his head. “No, but I can promise you I will spend every day and work until my dying breath to try to make it last that long. I’m all in. You’re my biggest gamble, and yet, you’re a sure thing because my heart won’t let me believe anything less.”
Gabby teared up. She couldn’t stop it as she blinked rapidly. “You scare me to death, and I’m not frightened of anything.” She swallowed hard. “You see me,” she whispered, awed by the man looking down at her. “You really see me .”
“I do,” he agreed with her.
“I don’t think we’re a gamble, and I’m all in, too, because, in my heart, I know you’re who’s supposed to see me.”
He dropped for a kiss. Just before he touched her lips, she heard him say, “I always will.”
Her father cleared his throat from behind them, and Con jumped back from her like she was hooked up to a hundred megawatts of electricity. “Sorry, sir.”
Her dad looked at him. “I have no problem with you and my daughter being together, Conner. But perhaps now isn’t the time to take a break. We’re rather busy.”
“Right.” Con plopped down into his chair and then jumped back up. “Thank you for your permission. I mean, not that it matters because I wasn’t going to stop. I told you that, but your approval does matter. Somehow.” Con frowned. “I’m going to shut up now.” He sat back down in his chair and started typing.
Gabby couldn’t help the laughter that sprung from her. She turned to her dad and saw the smile before he could turn to hide it. Con was an absolute genius at times and an idiot at others, but she adored the fact he was her idiot.