by Cara Carnes
“That’s not happening. We’ve got a shitload of teams here. Why her?” Dallas asked.
“I’m the most qualified,” Addy said. “Many of my assignments at Hive were in Eastern Europe. Hell, I still have at least two covers that are still usable—one of which was within Kristof’s network. I’m pretty sure everyone on my team has usable covers that have history.”
Rhea looked at her friend. The fierce operative had been trained by her big brother from a young age. She was a lethal machine who’d do anything to ensure a mission’s success, no matter the sacrifice to herself. While Rhea admired the hell out of the Addy’s tenacity, she’d hoped The Arsenal was a reboot for more than just Mary and Vi.
It was supposed to be a way out for all of them, including Addy.
When would she be able to stop being the monster her brother Peter expected her to be? When would Addy be able to live her life however she wanted?
When would any of them?
Mary was rocking her daughter to sleep while in a freaking meeting about weapons of mass destruction. Rhea was all for fighting the good fight and never backing down. Quitting wasn’t ever an option. But there had to be an end.
“For the record, Lavrov did nothing to me at the auction. It was a fucked-up situation and he handled it exactly as he should have,” Addy said. “Everyone needs to let it go and move on. I have.”
“He had you beaten,” Bree said.
“Yeah, he did.” Addy crossed her arms. “Everyone was suspicious, watching. It was the right play.”
“You were naked. Your coms were offline,” Zoey said, her voice raised.
“Little Bit,” Gage whispered.
“He and I have a history. We’re… complicated.” Addy’s lips thinned. “He didn’t hurt me.”
“And the coms?” Jesse asked.
“He wanted to clear the air between us—something from long ago I’d rather not share with everyone. We had enough shit on our plate without me serving up a dish of pointless history.” Addy’s voice lowered. “He didn’t rape me. I know that’s what a lot of you are thinking. Lavrov is a lot of things, but he’d never hurt me or anyone else. Not like that.”
“She’s right,” Jud said. “Kristof’s got a twisted moral compass, but he’s got firm lines he won’t ever cross. That’s one of them. I’m surprised he had you beaten, to be honest.”
“I forced the issue. His bulldog protector has a short fuse I lit easily enough. We needed to sell my captivity to those watching. Too many asses were on the line,” Addy said.
“Thank you for clearing the air. Many have been worried,” Marshall said.
Addy nodded. “Let’s move on. Lavrov will be an important player for the auction.”
Rhea believed Addy. The fearless operative had proven time and again she’d do anything for a mission. She had no lines she wouldn’t cross.
Zoey sprang up from the chair she shared with Gage and drew Addy into a hug. “Thank you. I don’t like that you’re still hiding something from us, but I trust you. I’ll give him another chance, but only because you asked. If he messes with you again, he’s answering to me.”
Jud chuckled. “You’d best let me deal with him.”
“Good point,” Gage commented. “Let her go, Little Bit. Sit down. We’ve gotta finish this meeting.”
“We’ve all been through hell the past several months. First Hive. Then The Collective. Then Marville and finding Dallas’s sons. Then Zoey’s network and Senator Cherling. Then Marville again because apparently cesspits need at least two thorough scrubbings,” Mary said. “We’re tired. We deserve to tap out and let someone else handle some of this, but that isn’t happening with this.”
“Bob tasked us with taking Carlisle down, securing and destroying all weapons,” Vi said. “That includes those sold. We’ll read him in on the extensiveness of the operation, but I doubt he’ll trust anyone else to handle this. Carlisle has too many connections with intelligence agencies around the world, and we all know from personal experience exactly how corrupt those can be.”
Bob was the Secretary of Defense. He and Vi had a direct line to one another when needed. The contacts her friends had made through the years were impressive. Downright terrifying.
“Nothing needs to be decided now. The immediate action step is ordering what’s needed for the neutralizing agent. From there we need to decide which plan we’re using on Carlisle’s headquarters,” Jesse said.
Would Rhea be willing to confront the asshole who’d stolen her research? How could she refuse? Too many people had their asses on the line undoing the mess created because of her bastard ex. She’d vowed to do anything she could to help take him down.
She glanced at Fallon, who had remained silent behind her.
“It’s your call, Doc.”
“I’ll need help in saying the right thing,” she admitted. “I’m likely to get pissed and go off script.”
“That’s what practice is for. By the time you’re walking into the building, everything will be second nature. Instinctual,” Jesse said. “And we’ll have Fallon’s team with you, along with at least one more.”
“That’d give enough time for Cord to do what he needs to do?” Rhea asked. Nervousness crawled through her.
She’d never, ever been a confrontational person, but the silence in the room spoke volumes. Everyone thought that was the best solution. Not even Fallon argued otherwise after hearing everything they were up against. The more they found out, the better. That meant pulling Carlisle Industries’ entire data network and confronting Stan.
“You’ll need to terrify the shit out of him,” Addy said. “We’ll rehearse. I know you can do it.”
“She’s right. You can do anything you put your mind to,” Bree said. “But I hate the idea of you facing the bastard alone. He stole my research too. Shouldn’t I go along? Strength in numbers and all that?”
“Both of you might tip our hand too much,” Marshall said. “You’ll have your hands full getting the new weapons ready for field use.”
“Right.” Bree looked down. “I have a potential lead we can work with. I think.”
Everyone’s attention shifted to Rhea’s friend. What lead?
“I woke early and went to look at the drones Fallon brought back, you know the ones we went twenty rounds with in Tucson?”
“I think we all remember,” Fallon said, his voice edged with humor.
“Right. Well Stan was lazy. From what I can tell, his power source is from my original design, or close enough for specific ingredients to be required. There are only a handful of people who supply one of them. If he’s ramping up defenses then…” Bree looked around.
“He’ll need more materials,” Vi finished. “That’s smart. You need our help tracking it down?”
“I can make the calls, but it might be simpler to hack their records with HERA. Only one of them still uses old-fashioned bookkeeping.”
“Send me the others. I’ll handle them,” Zoey offered.
“We’ve got another option,” Fallon said.
“And that is?” Mary asked.
“We run the Carlisle headquarters op, then we let the bastard think one of us turned.”
“I’m thinking Carlisle is too smart to fall for that,” Nolan said.
“Not necessarily. Three of my team have the backgrounds for a sellout. Two of them are established well enough in the mercenary world to be believed. It’s all about the payday.” Fallon looked at Mary. “It’d work, give us a man inside.”
“Without protection,” Marshall said. “Even assuming they’d be willing, I’m not sure we’d be okay hanging someone out like that, not with this.”
“Deep cover like that, a nest of unknown friendlies,” Raul said, verbalizing himself for the first time. “That’s not something I’d recommend dropping anyone in, let alone someone without the experience to pull it off.”
“Could one of them pull it off?” Marshall asked.
Fallon and Donovan looked
at one another. The latter cleared his throat. “Yeah. Not sure which two he’s thinking of, but all three of our team could handle it.”
“Not a good idea. That’s not what we’re about,” Dallas said.
“Still needs to be a consideration, depending on how the headquarters op goes,” Fallon said.
“Agreed. You have an idea who you’d put in?” Mary asked.
“Spade would be the easy sell. Bastard’s ice cold. He’d kill his own mom if the payoff was big, or that’s what he projects.”
“Doesn’t mean he is ice cold. Has he ever done deep undercover?” Jud asked.
“Doubtful. He prefers taking people out from a distance,” Mary said.
“I wouldn’t trust his ass in deep undercover alone,” Jesse said.
“Fair enough. Not sure I’d sign off on him either,” Fallon admitted. “Sanchez is my recommendation. He’ll stay loyal to Arsenal because he’s loyal to me.”
“We’ll see how Boston goes,” Marshall said. “Good thinking outside the box. Keep working the problem, everyone. We don’t execute anything until we’re confident there isn’t fallout.”
“So, not related to this, but kind of related,” Zoey said. All attention shifted to her. “I’m letting Jade know we’re temporarily suspending underground ops until this is over.”
“We sure that’s the good call? We have enough operators not on teams to cover emergencies,” Addy said.
“She’s right. I’m all for being cautious and keeping us sufficiently protected here on base after what went down with Vi’s situation, but I don’t like the idea of someone needing help and not getting it,” Nolan said.
“We need more time to train Ellie on the dots,” Zoey said, her voice soft when she looked over at Jesse, who frowned.
“I thought she was trained.”
Damn. She should’ve expected this conversation.
“Welp, so Rhea and I trained her. She took to it like a natural,” Bree said, then winced. “A bit too naturally. The five minutes Rhea, Zoey and I spent checking in with each dot took ten to twenty minutes with Ellie.”
Each dot was a human being, one who latched on to Ellie like a starving kitten because the woman was one of the most beautiful souls Rhea had ever met. She listened. She cared.
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Rhea defended. “Ellie finds out way more about their situations than we ever would have. Her reports aren’t the couple sentences, or paragraph if we were really detailed, Rhea and I enter into the system. Hers are entire pages, often more.”
“Yeah, she finds out info about the neighbors, the slightest weirdnesses that may have happened. She makes everyone feel so comfortable they aren’t afraid to share what we’d likely ignore as insignificant,” Zoey admitted.
“What’s the problem?” Jesse asked.
“It’s a lot of work. The dots are falling behind,” Bree said. “With Rhea and I on this with Zoey, the entire grid is at risk.”
“Jacob,” Vi said. “He’ll be here in a couple days. We can assess the dots, determine which wouldn’t be negatively impacted by a male contact. Jade used to run the dots at times, right?”
“Yeah. Wow, okay. I hadn’t thought about Jacob. He’d be a good fit I think,” Zoey admitted. “Assuming he wouldn’t mind helping out.”
“He’d be cool with it and would likely come back with recommendations on improving it,” Jud said.
“Meanwhile, we can work with Ellie more, try and get the conversations minimized,” Jesse said. “Maybe it’s time you all train me and a few others as well.”
“How’s the search for a new Office Manager going? We need to free Ellie up from those tasks,” Nolan said. “I know Marshall finally has a bead on someone to help Sinclair out.”
Great! Rhea had been worried about The Arsenal’s lone psychiatrist. She was an amazing woman who’d helped so many people, but she needed help. There were too many people needing help.
“You don’t mind learning the dots?” Zoey asked Jesse.
“No. I’d love to know more about the new work Ellie’s taken on so I can understand the troubles she might face,” Jesse said. “I can’t support her if I don’t fully understand it myself.”
Rhea was glad so many of her friends had found men who not only loved their strength, but stood beside them as they fought their own battles. Dylan, Jud, Dallas, Gage, and Jesse didn’t fight their women’s battles. They simply supported them and made sure they knew they weren’t ever alone—that they’d do anything within their power to help them.
No matter what.
Like Fallon.
Rhea forced the thought aside. Neither one of them had time for a distraction. When all this was over, maybe she could see if the attraction they shared was worth exploring. Until then, she’d be content doing her part to take Carlisle down.
Fallon entered the lower-level gym with no expectations. Donovan followed closely behind him. It was the first team debrief after he’d laid down the law, which meant Walker, Sanchez, and Spade likely wouldn’t arrive on time. If at all.
The entire team sat at the far back of the large area. Spade stretched his long legs out and leaned against the back wall. “Was thinking you stood us up, boss.”
“Debrief ran longer than I expected.” Fallon plopped down in front of his team. “I’ll keep this short, but there’s a lot to get through.”
He launched into what everyone needed to know. By the time all questions were answered and everyone was on the same page on what happened next, almost an hour had passed.
“You okay with them sending her in?” Walker asked. “Gotta admit, I’d be against it if I was you.”
“She’s a smart woman and can handle herself,” Fallon said. “But I trust all of you to have her back on this. Cord will need time, which means she’s gotta walk in and own the bastard. We’ve gotta give her the strength to do that.”
“Which means practice runs. Lots of them,” Donovan said. “Too bad she isn’t a ball buster like Addy.”
Everyone chuckled. Addy Rugers terrified every operative.
“I ran another option past them. They’ve set it aside for now, but if things go sideways in Boston, we may need to make it happen.” Fallon took a breath. “One of you would need to go deep undercover.”
“Turncoat?” Walker asked. “Damn ballsy move.”
“Unlike the other operatives on the Arsenal payroll, we aren’t known for our loyalty,” Fallon said.
“Which of us did you recommend?” Spade asked with a grin. “I’m thinking you wouldn’t trust my ass to go in alone.”
“No. I wouldn’t.” Fallon let the admission have free rein a few moments before he continued. “But you are an option. Sanchez would be the first possibility, but it’s doubtful that play will be necessary.”
“We should prep for it just in case,” Sanchez said. “Make some calls. Bitch to some contacts.”
“Yeah. Nothing detailed, just overall discontent at being hooked to the glorious Arsenal.” Spade chuckled. “I’d sell the shit out of that, man.”
He would.
“All the shit up in the air. A contingency plan off book makes sense. Edge and Quillery may not be down with this shit, but it’s a smart move,” Walker said.
“Just in case,” Sanchez said.
“I’d go, but my background doesn’t support my selling out,” Donovan admitted.
“And yours wouldn’t, boss. Edge owns your ass and everyone in the merc world knows that,” Spade said. “Not sure our boy Sanchez is much better. He’s been tied to your ass too long. People talk.”
“Bullshit. I’d sell it,” the man argued.
“What’s your call, boss?” Spade asked.
Fallon regarded his team. Everyone in command had said no to the plan, to put it on hold for now. But the team had a point. If it needed to be sold, it needed to start now—before the headquarters hit. Before Cuba went down.
Son of a bitch.
“A few calls wouldn’t hurt,
” Donovan said. “Get the rumors started in the merc world. They might pay off if needed later.”
“Do it.” Fallon wanted every option on the table to keep Rhea safe and take Carlisle down.
10
Fallon hated this op more than Tucson.
They’d landed a packed jet at a small landing strip two hours outside Boston. Although other facilities were closer, Edge had wanted plausible deniability in case government suits started asking about the Carlisle explosion. The Arsenal couldn’t leave any footprints—electronic, paper, or otherwise—for anyone to find.
Surveillance cameras in a three-block radius of Carlisle Industries were bypassed. By the time their cargo van wheeled into a reserved parking space for construction personnel, early morning light filled the multi-leveled garage.
Fallon exited first, letting his gaze slide across the street to their target, which sat directly in front of the bank’s parking structure they were currently in. Team coms were live and patched into Operations since they’d landed two hours ago. A charged silence had descended when they’d entered Boston.
Walker headed out of the parking structure without comment. Duffel hanging from his shoulder, the low-slung Harvard cap and t-shirt with jeans made him look like a lost graduate student or tourist. Either way, he’d chameleon into the crowd. It was one of his best traits—hiding in plain sight.
Dallas and his crew, along with Cord, exited from the rear of the large van. They wore a local plumbing company’s uniforms and would enter the Carlisle Industries building first and establish internal coms and get into position to provide support. While plumbing the waste backup on the floor immediately below Stan’s office.
There’d been more than one plumbing issue off and on the past several weeks, and Dallas’s crew had been dispatched to each one, which numbed first-floor reception and security to their presence.
Spade headed toward the stairwell. He’d establish overwatch from the parking garage to snipe Carlisle from the east, if necessary. Dallas’s man would do the same from the north.