CHAPTER NINE
River watched as his mother, grandmother, and a dozen other women helped Priscilla fill her plate as if she were dying of hunger and then sat with her at a huge table. They were laughing and keeping her occupied. He frowned at her, then looked around the room at the others.
“Your face is going to stay like that if you’re not careful,” said Jak.
“Sorry, brother. Priscilla said something to me as we were walking over here that really bothers me.”
“We heard,” nodded Patrick. “You forget we have your comms on while you’re here. We’re still trying to find out who she was and now, how she and Greene were connected.”
“He said you punched him in the nose once,” said River staring at his dad.
“Yep. Bastard deserved it too. He couldn’t tell the difference between me and Christopher and then dad walked into the room. He said we were clone rejects or something. It just pissed me off.”
“I imagine it did. Was he a deputy director then?” asked River.
“Nope. He was just an agent and not a very good one from what I remember, which is another reason to try and figure this out. Unless he gained a lot of skill, emotional intelligence, and just good old ingenuity, there’s no way he could have made it to deputy director.”
“Well, he did. He even asked me if I wanted to join the bureau when I was done,” frowned River. “Why wouldn’t the woman, Celine or whatever the fuck her name is, why wouldn’t she have passed along the information about Vasily and his organization? Were they working together?”
“It seems the obvious answer but rarely is the obvious the right answer,” said Jak.
Ham, Gator, Tobias and Abe walked toward the group. They wondered where Eazee was and then got their answer.
“Eazee stopped at comms to drop off a few things,” said Ham.
“A few things?” frowned Jak.
“Seven cell phones, three of which were burners, more than sixty thumb drives, seven old fashioned CDs which may or may not match the seven phones, six passports, more than three-hundred thousand in cash in various currencies, and this,” he said sliding a folder across the table.
On the tab, in big bold letters it read – Voodoo Guardians.
“Fuck,” muttered Jak.
“They’re working through everything we have right now. We pulled prints from all over that damn house. Men, women, even a couple of kids which is alarming. The bureau claims there were no prints in the house except hers, so either they fucking suck or the team Greene hired was bought and paid for.”
“We don’t suck,” said Priscilla calmly standing behind Ham.
“I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean all of you,” he said calmly.
“I know. I know what you meant,” she said. “I just know that when I go into a scene like that it takes days to get everything you need. He only took a few hours from what we can gather. We both know that means that Todd Greene and this woman…”
“Natalia Ingk,” said AJ walking toward them.
“Natalia Ingk?” repeated Priscilla. “I don’t know that name.”
“No one would,” said AJ. “She’s been an unnamed, wanted suspect for more than fifteen years.”
“Fifteen years? But she was my age, maybe thirty-three or thirty-four at most. How could that be?”
“The trail of her work leads us to believe she started as an agent for the Iranian government, then defected to Russia. After working there a while, she defected again to Argentina and then, somehow, ended up here in the U.S. What we don’t know is where she’s originally from.
The question of course is whether or not Todd Greene knew who she was and what she was doing. ”
“What was she doing?” asked River.
“The usual spy shit. Selling secrets, moving money, artwork, anything they needed. She was fluent in at least six languages, accents undetected, and she was a master of disguise. This is a real-life Mata Hari.”
“I can’t believe this. She fooled me. I mean, she always seemed overly confident and she was the best secret keeper on the planet, obviously,” said Priscilla rolling her eyes. The others snickered, knowing she was using humor to cover her pain.
Her phone rang and she pulled it from her pocket, holding it up. GREENE.
“Answer it, on speaker,” said Jak.
Jak stood and clapped his hands together so loudly, the entire room jumped. Priscilla was impressed and a little frightened with the sudden quiet.
“Hello,” she said calmly.
“Hey, Priscilla, how are you?” he said almost breathless.
“I’m well. Still a bit in shock but I’m taking time like you suggested.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Where are you, Priscilla?” he asked insistently. “We have a right to know where you are.”
“No. No, you don’t. I was told to take leave, to get away from the bureau and the work for a while, which is what I’m doing. I’m not required to tell you where I am.”
AJ held up his tablet with a message:
He’s trying to track your phone. We’ve blocked it and he’s getting pissed. Tell him you know.
Priscilla shook her head and the others all nodded for her to do it.
“Todd, why are you trying to track my phone?” she asked calmly. There was a sudden deadly silence on the other end of the phone. “Todd?”
“I’m here. You removed the other tracker,” he said calmly.
“Yes, I did. I’m not as stupid as you believed, obviously. Why were you tracking my phone? You didn’t have my permission for that, or my personal laptop. I’m not under any suspicion in this case. Why are you trying to find me?”
“Return to D.C., Priscilla.”
“Answer my question,” she said pushing him. “Why?”
“There are people here who need to question you about, Celine.”
“People? What people? I’m not a suspect. Anything they need to know about Celine, you would know.”
There was a familiar noise on the phone. One they’d all heard before. Priscilla covered her mouth with her hand, staring up at River with tears in her eyes.
“Todd?” she said quietly.
“Todd is no longer available,” said the voice with a slight British accent. “He assured me that he would be able to get you to cooperate. Obviously, he misunderstood your loyalty.”
“Who is this?” she asked.
“My name is unimportant. You have something that I need and I won’t stop until I find you and whoever is hiding you.” Priscilla stood abruptly and River, Patrick, and Wes all settled their hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her back to her seat.
“I have nothing that belonged to Celine or Todd. We weren’t those kinds of friends.”
“You definitely kept a tidy apartment,” he said. “Everything in perfect order. One would suspect that you’re a bit OCD.”
“I like neatness.”
“Like your father,” said the voice.
“How would you know my father unless he arrested you at some point.” The man laughed, the sounds of others chuckling as well.
“Your father wishes that he could have arrested me. It would have been the highlight of his career. Not tooting my own horn or anything.” There was silence once again and then he spoke once more.
“Whatever you’ve done to your phone is quite impressive.
No signal whatsoever. The only technology I’ve ever seen like that was from a group that I would dearly like to find. ”
“I’m sure they’d like to find you as well. For me, I’ll be moving on, taking a permanent vacation,” said Priscilla calmly.
“You can believe that if you like, my dear, but I will find you and you will give me what I want. Until then, I suspect that you’ll be hearing about the second tragic death of someone at the bureau. Best of luck, beautiful Priscilla. We’ll meet soon.”
The phone went dead and Priscilla stood once again.
“Honey, where are you going?” asked River.
“I’m leaving. I have to leave. I can’t possibly stay here and put everyone in danger! I need to leave.”
“You can’t,” said Angel walking toward the young woman.
“You have to understand that no one can find you here. No one. Whoever that man was, he’s dealt with us before and doesn’t want to again.
That tells me we got the better of him. We’ll figure all of that out.
But for now, you will need to stay here, close to all of us. ”
Priscilla’s bottom lip started to quiver and Angel took another step closer to her.
“I can’t. I can’t put you all in danger. I care about River too much to do that.” Angel pulled her in for a hug, squeezing her tightly. Mary was behind him, tears in her eyes as she squeezed Priscilla’s hand.
“You’re staying because my great-grandson is in love with you and around here, that matters more than anything else in the world.”