Chapter Seventeen #4
Jace Reyaund’s Cabin
Outside Of Holladay, UT
The Original Scene Of The Crime
As they were securing the mad bomber, Elizabeth’s watched vibrated, and that surprised her. Everyone who had access to her private phone, that was connected to her smart watch, knew she was out ‘working’.
Why would they risk contacting her?
When she looked down, she saw it was a text from her one husband.
Now?
Had they lost their minds?
Clicking on it, she watched as it opened up, and she saw the words staring back at her.
And they weren’t good.
‘Call me when you can. Nine-one-one.’
Oh, Jesus.
What the hell was this?
All she knew was that this had better be really important. She was trying to clean up the mess they had, and the last thing she needed was more mess.
Then again, with this situation, that was a distinct possibility of happening.
As The Hunters were handling the mad bomber, she glanced over at Gene.
“I just got a text from Chris. That means that Chris had to bypass my directive to MATE. If he did that, it’s not going to be good.”
She showed Gene her watch, and as soon as he read it, his eyebrow went up.
He didn’t like that.
“They wouldn’t bother us,” he admitted. “Something had to go down. They know we’re offline.”
Yeah, that’s what she thought.
“MATE, did you patch the text through from Chris?” she asked.
MATE’S voice came over the watch.
“Yes, Mother. I had no choice. I warned him, but he overrode with the master code. I would have warned you, but you told me to leave you guys to this. I didn’t know what to do.”
Well, that made her want to panic. All she could think was one of them was hurt.
Or one of her kids.
“We’d better call. MATE patch it through the watch but make sure it’s encrypted, and show him texting me inside the office, not here,” she stated.
“On it, Mother.”
When she did what was asked, Elizabeth was to the point.
“Chris, this had better be…”
He stopped her.
“Ethan and Callen went out to notify Lance RunningWolf of his daughter’s death.”
Uh-oh.
Yeah, her heart began pounding. She knew that had been the plan, but she had to hope they’d be safe doing it.
“Who got hurt?” she asked.
He reassured her.
“Not any of us. Only, the reservation chief was found dead. Devon Slater offed him, hung him from his ceiling after leaving a message for us, carved into his body. It said, ‘You’re welcome’.
I’m sorry to bother you, but they felt you needed to know in case this played into something he had planned for you. ”
Elizabeth wasn’t upset.
Honestly, Chris had a very valid point. Ethan was profiling on the fly, so he had to assume this was vital.
As she considered this move in the game, the whole time, her brain was going a mile a minute, trying to figure out if this was going to bite them in the ass.
It saved them from having to tell the man, but now they had two dead Natives.
That saved no one.
In the long run, this would open a can of nasty worms, as it was dumped in their lap.
“He’s a piece of shit. Was he mutilated like his daughter?” she asked.
Oh, he was worse.
“Yeah, he outdid himself. The good news is we have Rayna’s eyes. They were found on the coffee table, staring up at him. They gathered all of him, put him into the body bag, and transported. He used his body as a pinata. EVERY bone is shattered. Ethan thinks he’s coming unhinged.”
Jesus.
Devon was a sicko, and it was clear that Ethan was right. This was definitely him melting down.
Chris wasn’t done.
“This, in a way, saved and boned us. Now, we don’t have to explain to her father what happened, but we have to explain to the council why they are both dead.
When Callen called me, he said that the other council members hate us and don’t want us around.
Lance was the one who protected us. He hated Wyler, but he liked us. ”
Well, fuck.
They expected blowback, but Lance RunningWolf tolerated a lot more than the other two members did. They were the more racist ones who only saw that she and Ethan were Caucasian and half-Native FBI agents.
And everyone knew how Natives felt about the FBI.
“What do you want us to do?” he asked. “It’s your call. I know weeks ago, this would be a no-brainer for me, but we’re out of my familiar territory of following the rules.”
Yeah, tell her about it.
“Have them take photos of everything in case he left any clues and get the hell out of there. He’s ballsy.
He was betting we didn’t alert her father last night.
I have no doubt he’s going to make our lives hell with the council and Caspian.
He’d love to rat us out. He knew we’d keep it hush-hush.
Make sure that they lock down Caspian. No contact with the outside world until we get this handled.
If he finds out we sugarcoated Rayna’s death, heads will roll.
The last thing I need is a vengeful Marine out there trying to take out the trash. ”
As she said it, Maura, Jagger, and Zayn all raised their hands, proving they were listening to her.
So, she corrected that.
“Vengeful Marines we AREN’T sending out to do work for the US government.”
Yeah, the swamp got deeper, and Chris didn’t like this game.
Not.
At.
All.
“I swear to God, if I lose my career after twenty-five plus years because of this asshole…,” he stated.
Well, the good news was that she wouldn’t let that happen. Elizabeth would fall on her sword for everyone. She was, after all, in charge of this shitshow.
It would be her career in the shitter.
Not theirs.
God.
She needed a break.
“Like I said, just have them transport in and take pictures of everything. I don’t think this was part of his plan, so he likely isn’t tying it to the game. I’m with Ethan on this. He’s escalating.”
Oh, he really didn’t want to see what the man did next.
“Ethan ordered it sanitized,” he said.
Elizabeth knew the longer she was on the phone, the weirder it looked since both of them were ‘in FBI West’ calling each other.
To protect him, she needed to kill the call.
“I have to go, Christopher. I’m a little busy here.”
He understood.
“I’ll tell Ethan and Callen. Be careful, and I love you.”
That was her plan.
“I love you too, and don’t use the goddamn master key to override MATE unless one of you is hurt!” she said.
He only laughed, and she knew why.
She’d done the same thing when it helped her, and she had no right to ask him not to do it.
When she hung up on her watch, she was to the point, and not the least bit surprised.
“Yowza. I can’t believe he killed again. We have to get to him. I don’t like how he’s going over the edge. If he knew we had beef with the chief, then he’s bought intel there. We’re not safe on that reservation.”
He was aware.
“I don’t like Ethan being there with minimal protection, specifically after this. Who knows what this piece of shit planned for in case he was taken out?”
That was a good point.
Devon was into planning, so he could have implemented something if he went down.
“Noted. MATE?” she asked.
The system chimed.
“Tell Chris and Callen to be all over each other until we get back. I want NONE of them leaving the building. Have Ivan double down on them.”
Maura needed to know.
“Do you need to go?” she asked. “We can handle this for you,” she offered.
Oh.
Hell.
No.
Elizabeth shook her head.
“No, they’ll handle it. I need to be here, looking for Devon, or this will never end.”
No one was shocked by that answer.
“Well, then, let’s start with this dude,” Maura stated. “Rogue, what did you find?” she called, and he came back into the room with a stack of money and some electronics.
“I’ll plug in, but this looks like the man does cash-only business. There’s a safe in there, but that will take me a little time to crack it.”
Maura jerked her head.
“Get into it. We aren’t leaving anything we can use behind,” she stated.
That worked for him.
He passed off the electronics to Gene and went back into the other room to get into that safe.
“Wake him,” Elizabeth stated, ready to get this done.
And Jagger did.
He punched him in the balls.
That was all it took, and the man’s eyes popped open, even as his mouth moved like a fish out of water.
It was showtime.
“Hey,” Elizabeth said, moving to stand in front of him. “We need to talk about a little bus and some explosives,” she said, going with that first.
The Hunters weren’t sure why she was going there.
But they let her.
As he sat there, the man couldn’t breathe, clearly, so he wasn’t saying anything to her.
She took his silence as not being cooperative.
Okay.
“Here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to start shooting you in your extremities,” she said, pulling the gun from her back, and cocking the slide.
“You’re going to try to hold out, but in the end, you only have a limited amount of blood.
I’m going to win regardless,” she said, shooting him in the foot.
Her movement was so smooth and fast that they all jumped, and the man screamed.
Someone was NOT playing.
“Who hired you to blow up a freaking bus full of kids?” she asked.
The man wouldn’t answer, so she shot him in the knee.
“I changed my mind. I’m going to move up to your family jewels.
You have one chance left, and I’m removing your balls and dick with a hollow-point nine-millimeter round.
Ever see one of them blow through a testicle?
They obliterate them into nothingness. Right now, this is your only chance at redemption. ”
It wasn’t, but he didn’t know that.
Now did he?
That helped the man find his tongue. Immediately, he used it.
“Gerard Dupris,” he said, his brow full of sweat from the pain. “He was taking out a competitor’s son.”
That the douchebag had to kill a whole bus of children to do it told them all they needed to know.
Someone deserved to die.
She glanced over at her hologram assistant, and she was now dressed exactly like Elizabeth, except she had pink bows in her flame-red hair.
“Make note of that, MATE, not video or audio. Just note of his name,” she said to her as the AI smiled at the man.
“Sure thing, Boss.”
Then, she went back to talking to him.