Chapter 49
Twelve hours later, Rocco was ushered out of the Santo Domingo DEA headquarters in an unmarked SUV with Lenny and Fallon by his side.
A Proteus tactical team had arrived hours after Jemma was taken, freeing him from where he’d been trapped under the cargo container door. Despite his protests and insistence that they go after Jemma, the team had refused and forced him to get evaluated at a local hospital.
Rocco was the poster child for doctors making the worst patients as he put pressure on the ER doctors to release him. He was bruised and dehydrated but suffered no serious injuries. After getting fluids, he ignored the pain in his legs and convinced the team and the doctors that his mobility wasn’t impaired. The doctors signed off on his release and he was delivered to the deputy agent in charge of Proteus Special Operations at a DEA safe house. His mind reeled as he learned about the bust at the Dajabon Clinic and was briefed on the plan to hand him over to the DNCD as a response to their search for him. Rocco was left with no choice but to follow the plan without any assurance that the Proteus DAC could get him out of this mess. The situation was tense. The DNCD had been left in the dark on the Proteus mission, weakening the trust between the two organizations.
He’d endured the grueling questions, proving that the evidence provided by Eddie Baez to implicate him in trafficking drugs was fabricated. With DNCD satisfied with the validity of his role as an DEA undercover operative, they’d released him and cleared his name.
To protect his cover, the DNCD issued a press release that Rocco was no longer a person of interest in the drug bust due to anomalies in the evidence obtained from the clinic. At this time, they were still investigating the source of the trafficking and had no leads. This would put El Sombro at ease that Rocco wasn’t a threat to him or his organization. The drug lord had no idea Rocco was the reason his top lieutenant was lying dead in the Samana jungle with his head blown off.
But Rocco had no plans of continuing the undercover operation. The DAC could find another undercover agent to topple El Sombro.
There was only one thing Rocco was focused on and he planned to make that clear to Lenny and Fallon now.
“I want in on the plan to find Jemma,” Rocco said. “I didn’t give you the video from the Samana jungle to hand over to the DoD for their arms trafficking investigation. The man in the video talking to Vance took Jemma. Do you have any idea who he is?”
Lenny didn’t look at Rocco as he said, “That man is Nomar Ortiz, former enforcer of the Ortiz Cartel. The same cartel Jemma dismantled in her early years of being a DEA agent. He vanished with his young son after the bust and has been on the DEA’s most wanted list since then. Although his appearance has changed significantly over the years.”
“Are there any leads on Ortiz’s location? How are we going to find where he took Jemma?” He didn’t like repeating himself. For some reason, Lenny and Fallon were being cagey about how they were going to rescue Jemma.
Fallon said, “We’re starting with a comprehensive review of Jemma’s activities since the Ortiz Cartel operation to see if we can better understand why Ortiz would target Jemma all of a sudden and after all these years.”
“It’s not all of a sudden. He’s been in contact with her several times in the last three years,” Rocco said, giving them an abbreviated version of Jemma’s encounter with Ortiz at the club in La Placita and showing the pictures of Jemma and Ortiz at the beachside restaurant in Dajabon. “It’s clear that he’s out for revenge against her for sending his family to prison.” He didn’t add that he believed she was out for revenge and vengeance against Nomar Ortiz. He wasn’t sure why. Was it fueled by the man’s hatred of her? Or did she have another reason to go after Ortiz? Whatever the reason, it wasn’t to put the man in prison with his other family members. If that was her end goal, she would have pursued him as an official Proteus mission.
Something about the interaction with Nomar Ortiz was personal for Jemma. She didn’t want justice. She wanted him dead.
Fallon cast a furtive glance at Lenny. “Tell him what we know. We have to work together to figure out where Nomar has taken her.”
Lenny looked skeptical as the SUV pulled to a stop in the parking lot of a private airfield. “This is a classified Proteus matter. I appreciate you sharing what happened with us. We will put the information to good use to find Jemma.”
Rocco bolted forward, glaring at Lenny. “If you have information about Jemma, you need to fill me in.” He stopped short of saying what was in his heart—that he loved her and he’d never stop searching for her until he found her, with or without their help.
“No, I don’t,” Lenny said. “Your assignment with Proteus has come to an end. That plane is waiting to take you back to San Juan to report to your former Group Supervisor, Cedric Pedersen. The two of you will work together to figure out the best way to reengage you with DEA activities for that office. Thank you for your service. I wish you the best of luck.”
“Go to hell,” Rocco said, then turned to Fallon. “Tell me what you know. Jemma was always there for me. You don’t expect me to go back to San Juan and work like she doesn’t matter.” He paused to inhale a sharp breath, trying to calm down. He had to find out what they were hiding from him. “Please Fallon. I need her.”
“You … need … her?” Lenny asked, suspicion creeping into his tone.
Fallon said, “The tactical team that rescued you found Jemma’s burner phone at the construction site. We discovered that Jemma was hiding things from Proteus.”
“What kind of things? What was she doing?” Rocco demanded.
“While Jemma was your handler, she was also secretly engaged in surveillance of Eddie Baez. She installed a tracking app on his phone the night the two of you got it from him. She was using it to determine his whereabouts. GPS tracking of her phone’s location put her in the same place as Baez dozens of times over the past few weeks. Were you aware of this?”
“No, I wasn’t,” Rocco said, shaken by yet another thing Jemma was hiding from him. Eddie was a critical part of the investigation into El Sombro. Baez had connected the drug trafficker to Nomar Ortiz for the arms trafficking. A relationship El Sombro was eager to exploit to diversify his operations. It made sense that she’d want extra eyes on Eddie, but why hadn’t she told him or the Proteus team about it. Why would she keep this a secret?”
“I didn’t think you were. It was never in any of the reports that the two of you submitted to us. For some reason, she was tracking Eddie. Part of our strategy to find her relies on figuring out why.”
Rocco dragged a hand down his face. “Jemma was tailing Eddie but didn’t want any of us to know. The coordinates Proteus found on Eddie’s phone led us to the jungle in Samana. Eddie and Vance were there, talking to Nomar Ortiz, but I didn’t recognize or remember him at that time.”
“That was when Jemma was supposed to send us photos of the guy to run through the criminal databases, but she didn’t,” Lenny said, shifting in his seat.
“She never sent you the photos because she knew who the man was,” Rocco said, a theory forming in his mind. “When Jemma was undercover taking down the Ortiz Cartel, she was the nanny to Nomar’s child, right?”
Lenny nodded. “Yes. A boy named Eduardo.”
“Eduardo …” Rocco shook his head. “Eddie. He’s Nomar’s son. That’s why Jemma was following him. She was tracking him in hopes of finding his father.”
Fallon ran her hands through her hair. “You think Eddie Baez is Nomar Ortiz’s son?”
“Why else would she keep her tracking of Eddie a secret? It’s because she wasn’t tracking him for the op. She was following him to find Ortiz,” Rocco said, becoming more and more convinced that he was right.
“So, our best chance to find Jemma is to find Eddie Baez,” Lenny said what Rocco had concluded as well. He turned to Rocco. “When we find Jemma, we’ll make sure she knows how instrumental you were in helping us to put the pieces together. But we can’t allow you to be part of our rescue mission. Your time with Proteus is officially over. We’ll take it from here.”
Lenny opened the door to the SUV and stepped outside, followed by Fallon.
Rocco exited the vehicle but he had no plans of flying to San Juan. Knowing that Proteus was also looking for Jemma was a relief, but it wouldn’t stop him from looking for her himself. And he knew who to turn to for help.
“Thank you, Rocco,” Fallon said, then gave him a tight hug.
Rocco stood rigid until she released him. His decision was clear.
“I’m not going to San Juan,” Rocco announced.
“Why not?” Lenny asked, frowning.
“I’m resigning from the DEA.” He turned around and walked toward the airport lounge.
Fallon called after him. “Rocco, are you sure? There’s so much more good you can do as an agent even if you’re not working with Proteus.”
“I’ve never been surer of anything in my life,” Rocco said.
He grabbed his phone and typed in a quick text to Lachlan.
The answer back was immediate.
Stingray Security was on the way.