Miles sat back. The Director believed in him, but everything else was stacked against him.
He should have seen this coming. This was exactly why Diha was so mad at him. He’d run out into the open, facing down their target, and in the end he’d become a target himself.
If he couldn’t run the investigation on their side, what could he do? What use was he?
Their success now entirely rested on Diha’s shoulders. He prayed she worked a miracle, because right now Valentino was winning.
19.
Monday. Thames House. London, United Kingdom.
Diha typed furiously.
Cat had taken her things and slipped out hours ago.
Last Diha had heard, Miles was headed home to shower and make the necessary show of being fired.
Okay, he wasn’t fired, but from the memo she’d seen he might as well have been.
Zora had only texted to say she was headed to another meeting and would be back later. Nothing more.
Valentino was going to pay. Diha was going to find him and hold him accountable for the lives he’d killed and what he was doing now. And then she’d find the son of a bitch who’d gone after Miles.
Her fingers paused and her gaze jumped to the door.
Baker and Joon were out there pouring over everything. If one or the other was the mole, their target could know everything in hours.
If they’d been here since the beginning, she’d wonder if one of them was behind this, but they’d only just found out about this operation. No, she couldn’t make a definitive ruling on their mole problem. But maybe, just maybe, she could help Miles with theirs.
It was all so unfair.
She pushed her hands back of her hair and tugged at the base of her braid, but it didn’t make her feel any better.
Her hands hovered over the keys.
Where to look? What to do? What stone hadn’t she turned over?
Her hand strayed to the pen and notebook set precisely to the right of her laptop. She flipped it open to a blank page and began writing in her own little code, jotting down what they knew about Valentino, the things that had gotten them closer to finding their target, what hadn’t worked and things they had yet to try.
She’d first made the connection based on a short list of unidentified people, then used phone records and CCTV to find their target. It had been dumb luck no matter what Miles said.
Right now she needed some more dumb luck.
Valentino had figured out Miles’ identity.
How long until he found her or Zora or Cat? What would happen to their operation then?
She clicked her pin.
Except...
They knew the people they were after had a mole inside their team. These people already knew who they were. So why hadn’t Valentino come after them?
Was it possible Valentino wasn’t as close to the heart of the matter as they’d hoped? Obran in particular had made it sound like Valentino was inner circle. But what if he wasn’t?
Valentino was one of a short list of names that both Obran and Gazi had mentioned in their interviews. For the most part, the two men dealt in completely different circles. Gazi had been a small times arms dealer and fence before the task force arrested him. Obran was a top-tier forger able to remake people into new lives. But they were both on the fringes of what the task force was truly after, which wasn’t a detail Zora had shared with anyone outside the original core group that made up the task force. Not even the Aegis Group team knew the end objective. Diha was scared to even think it for fear of giving it away.
But what if Valentino was on the outside, just like the other two?
She clicked her pen, unwilling to commit any of this to paper.
Ultimately, they wanted to capture Valentino. The hacker had committed too many crimes, killed too many people. But she had to wonder if there wasn’t some way of squeezing information out of him.
They’d lost the upload single from the club. It just disappeared at a firewall somewhere in China. But she still had the drive with its encrypted files and the other laptop, though it was mostly empty. Obviously it had just been set up to control the video and audio on-site.
But there had to be something.
She turned back to the laptop that wasn’t hers and pulled on a pair of gloves.
Setting to work, she once more combed through the system data, poking in every file, looking for anything hidden in plain sight.
Diha wasn’t sure how long she was at work. Time didn’t mean as much when she was in the zone and without interruption. Which was why the unexpected pop-up window was so jarring.
For several moments she stared at the simple black and white window without understanding what she’d done.
And then words appeared.
Admin: Stop before you get burned.
Diha wasn’t the only one connected to this machine.
She glanced at the camera. She’d put a sticky note over it out of habit.
Was this Valentino? Was it him?
She needed Zora. Except she didn’t know where Zora was, and she wouldn’t likely get here in time. Which meant Joon and Baker would demand to take over, and she didn’t trust them.
She put her fingers on the keyboard and typed.
User1: Is this who I think it is?
She sat back and waited, holding her breath.
Admin: yes
“Oh, boy. Okay.” She typed, jumping in with both feet.
First, she inspected the chat code, looking for some clue as to how Valentino was accessing it. Then she typed out a message because she had to keep the hacker involved.
User1: I’d hoped to meet under different circumstances.
Admin: Or at the club?
User1: Not really my scene.
Admin: I know those were your people. You were there.
An image of Diha sitting inside the van, arm outstretched, popped up.
If Valentino had a picture of her, then the hacker had to know who she was. So why hadn’t he gone after her?
That question was small in the scheme of things. Her fingers flew, tracing breadcrumbs, following the code.
User1: You know my name. Want to introduce yourself?
Admin: You already know who I am.
User1: Okay.
User1: What do you want?
Admin: Back off or I’ll make your life hell.
User1: That’s a pretty big threat. You sure you can back that up?
Admin: I got your boyfriend fired, didn’t I?
Diha gritted her teeth and fisted her hands for a moment. Now wasn’t the time to get angry. She had to be smart.
User1: He just did what I told him to.
User1: They all did what I told them to.
“Chew on that,” she muttered.
Admin: I know.
Admin: That’s why I’m doing you the courtesy of telling you to back off.
Admin: You’re smart.
Admin: So stop now.
Admin: I have bigger fish to fry.
User1: The assassin? Who is he?
Admin: Don’t know.
Diha licked her lips.
Okay, so they wanted to capture Valentino, but Zora had always stressed that their end goal was bigger than this list of names. They wanted the people behind the curtain. The ones deemed untouchable by the rest of the world.
User1: Tell me about these big fish.
User1: Maybe we can help each other?
User1: I’m out to fry a big fish.
She swallowed and sat back.
Valentino was good. And given his history, he’d likely slip away from them again. But if they could work with him? Get some information? That could further the investigation.
Diha blew the chat up and took a picture, both on the computer and with her phone to document the exchange while she waited. She was also fairly certain she had identified the executable file that allowed this remote access.
Admin: You want to make a deal?
User1: Can we?
Admin: You won’t catch me.
User1: You’re not our end target.
User1: I don’t yet have the power to make an official offer, but we could come to an arrangement.
Diha said a silent apology to Miles for that statement.
It was the call Zora would make.
Eventually Valentino would mess up. Someone would get him. But if they could get one step closer to the big fish, they’d make the world a safer place.
She sat there, the minutes dragging on, but no response came.
MONDAY. LONDON, UNITED Kingdom.
Valentino stared at the dark screen. It had long since timed out, but she’d memorized the words.
Right now she had two enemies on her tail.
The cops.
And Skilton’s assassin.
The cops didn’t worry her much. Most of the time they were annoying, nipping at her heels, but otherwise harmless. At least before Diha stepped into the picture.
It was the assassin that worried her. If that shot had been better aimed, he could have killed Viggo. And now another one was on their tail. One who’d gotten within firing range of her.
He hadn’t even hesitated when he’d seen her.
Was it possible Skilton had uncovered her secret? That Viggo wasn’t actually her?
That was concerning. She hadn’t mentioned it to Viggo, and she wouldn’t unless she had to. She didn’t want him to worry.
Valentino doubted she could trust Diha.
Oh, the cops would honor the agreement in a way. They’d swap intel, maybe grease some gears to let her go, and then casually inform her destination she was coming and someone else would arrest her there.
She’d seen it happen enough to others to know the trick for what it was.
But if she could transfer the heat to Skilton, shed a little light on his precious shadows, wouldn’t that be worth it?
Valentino couldn’t trust Diha, but she could use her.
“What are you planning?” Viggo asked.
She sighed and looked across the room to the other bed. “It’s annoying when you talk.”
He just stared at her.
The enemy of the enemy was her temporary friend.
“Nothing you need to worry about.” Valentino set her hands on the keys. “I’m going out for a little bit later. Need anything?”
Viggo’s tone was sharper. “Val, what are you doing?”
She grinned at him. “Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about.”
It would be best to act fast, before the assassin found them again and before her new cop friend could make her own plans.
“What are you planning?” He got up from his bed and stood next to hers.
Despite the bandages poking out the obnoxiously large armholes in the muscle shirt Viggo wore, he still cut a large, imposing figure. Her fierce protector.
She sighed.
He wasn’t hurt enough for her to drug him and leave him here.
Valentino finished typing out her orders for Diha and hit send.
“We’re going to work with the cops.”
“What?” he helped.
“Think you’re up to being me today, say, around eight?”
This could work. It had to work. All they needed to do was get off this island and then they could disappear.
MONDAY. HOTEL. LONDON, United Kingdom.
Scene break.
Next paragraph here.
DAY. LOCATION, CITY, State.
Miles stared at Diha.
Had he just heard her right?
He glanced at Zora then Logan who were staring at her with similar expressions.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Harper said.
Miles found his voice. “No. No, you can’t do this.”
Diha looked at him. “I’m not asking permission. Valentino has agreed to give us information that would further our investigation.”
“And you just want to let him walk out of here free and clear?” Miles had thought they were on the same page. That they wanted the same thing.
Diha glanced at Zora, refusing to answer that question.
The other men began to mutter.
They’d gathered everyone for a late afternoon meeting in Diha’s hotel room in an effort to keep it quiet and only include who they knew they could trust. That meant the five-man team, Zora, Miles, Cat and Diha were squeezed into one room.
“We wouldn’t arrest Valentino,” Zora said over the others. “We would...make him vanish.”
Miles stared at her. “Would you now?”
“Valentino knows things.” She nodded and focused on Diha. “Okay. We keep this small. Valentino isn’t working with more than a person or two. We have nine here. Diha goes into the meeting wired, we hold back and when Valentino leaves we grab him.”
“He’ll have an exit strategy,” Miles said.
That much should be obvious.
Twice now the man had vanished while under watch. This location, the time, none of it was accidental.
He couldn’t believe Diha was willing to let the man go in exchange for some information. It was ludicrous. What the hell were they after? What about the promises they’d made?
“I can’t believe this.” He shook his head. “What’s worth letting this guy go?”
“We’d like to know that, too,” Logan said.
That statement took Miles by surprise.
He wasn’t the only one in the dark.
Zora looked from Logan to Miles and back. “You know what you need to for now. Anything else puts you at risk.”
“More at risk than now? Then nearly getting fired?” Inside, the anger began to simmer.
He’d thought they were all on the same team, but this whole time the Americans were after their own end game. One that didn’t help anyone else.
Diha opened her mouth, but Zora shook her head. He looked away before her pained expression got to him.
If this didn’t work out, if they didn’t get Valentino, he wouldn’t have a job when this was over. Hacker meddling aside, he’d rubbed too many people the wrong way.
When he made a promise, he carried through on it.
Unlike some people.
What was worse, with his suspension he couldn’t even step in and do the right thing. He was powerless and fucked.
“I’m not doing it.” He shook his head and took a step back toward the door.
“Mr. Green?” Zora said.
“No,” Miles snapped. “When you came here, it was for one purpose. One goal. You sold that to Bennett and she gave you everything we have. Now you want to piss on it? No.”
Harper rose from where he’d perched on the desk. He was oddly serious looking as he locked gazes with Miles. “Give us a second?”
What the hell did Harper want to say?
“Come here, man.” He stepped past Miles to the door.
“Don’t go far,” Logan barked.
“Yeah, yeah.” Harper gave Miles’ shoulder a shove.
They both left the room and turned away from the elevators as if by mutual agreement. They walked a few paces while the anger simmered inside of him.
“What?” Miles asked.
“Is it safe to talk?” Harper asked. “Are you going to blow?”
“Say what you want to say,” Miles snapped.
Harper glanced over his shoulder, then sidestepped, opening the door to the stairwell. Miles followed him in and stood on the landing while Harper secured the door behind him.
For a moment Miles studied Harper, staring at the floor.
“This isn’t an easy job,” he said quietly, no doubt so his voice didn’t carry. “Our first job with the task force was a doozey. We were supposed to ignore this clinically crazy guy who’d kidnapped women and kids because of some greater threat out there we didn’t know about.”
Miles frowned, but Harper continued.
“I think Zora has her head up her ass. We, the guys I mean, know we’re
playing some bigger game here, but we don’t know what it is.” Harper looked at him then. “Whatever the end game is, whatever we’re after, it’s got to be bigger and badder than this one tech geek.”
Miles shook his head. “Be that as it may, our agreement was going after Valentino. I can’t just let him walk away. I can’t let you spirit him off someplace to never pay for his crimes.”
“He’ll pay. And he’ll talk.”
“To you. What justice do our people get?”
Harper blew out a breath. “It’s a shitty place they’ve put us in, isn’t it?”
They both leaned against the railing.
“Diha knows. I’m pretty sure she’s one of very few who actually know the end game.” Harper glanced sideways at him. “I trust Diha. If she thinks this is the right call—”
“I don’t have the same luxury you do.”
“Okay, well, what if Zora makes some sort of arrangement with you guys? You get to interrogate Valentino? Someone put him up to the job. Wouldn’t you want those people more?”
Miles considered the question.
Valentino had been the focus because the hacker had claimed the train derailment as his work, but in the end everyone agreed that there was some other ulterior motive. They just didn’t know what.
“I could run with that,” he said slowly.
“You could still come out the hero,” Harper said.
That wasn’t Miles’ concern. He didn’t need to be anyone’s hero. He just wanted to do the job right.
What really rubbed was how Diha had switched gears. That stung. And he didn’t know if he could get over this betrayal.
20.
Monday. London, United Kingdom.
Diha peered out of the van’s window.
Miles stood outside with Logan. Both men had their backs to the van.
“Stop moving your head,” Cat said.
“Sorry,” Diha muttered.
Miles hadn’t spoken or looked at her since returning to the hotel room. Harper had brokered the deal securing Miles’ cooperation, but it was clear none of the men were happy about this. And Diha couldn’t blame him.
Miles had one goal.
Catch Valentino.
But her goal was more complex.
Technical Risk (Aegis Group Task Force Book 3) Page 26