Chapter Ten #2
Niles waited at the door with to-go coffee cups and a white bag he handed to Alanna. Fresh bread aroma slid over her senses, making her want to devour the breakfast. “Thank you, Niles. You bake, too?”
He gave his usual half smile. “Yes, Miss.”
“Let’s go.” Quaid opened the front door as a black QM SUV pulled into the circular drive.
Another QM car. Was this security or chauffeur service? “Who is driving?”
“Braun.” The hulk of a man stopped the car in front of the walkway. Quaid signaled for him to stay put and opened the back door for her. She expected, considering his irritation, he’d get her in the back and sit in the front, but he coaxed her over and got in beside her.
Her relief was ridiculous.
They drove the entire twenty minute ride and he didn’t say a word.
Which led her back to why had she questioned what happened?
She had better sense. The truth was she’d stunted her own growth after Mercer attacked her.
She’d stuck close to home, studied and studied, worked two jobs, and went to college.
There she flirted with alcohol to manage the pain, but that left her even more vulnerable.
So she’d abstained from alcohol, drugs, sex, and partying along with every social aspect and focused on school, work, and staying alive.
Her background did not leave her prepared to handle a man like Quaid. She knew her way around being law enforcement, but being a woman – she had no idea how to date or be at ease with anyone, from flirting male to bestie woman.
She needed some strategies for dealing with Quaid that handled her growing feelings for him, too. Oh God, and she had no tools, and no idea how to find any.
“Calm down.” He leaned close, but didn’t touch her this time. The words stayed between them, which she appreciated, but he could read her spiral and that left her raw and vulnerable. His arms around her in the night came into sharp focus.
She shifted in her seat so she could see his eyes – flat, with no emotion. Floundering, she opted for the truth. “I’m out of my depth with this. Can we talk later?”
One nod was all she got.
&&&&&&&&&&
Okay, he was back in ass mode. Quaid followed Alanna into Operations, trying and failing to check his mood.
He thought they had more trust between them than that.
His conscience bit back. She’s been in your life less than three weeks, close and personal only four days.
What did you expect? That it would occur between gunshots?
The office was quiet. Early morning hours were for coffee and update meetings. Celissa and Elizabeth were behind closed doors with Elizabeth’s aide, and Operations had just changed shifts.
In casual clothes, Hunt stood in Harrison’s office doorway in the corner of the large room, eyeing all the monitors and people and assessing security risks.
Occupational hazard. Quaid usually took to his workstation in the other corner, but today he’d prefer to get what Hunt had and retreat to his business office. Alanna stayed silent and followed him.
Hunt offered a hand. “Dr. Williams. We didn’t get introduced, but I figured it out.”
Alanna shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Commander.”
Quaid berated himself. Sorry day when Hunt had better manners than him. That wasn’t a slam on Hunt, it was one on him. When you had money, you learned manners fast.
The door opened and Mackey strode into the room. “I have downtown San Diego memorized better than the cops. You found something. How much of it can you tell us?”
Quaid moved the group to an empty workstation with a computer displaying the company logo.
Harrison’s office wasn’t big enough and Quaid’s workspace was too open.
Both those had to go on the list of things to correct.
Harrison supervised the core of the company, and Quaid liked the hum of activity in Operations for real work. The space wasn’t accommodating that.
Hunt leaned an elbow on the light blue partition. “Not the mission itself, but some pictures.”
“Where?” Alanna had crossed her arms, declining to sit.
“Spain. Can’t explain why we were there, but terrorist activity.” He handed a thumb drive to Harrison. “You may remember this.”
Harrison loaded the drive, and Hunt pointed at the file. It opened into a frame on the desktop. Mercer in black with a beard.
Harrison groaned. “I remember now. Almost doesn’t look like our guy.”
“I had our intelligence people compare to your photo. It’s him. His real name is Anders Barton, U.S. Army, left the service in 2007.” Hunt tapped the screen. “That file has his military records.”
“How did you identify him?”
“Oh, our people have worked on this ID for several years. He killed the asset we were in Spain to protect, and dropped another military member at the same time. He isn’t someone we are going to quit trying to find.
He’s got several other assassinations, for each one, intelligence added more info until they figured out his identity. ”
“When was this?” Quaid had let Alanna take the lead, but something about the information niggled at his memory.
“Fall 2016.”
Quaid eyed the picture. In Fall of 2016, he’d been in Afghanistan mired in an undercover CIA mission.
Alanna rubbed her forehead. “When I first saw him, that was years prior to this.”
Hunt pointed at another file. “Also, his service record. Once you gave me Whit’s name, I crossed matched their service record, and confirmed names and units.”
Alanna moved closer to the screen. “They served together. Correct? Whit would never confirm, but I guessed.”
“Yes, at a few intersections, and not amicably.”
Alanna rolled her eyes. “I knew it started way back, but couldn’t make sense of it. Why?”
“Bad chemistry. Uncontrolled aggression. The reports never say who was at fault. The Army chalked it up to ‘boys being boys’ in basic. During that time, they had four reprimands for fighting. I personally wouldn’t have tolerated the behaviors.
They’d have been out. When you’re in a violent profession, more discipline is necessary, not less.
But Army, different regs, different missions.
Mercer went to Airborne, then Rangers. Whit was accepted to Special Forces training, then went to Airborne school, too.
But they both deployed to Iraq in the same timeframe twice, and they ended up together for some notable operations.
Whit filed a complaint in 2007, excessive force, failure to follow commands.
It went nowhere. His commander most likely handled everything internally. At any rate, Mercer got out.”
“When was this?”
“April 2007,” Harrison answered. His eyes stayed glued to the service record.
“That’s when we begin to connect him to several assassinations. Commander Gregg would like a call from your AIC, and he’ll release some of the classified documentation to the FBI.”
“I’ll bet that went over well.” Harrison closed the records and pulled the thumb drive.
“They want him.”
“We all do,” Quaid muttered. “Was he ever in Afghanistan?”
“Not officially. Why?”
Quaid shook his head, fighting his memory. “Something. Can’t say what. I joined the Marines in 2008 and did two tours of Afghanistan and finished my degree in those six years, then transferred over to CIA training in 2014. I was all over Asia after that. I’ll have to think about it.”
Mackey rubbed his chin. “Is this timeline critical to finding him?”
Alanna crossed her arms, holding herself tight.
She turned to Hunt. “Possibly. I had an incident with him in early 2010. Here in San Diego. He attacked a friend. I tried to help and he took me out. The friend disappeared. Whit and Mercer had a fight then, too. Whit’s disappeared now.
Two weeks ago, a police report describes another knife fight.
Since Mercer is currently here, the blood in the alleyway is because they got into it again.
Might be helpful to figure out what all the animosity between them was about.
Can we check with other members of the unit? ”
Hunt shifted away from the partition. “We can check, but might be easier to find Whit and ask him.”
Mackey groaned. “We’re having about as much luck with that as we are finding Mercer.”
Harrison disagreed. “Feelers are out. Delaney is back. He’s in the infirmary and going nuts at the inactivity. Let’s start over. We don’t assume he’s dead unless we find a body. The man is resourceful, Green Beret resourceful.”
Alanna didn’t say anything, but her stricken face made Quaid want to draw her close again.
Harrison held out a hand. “This helped, Hunt. Thanks. Let us go through it. If we have any more questions, I’ll call.”
Hunt drew him close enough to slap on the shoulder in a man hug. “Intelligence wants in. They want this guy put down.”
Mackey rose and grabbed his coffee cup. “Police Department wants him, too. They aren’t liking the violence he’s brought with him.”
Alanna offered her hand to Hunt. “I’ll call my boss.
Thank you. The sooner we unravel this the better.
” She followed Mackey out the door. Quaid wanted to stop her, but eased away from the need.
A bit of time apart would help both of them settle.
Alanna was logical and smart, but this case was pushing emotions that were more than a decade encrusted with fear.
Quaid stepped to Hunt. “Thanks, LTC. I’ll let you know if I figure out what’s nagging me.”
“If I can help, call me.”
Harrison shook his head. “I guess we’re all playing nice together. That’ll be a first.”
“It’ll also be a miracle if we pull it off.
” Quaid couldn’t stop the sarcasm and negativity.
The man had killed people like it was his calling in life.
Stopping Mercer with three government agencies and QM involved spelled headaches, egos, and mistakes.
He had to help Alanna stay above the fray so they could get this man out of their lives.
Time to drop the silent act and make up.