Chapter 2 #2
“We can do our own assessment,” Kraus said. “Give us their names, and we’ll run our own backgrounds.”
Noah shook his head. “Nathan Kessler was surrendered to you in good faith.”
“And now you think you can make a deal? With the CIA?” Kraus started to chuckle, which sounded like a wheeze.
“You wouldn’t have him, or the intel he’s provided—and will no doubt continue to provide—without us.
” Noah took a chance and leaned back against the chair, hoping he would look cool and collected and not like he had to go number two.
“What’s more, you have an opening for a team exactly like mine.
We’ve already proven ourselves capable of discretion.
All we need is a real job. A way to convince you we can do whatever you need, leaving you with the deniability you didn’t get with your last two teams.”
“What a cluster that was.” Kraus shook his head.
“My team has never made the news. At least not in front of a federal courthouse where they’re appearing before a judge on charges.”
Kraus didn’t like it, but that wasn’t something he could argue with.
Peraya laced her fingers around her knee, the one she’d crossed over the other. “The truth is, we have looked into your team.”
Noah glanced at her. “And?”
“We have a collection of stories. Rumors, really. Ones that stretch from plausible to the downright impossible. But the bottom line is, no one knows who exactly is on your payroll, and anyone who does won’t talk.”
Noah almost smiled. “It’s for everyone’s safety that they remain anonymous.”
“Of course,” Kraus continued. “It isn’t our business who you have on your payroll, or whether they might be wanted by…certain circles within the US government. Or if they’ve been swept under some rug and intentionally forgotten. What matters is that the job is done.”
Someone knocked on the door.
Peraya went over and let them in. The same young woman who had reacted when he’d identified Leesbury as a former soldier. She spoke low to the doctor, who tensed and then said to the two of them, “I’ll be right back.”
The door closed, leaving Noah with the chief.
He shifted in the chair, turning back to face the division boss. A sharp pain tore through his lower back, and he wasn’t able to hide the wince.
“Shrapnel?” Kraus sat forward, placing his elbows on the desk. The light overhead shone on his high forehead.
“Something like that.” Noah eased out a long breath, trying to push the pain away with it. “I’m sure you already know I was medically discharged from the navy.”
“Now you’re the guy in charge, not the guy on the ground kicking the door in and getting shot at.”
“I have a different role, one that comes with new priorities.” Noah glanced over his shoulder and saw the doctor hadn’t returned yet. “Like asking you a very specific question that I hope you’ll answer.”
Kraus stared at him.
“What can you tell me about Martin and Helen Rourke?”
It was a risk. But with his twin about to have a baby, and Pops’ health becoming more tenuous every week, he had to ask. He needed to know, for all of their sakes.
“Are those names supposed to mean anything to me?” Kraus said, a tiny flare in his eyes.
“You’ve been working for the CIA for a long time. I figure if anyone is going to be able to give me information on what happened to my parents, it would be you.”
And of all the people in the CIA, Kraus was the one whose name had come up over and over.
“Knowing information and being authorized to share it with a well-connected civilian are two very different things.”
“What do you want, Director?”
Kraus’ brows rose. “I’m sure you understand the constraints the government operates under. There’s never enough money to do what you want to do, and barely enough to do what we need to. It’s a wonder the walls aren’t crumbling down around us we’re so strapped for resources.”
The clock on the wall chimed, interrupting the silence while Kraus let those words hang. As if he didn’t have a room full of well-paid employees using state-of-the-art equipment in the next room.
He continued, “If you want to know about your parents, that could be a kind of compensation. Of a sort. A way for you to trade what you have at your disposal for what you want.”
“My team.”
“For information about your parents.”
Noah blew out a breath. “So they were CIA agents.”
Kraus gave him an almost imperceptible nod. “If you’d like copies of files, those of course are the kind of eyes-only papers that don’t ever leave this building.”
But he was going to let Noah read them?
Based on the research he’d done, Noah got the impression that the whole Division Zero program would be shut down if Kraus couldn’t deliver a new team.
Which made him feel only slightly better about how this deal was turning out.
No one on his team was going to be happy.
He’d be better off not telling them what the compensation was for getting CIA contracts, but they didn’t work that way.
“I just want the truth,” Noah said.
“Then you came to the wrong place, son. If you’re interested in an agreement—an exchange of information, for services rendered—there’s hope we might be on the same page. Willing to work something out.”
“You won’t find better than my team.”
“I certainly hope that’s true.”