Chapter 14 #4
"I meant it. Last night. What I said."
His hand came to her face. Gentle. The way it had been when he'd said Aishiteru and everything had finally made sense.
"I know," he said. "So did I."
She kissed him once more and shivered at the feeling that filled her before getting up. She looked down at him. “The mission is waiting.”
He lifted a hand up toward her. “Let it wait for just a while longer.”
She glanced at the clock and then at him. “Just a while,” she agreed and slipped back in between the sheets. The world could wait half an hour.
* * *
Istanbul was hot, hotter than it had the right to be. The Bosphorus cut through the city. It was an ancient snake of a river, older than empires that had come before and would probably outlast everything that came after.
Cole Harrington's location was in Beyo?lu, a suburb with cosmopolitan energy. The entire area looked like it was being gentrified.
They approached him at a café near Galata Tower.
It was one of Harrington’s usual stops, according to Ring.
There was the normal tourist traffic. Enough noise that quiet conversations disappeared without any effort.
Here, there was enough anonymity that three trained operatives could sit together, and nobody would notice.
Cole was there when they arrived. Raven sized him up from the profile that Ring had provided and ran that information against what she saw.
He was American, in his mid to late thirties.
He had the build of someone who'd done operative work and hadn't completely let it go.
His eyes tracked them from the moment they entered.
Harrington was doing the same threat assessment and exit cataloging that the prior contacts had done.
It was the process of someone who'd been trained to survive.
He didn't stand when they approached. He just looked at them and said, "I don’t talk to anyone but my contact. Tell whoever in the Scroll sent you to fuck off."
“Love the direct approach.” Raven lifted an eyebrow as she sat down. Dan took the seat with the better sightline to the door. "I’m not going to fuck off, and I’m not Scroll," Raven said.
Harrington’s eyes narrowed. "Who the fuck are you then. I can recognize people like you."
“We’re trying to locate the head of the serpent to cut it off.” Raven smiled at the man and crossed her legs.
“Why?” he asked.
"Because they're killing people who don't deserve it. And we're going to stop them."
Cole looked between them. Something calculating happening in his expression caught Raven’s attention.
"You trained under him," he said.
"We trained under Kuro, yes."
Harrington smiled, either at her lack of honor toward the old man or the confirmation of the information that he needed to start to trust her. "So did I. Different program, though, I’m assuming.”
“Explain that?” Dan asked while staring out the door.
“I was in the black ops pipeline, not the traditional intake of kids the old man had set up prior to us." He paused. "He trained dozens of us. Maybe more. Most of us don’t stay in touch. We’re not the touchy-feely type, if you get my drift."
“Really?” Raven drawled.
Harrington smiled. “I fucking like you.” He turned to Dan. “You, I’m not sure of yet.”
"You know our doctrine," Dan said.
"I know some of your doctrine." Cole leaned back. "I also know the Scroll. I've been tracking them for eighteen months. Longer than you, probably." He seemed proud of that fact.
Raven didn’t move her stare, but mentally, she laughed at the statement. Dan had been tracking them for years. But instead of having a dick-measuring contest, she asked, "Why?"
"Because they approached me. Offered me a position. Leadership track, they said. Access to resources I couldn't get anywhere else. The chance to be part of something greater." He paused. "I told them I'd think about it."
"And?"
"And I've been thinking about it ever since. While also building a very detailed intelligence file on every operation they've run in the past two years."
Raven felt Ring's presence in her ear intensify. He didn’t speak, but she could guarantee he was listening with the attention of someone who'd just been handed gold.
"Why haven't you moved on them?" Dan asked.
"Because I'm one person. They're an organization.
I'm not suicidal." Cole looked at them. "But you're not one person.
You're two. And you have resources. I can see it in how you move, how you're set up.
You're backed by something because you found me in a public place where I wasn’t inclined to start anything. "
"My employer is Guardian," Raven said.
"Heard of it."
She couldn’t have cared less if he recognized the name or not. She lifted an eyebrow and looked at him.
Cole almost smiled. "Good. Then maybe you have a chance. What do you want to know?"
“God, where do I start?” Ring’s voice came over the comms. Raven leaned forward, ignoring Ring. “Everything.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s where to start. I’m recording,” Ring said and then went silent.
He gave them everything. A methodical, careful, intelligence dump of someone who'd been building a file for eighteen months and had been waiting for the right people to give it to.
He gave them the Scroll's operational signature, which they already knew, thanks to Dan.
He knew the specific patterns they used for recruitment, which they also knew.
But he knew about their training and cell activation.
The financial architecture, and how they used shell companies, funding channels, and the methodology they used to move money without triggering institutional oversight.
The geographic distribution cells in Eastern Europe, East Asia, parts of Africa, and South America.
And at the end, the piece that mattered most: the location.
"The leadership operates out of the Philippines," Cole said. "Northeastern Luzon. Cagayan Valley region. There's an abandoned mining operation there with old tunnels and underground chambers. They retrofitted it. It's their training facility and operational headquarters."
Ring's voice crackled in her ear. "Confirmed. That matches the data I've been building. I have precise coordinates."
Cole continued. "The place is defensible. Limited access. Natural concealment. If you're going to hit it, you're going to need a team. More than just you two."
"We have a team," Raven said.
"Good." Cole leaned forward. "Then maybe you actually have a shot at this. One more thing, the leader’s name is Yuki."
Yuki. Japanese for snow.
The white that covers everything. That makes the world clean and pure and empty.
Dan went very still when he heard the name.
"You know that name," Cole said, turning to Dan.
"Yes," Dan said. Quietly.
"Then you know who you're up against."
"Yes,” Dan confirmed.
Raven changed the subject. “One question. Would you have joined them if we hadn’t contacted you?”