Chapter 8 The Refuge—New Mexico–West Ravine Clearing #2
“That’s putting it mildly,” Thor muttered. “If you think Kawan here has issues with rules, Bradford has more. I’m all for taking initiative and bending rules, when it makes sense.” He glanced at Kawan. “But I don’t think Bradford has ever looked at the rule book.”
Grady chuckled. “I won’t deny that, but Bradford got the job done.”
“What are you implying?” Pipe asked.
“Yeah. I’d like to know that, too, because Bradford was also at the buy,” Lark said.
“Technically, Bradford never left the CIA. He’s been undercover for three years. Bretton isn’t the reason we were able to set up that buy meeting,” Grady said. “It was Bradford.”
“Jesus.” Lark rolled her shoulders. “That would’ve have been nice to know.”
“Bradford was working on more than just setting up that buy. He was working on learning about that AI system as a whole. He was our eyes and ears inside Senatrix Global. And it’s more than the battlefield AI.
It’s wargames . Shit that only Specs and Jupiter would understand.
” He met her gaze. “You don’t know how deep this goes.
We’re not just talking foreign buyers and stolen code.
We’re talking about people on our side—people inside defense contracting, inside procurement, maybe even inside oversight committees—willing to sell tech that hasn’t even been cleared for integration yet.
And now Bradford is dark as well. I don’t know if he’s been compromised or if he’s hiding.
But I know for damn fucking sure, he hasn’t turned. He’s as good as they come.”
“I, for one, find that hard to believe,” Kawan said.
“No offense, but I don’t care. I trust him like Lark trusts you.” Grady lifted his chin. “I need you to find him as much as I need you to find that missing prototype.”
“Experimental battlefield wargames AI,” Tonka said grimly. “What the hell does this shit do anyway?”
“What doesn’t it do?” Grady stared at Tonka. “Command structures, AI-generated adaptive adversary behavior, and machine learning. Accelerated analysis. Drone systems. AI-assisted C2 systems. You name, we’re developing it, and we contracted Senatrix to do it.”
“So, why put in Bradford?” Pipe asked.
“Two reasons.” Grady held up two fingers. “The first was when our government heard that Senatrix was getting greedy. That they had put our feelers about our technology. The second was that the chatter was in the direction of someone in our government.”
“And you believe that was Lorre?” Lark asked.
It was difficult for her to grasp the idea that Lorre could have anything to do with corruption, or even incompetence.
But betrayal? That seemed impossible, and yet, someone had looked at her mission, her team, and decided they were acceptable losses.
Collateral damage in whatever deal they’d made.
“Not at first,” Grady said. “But I became suspicious when his retirement was announced.”
“So why the hell haven’t you turned him in?” Lark demanded.
“Because I need more than suspicion. I need evidence. I need access to internal chatter, clearance logs, comms trails. That takes time. I have help. Colonel Amber is back, and for the record, he didn’t leave for personal reasons. He faced an internal review board.”
“Why?” Kawan asked.
“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.” Grady let out a long breath. “Sexual harassment.”
Bullshit. She'd worked with Dustin for years. Seen him around women in high-stress situations, in bars after missions, in close quarters. He was a lot of things, but he wasn't a sexual predator. “You’re right. I don’t.” Lark folded her arms. “I’d believe it of plenty of men in power, but not Dustin. ”
“I know.” Grady ran a hand across his jaw. “But we had to take it seriously. It was dismissed, and that’s all I can say about that. Anyway, he’ll be looking at things—quietly—but I do trust him. Feel free to reach out to him but do it through back channels.”
“Agent Kyle Norris from Homeland Security reached out to us through an encrypted message early this morning. He wants to meet with us. He and his partner Marc Lovey,” Thor said. “What can you tell me about that?”
“I was getting to that.” Grady tapped his fingers on the top of the pinic table. “Joint task force I personally put together. It’s not on the books, but those two men owe me. I’d been hoping to have this conversation before they spooked you.”
“Well, they did,” Thor said. “We haven’t responded. Jupiter’s currently running a trace.”
“When he follows the digital trail and finds them, it’ll freak you all out because Norris and Lovey are sitting in a hotel room about fifty miles away,” Grady said.
“Fucking wonderful,” Pipe muttered. “How do we know you’re not part of this?”
“Because my record speaks for itself.” Grady cocked his head.
“It’s not squeaky clean. It has a few blemishes.
The kind of blemishes that tell a story of a man who’s willing to do what it takes to get the job done, but not so willing that missions come before men.
” He paused, his gaze distant for a moment.
“Early on, in my career, I butted heads with a few superiors. I asked questions when they would’ve preferred I do what I was told.
But I wasn’t the kind of man who just fell in line.
I’m still not. I’m lucky I’m a Major General, and not still back where I started.
But being an out-of-the-box thinker isn’t always a bad thing, and I had a few COs who saw that as a good trait. ”
“My team is often referred to as Ghost Squadron, and not because we operate in the dark. But because we have a somewhat silent rebellious streak,” Thor said. “I get a fair amount of flak for giving my men so much space and freedom. I’m told it’s not an effective way to lead. I say bullshit.”
Kawan nodded in Thor’s direction. “I’d retire before working under any other team leader.”
Trust. That's what made a real team. Not orders and protocols—trust. And hers had been shattered from the inside.
“In JSOC and other special operations within the DoD, people either demand your SEAL team, or they beg not to have you anywhere near their mission.” Grady laughed.
“That kind of push-pull tells me you’re doing something right.
But getting back to the two agents I sent here.
Just so you know, technically, they're looking into something else. They do have another assignment. But they’re also at your disposal.
And they have resources that you might not be able to… access.”
“And if that trail leads to Lorre?” Lark asked. “To Bretton? Torin? Even Bradford? What happens then? Are you going to be able to deal with that?”
Grady looked at her for a long time. “It looks like Lorre. He’s the obvious choice,” he said, voice low.
“If that’s the case, we burn him. However, we must be prepared for the possibility that someone is using him not just to acquire the technology.
But to perhaps push him out. Push me out.
Push out Lark. Someone got him that security footage. ”
“You’re forgetting he could’ve been watching all along,” Pipe said.
“If he were, Specs and Jupiter would find the hack.” Kawan inched closer to Lark.
“But Grady makes a valid point. Jupiter—and I bet Specs—would’ve been looking for an outside loop.
For Jupiter, that’s standard in an op like that.
If Lorre got some grainy footage, it was captured during the tail end.
It was a split-second snapshot taken amid the chaos as we scrambled.
Not watching. We need to see what Lorre has. ”
“I doubt he’ll give it up,” Grady said. “And I have to be careful how I do this dance with him. I’m not running missions. I’m overseeing them. Providing insight, knowledge, and greenlighting them.”
Kawan shifted his gaze from Lark to Grady. “If the right person demands it, he might not have a choice.”
“What are you thinking?” Thor asked.
“We ask one of the Homeland agents.” Kawan shrugged. “I’m sure they can come up with a reason why they’d know about it.”
“They have what I have, and if they go asking Lorre about it, that alerts him we're digging. If he's our guy, he could destroy the evidence linking him to the ambush before we can use it.”
Grady stood, his legs shaking slightly as he rose. "I need to get back before anyone notices I'm gone."
"How do we contact you?" Kawan asked.
"You don't. I'll reach out when I can." Grady headed toward his SUV. ”
Silence returned to the ravine.
Only now, it was heavier than before.
“What the hell do you make of that?” Thor asked as he paced in front of the picnic table. “Because I’m not sure where to file half that shit.”
“I wonder if Specs knows either of those agents,” Lark said. “And we need Jupiter to look at that security feed from a different vantage point because it’s no longer just about what’s on it, but who else accessed it.”
“Texting him now.” Kawan had his phone in his hands and tapped at the screen. “I’ll have him ask Specs about Homeland.”
“Tell him not to tell Specs what he’s doing.” Lark raced to Kawan’s side and rested her hand on his biceps.
He glanced up, eyes wide. “She’s going to question what he’s doing.”
“She’s got an appointment with Henley in twenty.
Tell him to do whatever magic he does when she’s tucked away in Henley’s office.
” Lark's fingers curled into fists. “Before you go telling me I’m doing the right thing, let me tell you how utterly selfish I’m being because I need Specs to be…
herself. I need her to get through to the other side as fast as she can.
So, don’t pat me on the back for having a heart.
This is about getting the job done. Not dealing with feelings. ” The words tasted like lies.
Kawan tucked his cell into his pocket as they dispersed into one of two SUVs parked twenty feet away. He waved to Thor as he slipped into the rear passenger seat before Brick backed out.
Kawan pressed his hand on her back and turned them toward the mountains. “Call it whatever you want. But you know she can’t do the job unless she deals with what she witnessed. With her survivor's guilt.”
“Fucking labels. I hate them,” Lark said.
“So do I.” Kawan looped his arm around her waist, tugging her closer. “Specs is a tough cookie. A real fighter. She needs a moment to breathe. You’re giving her that. It’s not selfish, and you’re not doing it only for the job. You’re doing it because you care. She’s family. Your family.”
“I hate seeing her like this.” She leaned into Kawan, not caring who watched. His team knew there was history.
And God, she was exhausted. Bone-deep, soul-tired exhausted.
The kind that came from watching people you cared about fall apart while you held yourself together with duct tape and sheer stubborn will.
Specs was drowning in survivor's guilt, and Lark knew exactly how that felt because she was treading water in the same dark ocean.
The difference was Specs didn't know how to lie to herself, yet.
Didn't know how to compartmentalize the dead faces into a box labeled "mission-causalities" and shove it deep where it couldn't touch her during daylight hours.
But that was a shit way to live, wasn't it? And Lark had dragged this brilliant, naive girl into a world that chewed people up.
“I brought her into this world. I recruited her, knowing she hadn’t an ounce of training for black ops. I needed her computer and intelligence skill set and—”
“Stop, Lark,” Kawan whispered. “Specs is a brilliant woman with the power to say no to a job. It’s not like she didn’t know what she was getting into was dangerous.
She might’ve worked in the basement of the FBI, but for fuck’s sake, the shit she had to see doing cybercrimes and intelligence had to be horrifying. ”
“Cyber is the worst, especially when they involve children.” And Lark thought she’d seen things during the course of her career. “The things Specs told me made me shiver.”
“I can only imagine.” Kawan turned. He took her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “You’re doing right by Specs. Now, do right by yourself.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Being here isn’t enough.” He leaned in and brushed his lips over her mouth. “You have an appointment with Henley this afternoon. I expect you to keep it.”
“Why do you have to ruin a perfectly good moment?”
He shrugged, taking her hand and tugging her toward the SUV.
“Because I want bigger moments. Ones that matter. Ones that make up lifetimes of moments. Not just snapshots that fade into the background.” He paused.
“Because this time, if you slip out in the middle of the night, I’m coming after you. ” He yanked open the car door.
She stared at him for a long time before climbing into the passenger seat of the SUV. She had no words. No retort. No quick-witted response to put him in his place, reminding him that she didn’t do entanglements. That they were simply two adults who sometimes had fun together.
Until he ruined it by tossing around the L word. And now he was getting all weird again.
Only, she had no fight left in her.
But that damn L-word wouldn’t come out of her mouth. She wasn’t even sure she knew what love was. Or if she’d ever really felt it. Kawan was the closest thing she’d ever had to a real relationship. Or even a best friend. Her life had been filled with one disappointment after another.
One abandonment after the other.
Until the military, everyone had let her down.
And now, the only thing she’d loved—interesting that she could feel that way about the military—had betrayed her in the worst way possible.
It had taken away her family.
Kawan had gotten that part right. Alverez. Mina. Wes. They’d been her family. If she loved anyone… it had been them. And now they were gone.
She dropped her head back and closed her eyes.
Kawan slipped behind the driver’s seat, started the engine, and eased out onto the access road.
She resented that she’d missed him these past two years. Hated that she wanted him in her life. Needed him even.
But what gnawed at her the most was the inability to push past all the pain. To force one foot in front of the other and do what she’d always done—survive.
She was going to have to cut through the thick armor she’d built and release her unprocessed emotions like a raging river.
It wasn’t going to be pretty. No. It would be pure hell.
She just hoped what came out the other side would resemble the woman she’d wanted to be when she enlisted all those years ago.
That woman was a combination of strength, wit, determination, and unwavering compassion.
Somewhere along the way, she’d lost some of that. She’d lost some of herself.
If she expected Specs to do it, then it was time to find those slivers and piece herself back together.