by Tl Reeve
“Didn’t think you were,” Noah stated.
“I’m here to keep him alive,” she said to no one in particular.
“Good, he should have to suffer.”
“Noah, Mateo is safe now. You and the guys saved his life. Take it down a notch,” she said, shoving at his shoulder. “He’ll never get out now. He’ll sit in some cell, alone.”
“Sometimes, it’s still too good for them,” he murmured.
Rae sighed. “I know. But, take the win.”
Noah rolled his shoulders. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s hard, though.”
She patted his knee. “It’s okay. Don’t allow the anger to get a hold on you. Mateo needs you as much as you need him.”
Fuck, she was too sweet and too damn good for their commander.
“I want my fucking lawyer!” Breslow demanded as Asher entered the room. “I’ll have your fucking job when this is all said and done.
“You sure you want to alert anyone where you are?” Asher cocked a brow. “Be a shame if Senator Lincoln found out where you are.”
Breslow sat back. “I don’t feel so well.”
“Yeah, I know. Sucks to be you.” The door opened, and Thomas Kaine joined Asher. “This is Agent Kaine of the FBI.”
Behind Noah, Callahan stepped in. His lips twisted in amusement. “Schoell said you were going to get in on this. Guess it didn’t go so well, huh?”
“Obviously, since I’m sitting here and not there.” Noah gestured to where Asher stood with Dario Breslow.
“What did the boss threaten you with to keep you on this side of the glass?” Callahan sat in one of the open chairs and rested his feet on the beat-up metal table.
“Nothing,” Noah lied, refusing to give the other man a second of his attention.
“My ass. We all know Asher. Was it cleaning the head?”
Noah shuddered, and his face twisted in disgust. He’d gotten that punishment once during SEALs training, and he swore he’d never do it again. He learned a couple of things about men as a whole that day. They were fucking pigs and would piss anywhere but in a toilet. Also, he wasn’t the kind of guy who liked cleaning up other people’s shit.
“Cleaning the head would be a pleasure cruise compared to what Asher threatened,” Noah stated.
“Mess hall?” Callahan would bug the piss out of him until he finally told him.
“It was actually worse than cleaning the head. So, how is cleaning the commissary worse?”
Callahan dropped his feet to the floor with a loud thump. “Worse?”
“Yeah,” Noah sighed. “He’d kick me out, like fucking O’Malley and send me to GTMO. No way I’m losing my position with you guys.”
Callahan gave a low whistle. “Boss ain’t fuckin’ around.”
“He’s worried about R.O.O.T and it’s visibility since Lincoln tried to fuck us over.”
“That mother fucker did us zero favors,” Callahan remarked. “It would’ve been better to take him out back and put him down like the sick animal he is than let him remain on this earth.”
“No doubt.”
The door swung open again, and Schoell came in, carrying a six-pack of soda and a large bowl filled with popcorn. He laid both on the table. Franks, Calvin, Paul, and Wayne followed behind Schoell. Wayne had a six pack of beer.
Callahan snagged a familiar red and white can, opened it, and took a drink before commenting. “What the fuck? We watching a movie or something?”
Schoell rolled his eyes at the other man. “Figured if I was hungry, so were you guys.” Alex turned to him. “Didn’t get in, huh?”
Callahan snorted. “Not even close. Asher put the kibosh on it. Threaten to send his ass to GTMO.”
“What’s Asher doing in there?” Franks asked around a mouthful of popcorn.
“Waiting Dario out. He’s really good at this shit. It drives suspects insane.” Their boss looked bored. His phone rested between his fingers, and his thumb kept moving the screen up. He gave the appearance of him being oblivious to the situation and like he had all day. Knowing Asher, he was most likely reading updates on missions cycling out from C&C.
Noah leaned forward and scooped up a handful of popcorn. “Probably waiting for Dario to plead the 5th.”
Noah wouldn’t have had made the play Asher was making. He’d have asked Breslow if he needed to use the head or wanted something to drink and then left the room for a couple of hours. Maybe even overnight. Chances were by the time Noah came back, the perp would be ready to talk, thanks in part to all the horrible scenarios they’d played out in their head while he was gone.
“You think it’s going to work?” Franks inquired.
“Nope. Dario Breslow is a narcissistic asshole. Asher in the room is just feeding into his ego,” Noah stated.
“Boss should’ve had you in on this,” Callahan said.
Noah shrugged. “Might’ve been a good thing he didn’t. Chances are I would have already beaten the shit out of the pissant.”
Schoell chuckled. “Want me to send boss an email telling him that?”
“Nope. Asher will figure it out in another minute or two.”
Noah watched the clock on the wall. A little more than a minute later, Asher stood and left the room without saying a single word to Breslow.
Noah didn’t miss the smirk playing across Dario’s lips. What a pretentious fuck. The asshole would soon learn; he hadn’t won this first round. If anything, Noah would say it was a tie.
The door to their room opened and Asher stepped in, his gaze finding Noah’s. “How long?”
Noah sat back and shrugged. “Minimum overnight. With the wound and Rae wanting to get him into surgery, dunno.”
Asher nodded. “Might as well kill two birds with one stone. All of you meet me in C&C in twenty to debrief,” he ordered before leaving the room.
Calvin leaned over to Franks. “Do you ever feel like you’re missing huge parts of conversations with this team?”
Franks laughed. “All the time.”
“Asher wanted to know how long Noah would make Breslow sit and stew before questioning him.”
Noah finished off his fistful of popcorn before he said, “And, the show has come to a close. I’m going to let Mateo know we’re back and all accounted for. I’ll see you in C&C.”
Noah headed back down to C&C after stopping in to see Mateo. Not surprisingly, Mateo was awake, binge watching Chernobyl on his new laptop. Not exactly the TV show Noah would’ve watched, especially when he’d been sent on a small mission no less than twelve hundred miles away from Pripyat and it was not somewhere he'd ever wanted go again. Place freaked him the fuck out.
Once he brought Mateo up to speed on what happened in the field, he spent what few relaxing moments he could before he had to leave, in his husband’s arms. The look of relief on Mateo’s face had calmed the last bit agitation coursing through Noah. He didn’t know when they’d be able to finish up with Dario, but when they did, he’d be right back at Mateo’s side. Maybe, they'd be able to have dinner together or do that stupid double date shit normal couples did. Only, it'd be there, on the base with Rae and Asher.
As he stepped into C&C, it didn’t surprise Noah one damn bit to find Asher already in the conference room. So were Scotty and AJ, who signed faster than he could even grasp.
“Did Scotty find anything useful on all the shit we found at Breslow’s house?” he asked AJ when she stopped signing.
She nodded. “Looks like the thumb drives are going to be our pot of gold. He’s going through two of them now that contain the most information. The other four have been assigned to two dudes out there.” AJ waived her hand at the row of desks along the back wall.
“They’re called analysts and can get a bit pissy when a young girl refers to them as ‘dudes.’ In our world, the only ‘dudes’ we know about are the ones that surf. These analysts look over massive amounts of data a day and make over a hundred grand a year.” Noah warned her.
AJ rolled her eyes. “Like I car
e. They’re guys, so I call them dudes. End of story.”
“Would you call Asher a dude?”
“Not to his face,” AJ admitted with a smirk.
“Smart move.” His took in Scotty’s temporary set up “How long?”
For everything to be touched, a couple of hours. It’ll take at least three maybe four days to scrub all the data. Two days at most if I take minimal breaks and nap instead of sleep.
AJ groaned.
“Sleep is conducive to being on your game. You could miss shit without it,” Noah said. “Besides going by AJ’s moan, she likes to sleep.”
AJ snorted. “It takes a whole lot of makeup and a full eight hours of beauty sleep to look this good, honey,” she cooed.
Noah smiled. “I doubt it.”
He’d bet the twenty-dollar bill in his wallet the young girl wore little to no make-up other than some mascara and black eyeliner which gave her pretty grey eyes an exotic cat appearance. AJ was the whole package, beauty, and brains. Noah could tell already, whoever hooked their cart to her horse would be in for a helluva ride.
The rest of the team trickled in. Noah couldn’t help but notice the two FBI agents, Frazier and Kaine inside of C&C, but outside of the conference room. Kaine leaned his ass against the desk, arms crossed over his chest, glaring at Asher.
“Whatcha do to piss the feds off, Asher?” Noah asked.
Asher scowled at the men in question. Noah tucked his head, hiding his smirk at the throbbing vein in the boss’s forehead; a sure sign their commander was pissed. Sometimes, it was just too easy to poke the bear.
“Knock it off, Hanover,” Callahan warned.
“What fun would that be?”
“Mother fucking ass herder!” Asher spat. “Goddamned pieces of shit, up my ass because I didn’t keep at Dario. Fucking bullshit.”
AJ’s cheeks turned pink. “Wow. Language while around innocent ears, people.”
Noah laughed. “Not likely.”
What did I miss? Scotty gave her a curious glance.
“I’m not repeating it,” she grumbled. “You guys have fucking issues, and dick issues up in this place. This base needs more women to calm your asses.”
Callahan chuckled. “You haven’t seen him really pissed, AJ.”
“I don’t think I want to. Thanks, though.” She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Scotty.
“Fucking remind me again, why I called them in?” Asher asked.
It was a rhetorical question, they all knew it, yet it was Noah who took the bait and answered. “Because you want to protect R.O.O.T, those who work here, and their loved ones?”
Asher smirked. “Damn straight.” His gaze flickered back to the team. “I also think they have information, they’re not willing to share. Hence, why they’re sitting in the penalty box.”
“Frazier has the ‘if looks could kill’ glare down perfectly,” Schoell said.
Noah gave the agents a little finger wave, just to piss them off some more.
Asher chuckled. “Don’t aggravate them. They’re slightly pissy I didn't invite them in. The last thing I need is them bitching to a higher up and them calling my uncle. Other than Mateo getting kidnapped, it's been relatively peaceful without him being here.”
“Like they’d let us in on anything of theirs. FBI is notorious for keeping shit under lock and key until it suits their purpose,” Noah muttered.
They’re definitely going to want this. Their attention snapped to AJ.
“What did he find?” Asher asked, crossing to where they sat.
The thumb drives. They’re records of the shipments of cocaine across US borders and the profits. Mostly past shipments, a few recent. The last one was dated eight weeks ago. The other four drives, house information about prominent government officials who were on both Lincoln’s and Aquila payroll.
“We’ve got all of them,” Callahan stated, dismissing the work AJ and Scotty had done. “Arrests have been made.”
No, I’m afraid you didn’t. I ran the list of names from the drives against those facing indictments for their involvement with Lincoln. Some of the names are in direct connection with the White House.
“That is nothing new, kid, Lincoln was a supposed trusted advisor to the President. Thanks to the White House Press Secretary and his ability to spin the truth, the role Lincoln used as special advisor to the President didn’t exist,” Asher stated. “Do you have a list?”
Scotty handed Asher a sheet of paper. Schoell read over the boss’s shoulder and let out a low whistle. “Those two agents would both give up their first born for this.”
“No shit,” Asher said.
Noah smirked. “All about the blackmail.”
Noah understood. Whatever information Asher needed from those two agents was now a given with the list Asher held in his hands. “Is Dario Breslow involved or linked to Lincoln as well?” Asher pressed as he continued to scan the document.
Of kidnapping, and being a sarcastic asshole, yes. From this evidence, no. Dario Breslow blamed Lincoln, rightly so, for the death of his parents and the condition of his sibling. He had plans to air Lincoln’s dirty laundry to the public. This is mostly his evidence.
Noah scoffed. “So, wait, are you saying Breslow took Mattie because he’s pissed, we did his job for him?”
From the evidence you collected, yes. From some of his notes I’ve read, Breslow blames both R.O.O.T and other US agencies responsible for the death of his family.
“Lincoln wasn’t even on R.O.O.T’s radar until after Puerto Nariño,” Schoell said.
“We’re all sane, though,” Noah replied.
They all nodded in agreement. However, when Noah thought about it, it all made sense. The connection had been staring at them the whole fucking time. R.O.O.T had been in Puerto Nariño at the same time as Lincoln and the people responsible for killing his family. The kid probably thought in some sick way, they offed the cartel leaving Dario without a way to seek vengeance, especially if he thought to connect Lincoln to the crime.
Yet, with the trial, Dario had to know they brought Lincoln in because of the massacre. Which meant one thing, Mateo had been the bait to get Dario into their custody and potentially get him closer to Lincoln. Son of a bitch. Of course, this was all conjecture until Rae gave them the all clear to speak with Dario again.
“Speak for yourself,” Callahan teased.
Asher sighed. “I need to know everything Breslow knows, and nothing in here is giving me an insight into how to get it.”
Scotty frowned. You have everything you need.
“How so?” Asher asked.
His only living relative, his sibling, lives in what could all be termed as a shit hole. Promise him better care, better facilities for his brother. Even Breslow being who he is, I bet he’ll sing in a heartbeat. Promise him a chance to a visit with Lincoln after he testifies.
“You think it’ll work?”
I know so. Breslow’s motives, however fucked up they might be, are about getting back at Lincoln and clearing his family name.
Noah snorted. “Don’t kid yourself, kid. Breslow was also out for vengeance. It’s why his focus moved to us after we took down Lincoln. He was looking to get his fifteen minutes of fame any way he could.” He wouldn’t give away his suspicions yet. He wanted to hear everything from Dario first.
“Well, look at this kid.” Asher gestured to Scotty. “Only been with us less than a week and already starting to think like a R.O.O.T operative.”
Noah didn't miss the hopeful exchange of glances between Scotty and AJ. He didn't know how Murray would react to having another hacker at the base, but the other man, for the most part, was overworked. Scotty and AJ could help with that.
Scotty shrugged.
“The only problem with your suggestion kid, I don't have the authority to approve something like that, nor do I want the funds coming out of R.O.O.T’s yearly budget.”
Who does?
Noah laughed, knowing Asher w
asn’t going to be pleased. “The old man.”
Asher glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t ever let him hear you call him that.”
“I’m crazy, not stupid, Asher. Besides I never stay around him any longer than I have to. Just a hi and bye.”
“Pussy,” Asher razzed, then let out a long, painful sigh. “I guess McNamara is coming for a visit tonight,” Asher remarked.
Noah clapped his hand on Asher’s shoulder. “It was a good run while it lasted.”
“We need to keep the suits busy. They get wind of this...” Callahan gestured to the sheet still in Asher’s hand, “they’ll take Breslow and run.”
Asher agreed. “I’m going to have delay sharing this information with them. Tell them Scotty is verifying what he found and still going through what we recovered.”
Noah nodded. It wasn’t exactly a lie. Scotty still had hours of work in front of him. “Will do.”
“This is also going to reopen Lincoln’s case and shine even more light on the Aquila Cartel. Rae’s going to lose her mind if we have to go back to Columbia.”
Noah knew Rae still suffered from what she saw in Puerto Nariño. Asher might not talk about it, but Rae dealt with nightmares and panic attacks. No one said shit about it to her, though. She worried about appearing weak in front of the team. Little did she realize, they all understood her. They’d all been there, and they were all willing to help her if she gave them a chance.
“You don’t need to go,” Schoell announced. “We’ve got it covered.”
“Did you forget we’re down a man?” Asher added.
Even though O’Malley brought this shit storm on himself and Noah still wanted to beat the hell out of the other man, Jake’s presence was missed.
“It’ll be fine, boss. Swing in Paul to cover,” Callahan said.
“We’ll see. Dismissed. Except for Noah.” Asher addressed him directly. “I need you to stay here for a moment or two longer.”
“Nice knowing you, Hanover,” Schoell’s southern drawl reminded him of some good ol’ boy.
Noah shrugged his hand off. “Asshole.”
Asher waited until the room cleared out before he spoke. “While my uncle is here, I’m going to deal with the O’Malley situation.”