by Elle James
* * *
JANE WAS SURPRISED Charlie wanted her to come with them to Halverson International Headquarters. She suspected it was that keeping the enemy close mind-set. She was glad she could accompany them. In a way, she felt responsible for what Trinity was doing. Having been a part of the organization for so long, she’d done things she wished she hadn’t. She’d rationalized about the men she’d killed. They’d been bad, having murdered innocent people. Taking them out had been a blessing to others who might have been their next targets.
The rest of the team met up with Charlie and the group from the estate in the garage and went through security and straight up to John Halverson’s office.
Margaret met them again at the elevator, a smile on her face. “I’m so glad you came in today. There’s an envelope for you. I thought I might have to bring it out to your house.”
Charlie patted the woman’s arm. “That’s not necessary. Just let me know about things and I’ll come to the office.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She handed her the envelope and looked to the others. “Can I get you something to drink?”
The woman reminded Jane of every grandmother she’d ever seen on television. Not that she appeared that old, but that she wanted to help and please the people she considered family or friends.
“No, thank you, Margaret,” Declan said for the group.
“We’ll be in John’s office and we’re not to be disturbed,” Charlie said, leading the way into the corner office, the envelope in her hand.
Once they were all inside the office, Charlie looked around. “Now what? Are you certain your contact on the Dark Web said we should meet here? Was there a time associated?”
Jane wandered around the office, looking for clues and finding none. She stopped by the floor-to-ceiling windows and stared out at the capitol. The sun was shining, and people were moving about on the streets, happily unaware of the terrorists among them.
Cole lifted his hands, palms upward. “You know as much as I do. We were supposed to get here ASAP.”
Gus nodded toward the envelope in Charlie’s hand. “What’s in the envelope? Maybe it’s a message from the Dark Web contact.”
Charlie tore open the small white envelope and withdrew a piece of paper. She looked down at it and frowned. “This makes no sense.”
She handed the paper to Declan.
The team leader read it aloud. “Look to the symbol that embodies the strength and stability of our founding father and all shall be revealed.”
The words were typed neatly and centered on the page.
Charlie stared down at the note and shook her head. “What does it mean?”
Jane looked out the window at the skyline. She could barely see the Reflection Pool or the dome of the Capitol Building. The Washington Monument towered over the rest of the buildings, reaching its four-sided obelisk into the blue sky, a testament to the strength and stability of the founding father for which it was named.
Jane’s pulse clamored in her veins. “The Washington Monument.”
Gus crossed the floor to stand beside her. “What did you say?”
“Read the note again,” Jane said, her excitement building.
Declan read aloud again. “Look to the symbol that embodies the strength and stability of our founding father and all shall be revealed.”
“And who was considered our founding father?” Jane asked, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the towering obelisk.
“George Washington,” Charlie answered, stopping to stand beside Jane. “Do you think the note is referring to the Washington Monument?” She stared at the tower. “I don’t see anything revealing about it.”
“Should we go down there and look?” Declan asked.
“Why don’t you look through the telescope?” Gus suggested.
Since Charlie was the closest to the shiny brass telescope, she pressed her eye to the viewfinder and peered through the lens. “I don’t see anything different,” she murmured.
The whooshing sound of movement made Jane look up.
Blackout shades slid down to cover the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“What the hell?” Gus exclaimed. “Did someone hit a switch?”
“I didn’t,” Declan said.
“Me, either,” Mack added, holding up his hands.
“Something made those shades come down.” Charlie backed away from the telescope.
A click and a rumble behind her made Jane turn back to the room’s interior. A huge sheet of the wood-paneled wall slid to the side, revealing an array of computer monitors. The one in the center blinked to life, displaying an image of John Halverson.
Jane and Charlie both gasped at the same time.
“I know that face,” Jane whispered.
John Halverson gave a sad smile. “Hey, Charlie. If you’re viewing this message, I must be gone.”
Charlie pressed a hand to her chest; tears welled in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. “Oh, John.”
“I had the telescope set up with an optical scanner to read your eyes only. All the security measures I put in place in this room were for a reason. I realized a little too late that what I was getting into could have repercussions that impacted you. I should have told you about it and prepared you for my potential demise.”
While John had been talking, Gus grabbed the executive chair from behind the desk and pushed it over to where Charlie stood in front of the video monitor.
She didn’t move until Gus touched her shoulder and urged her to sit. Charlie sank into the chair, a soft sob escaping her lips.
“I’d first run across the Trinity Syndicate when I was working a special project with the CIA. I’m sorry, dear. I knew you didn’t want me to get involved in dangerous activities but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing when there was an organization out there preying on children and young people, turning them into killing machines for hire and to disrupt the world political arena. I know how much you had wanted children of our own. When that didn’t happen, I knew you would have wanted to help other children, like Kate Sanders.” John’s face disappeared and a photo image of a young girl appeared. She had long, black silky hair and dark brown eyes.
Gus stepped closer. “Is that...?”
“That’s Jane,” Declan declared.
Gus looked from the image to Jane and back.
John’s voice continued. “Kate Sanders’s parents died in a plane wreck. With no other family who could take her, she was relegated to foster care. Within days of placing her in a home, she disappeared. The missing children foundation posted her photo on milk cartons, posters, Amber Alerts and the news. She was never found. Until I witnessed a Trinity assassination of a Saudi prince who’d just raped a young girl in a tawdry bordello in New York City.”
Jane remembered.
Everything. From the horror of learning she’d lost her parents to the daily beatings during training with Trinity, to when she’d met John Halverson who wanted only to stop Trinity from making monsters out of children.
She was one of Trinity’s monsters.
An arm came up around her waist.
She turned to Gus. He didn’t say a word, just held her.
“Now that I’m gone,” John’s voice continued, “you will have a decision to make.”
Charlie gave another little sob.
“I never wanted you to be involved in tracking down the handlers and leaders of Trinity. It’s dangerous business. You must choose whether to destroy the information I’ve gathered or pass it on to the FBI or CIA and let them pick up where I left off. I never wanted you to be caught in the repercussions of what I was doing.
“I’m sorry I’ve left you alone. I know how much you hated it when I was gone. Know this, though, I love you with all my heart.”
The video ended and the monitor turned dark.
“When
did you say John passed?” Jane asked.
“Four months ago,” Charlie said, her voice broken and choked with emotion.
“I was in touch with John via text less than two months ago,” Jane whispered. “How can that be?”
“I couldn’t let his work die with him,” a voice said from a corner of the room.
Jane spun to see Margaret, John’s executive assistant, standing near the doorway.
Jane frowned. “You sent me the texts about getting the general out of Shayrat?”
Margaret nodded. “I’ve worked with John on this project from the beginning. I knew as much, sometimes more than he did. I’m as committed to the downfall of Trinity Syndicate as he was.”
“I wish he would have told me,” Charlie said.
“He wanted to but felt like he didn’t have enough data to be useful. And he wanted to keep you safe. He knew code names of the people in key positions of leadership, but not who the people were behind the codes. When he was murdered, I stepped in where he left off, gathering information. I haven’t gotten much further. I’d hoped Indigo would lead to a breakthrough.”
“But I failed,” Jane said.
“I’m just glad you’re alive. I shouldn’t have asked you to play the role of a double agent trying to get the Russian general you were supposed to assassinate out of harm’s way. Once you did that, I knew I had to find a way to make you disappear. When you failed to go through with your assigned assassinations, Trinity would target you for extermination.”
Jane closed her eyes and forced herself to relive that day in Syria, the memories coming back in a collage of images. “The Trinity agent who killed the general came after me.” She pinched the bridge of her nose as remembered pain throbbed at the base of her skull. “He knocked me out and left me locked in a building that was supposed to be part of the US airstrike on Shayrat Airbase. I should have died in the attack. Instead, Russians who were working with the Syrian rebels found me and took me to an alternate location to interrogate me.”
Gus’s arm tightened around her.
“I never learned the identity of my handler. With Trinity, you didn’t question, you performed. If you knew too much, it was certain death.” She met Margaret’s gaze.
“Then why did you agree to help John?” Charlie asked.
Jane’s lips twisted. “I was tired of the killing, even though the people Trinity had me go after weren’t model citizens, like the Saudi crown prince. I didn’t want the syndicate to keep training kids to be like me. And I wanted out.”
“And I’m still working on how to get you out and how to keep you safe,” Margaret said, looking at Charlie, “as I know John would have wanted. I only bring you in on this now because you’ve already uncovered so much.”
Jane snorted. “By now, you must realize the only way out of Trinity is death.”
“No,” Gus said. “I refuse to accept that.”
“They know I’ve defected,” Jane said. “The attack on the freeway was the first attempt at damage control. There will be others until they tie up this loose end.”
“You are not a loose end,” Margaret said. “John had a lot of faith in you. I failed you when I sent you in to get the general out.”
“What was so important about the general?” Charlie asked. “And how did you get involved with him?”
“John had been working with the CIA in his effort to track down Trinity leaders. The CIA asked for help in return. I picked up where John left off with Indigo. The CIA learned of a leak in military intelligence. Information was getting to the Russians about our military operations. The CIA wanted to know who was leaking that information. The Russian was the CIA’s plant. He was there when the Russians received word to evacuate Shayrat. Someone warned them about the pending US strike. The general’s cover had been compromised. The CIA wanted to get him out. Indigo was there. She’d sent a message to John that she’d been tasked with the general’s assassination, not knowing John had been murdered. The CIA had tapped into the burner phone she used to keep in touch with John. They knew what I knew and asked me to intervene to save the general.” Margaret held out her hands, palms up. “I took over when John passed but I need help. I need Declan’s Defenders. And I need them now.”
“You’re my link on the Dark Web, aren’t you?” Cole asked.
Margaret nodded. “And I have a situation I need your help to resolve.”
“Why didn’t you go to the CIA or FBI?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know who to trust anymore. I’m beginning to think Trinity has tentacles in the government. Their leadership might be entrenched somewhere in the CIA, FBI or State Department. I think that’s why Indigo’s mission to extract the general failed. Someone knew from the inside that she’d defected and sent someone out to make sure the general died as well as Indigo. But that’s not why I brought you here.” She glanced down at the watch on her wrist. “In three hours, there is a preliminary hearing concerning the bombing at Shayrat. My contacts on the Dark Web indicate there will be an attack on the people in that hearing. They are to spare no one and make it look like a random terrorist attack by ISIS, not a precision execution staged by Trinity.”
“What do you want us to do?” Jane asked, knowing before the woman responded.
Margaret’s gaze swept the room, pausing to connect with each person, one by one, before she answered. “We need to stop the attack.”
Chapter Thirteen
Three hours hadn’t been much time to organize, arm and plan their defense.
The hearing had been set up at a posh hotel’s conference room center.
Cole had hacked into the hotel’s database and secured a reservation for Mr. and Mrs. Walsh arriving that day for a one-night stay. Gus and Jane would enter the hotel with their luggage containing the weapons the team would need to combat the threat.
Cole would man the communications van parked on the street, tap into the hotel’s internal security cameras and direct those inside with what he saw.
Mack and Snow would enter the hotel as electric technicians there to fix a problem with a faulty circuit. Cole had already hacked into the hotel’s systems to generate the work order.
Mustang and Declan had found their way inside earlier by sneaking into the back of a delivery van, delivering hotel staff uniforms. They’d snagged a couple of janitor coveralls and slipped through the loading dock entrance into the hotel’s laundry facility. From there, they’d work their way inward to the conference center.
Each member of the team and Jane had been equipped with state-of-the-art communications devices John Halverson had stashed in a hidden storeroom in his office. The communications van, according to Margaret, had been a special project he’d been working on before he passed.
Cole had jumped in, booted the computers, updated their software and connected all of the headsets to his dashboard. He was positioned less than a block away from the hotel in a pay-to-park lot.
Gus, dressed in black trousers and a long-sleeve button-down dark shirt, stared across the backseat of the rented limousine at Jane.
She wore a sleek black jumpsuit with a black patent-leather belt cinched around her narrow waist. Charlie had loaned her the outfit, a broad-brimmed black-and-white hat and large dark sunglasses.
Jane had swept her silky black hair high up on her head and tucked it into the hat, exposing her long, sexy neck. In the matching black patent-leather pumps, she looked like a stunning DC socialite.
“What?” she said.
Gus hadn’t realized he’d been staring until then. “What what?”
“Do I look all right for the part?” she asked, brushing away an imaginary speck from her pant leg.
“You look amazing,” Gus said. “I only hope the Trinity operatives don’t recognize you.”
“In this outfit, I don’t see how they can.” Jane’s lips twisted. “I don’t think
I’ve ever worn anything this fancy.”
“All we have to do is get in, set up and then slip down to the lobby. If Trinity is planning a coup by storming the entrance, we’ll be the first line of defense with the security guards that will be in place for the hearing.”
“And if they plan on a subtler attack, we can watch for infiltration, one at a time.”
“Right.” He reached for her hand. “I would have preferred for you to stay back with Charlie. You’ve been through enough already.” When she started to frown, he held up his other hand. “I know you’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself. I’ve just never worked a mission with someone like you.”
One side of her mouth curled in a half smile. “An assassin?”
“No. A woman I find myself deeply attracted to.” He shook his head. “It must be the male gene. Every protective instinct in me is screaming for me to shield you from harm.”
Jane’s brow dipped lower. “Gus, you can’t operate that way. You have to treat me like one of your team. You have to know I’ve got your back just as much as you have mine. You can’t be thinking about protecting me when you have a job to do.”
He nodded and squeezed her hand. “My mind tells me that, but my heart is freaking out.”
She captured his cheeks between her palms and stared into his face, her dark eyes so intense. “Focus, marine.” Then she kissed him hard, her mouth taking his by storm.
He pulled her close in the back of the limousine and deepened the kiss until they were both breathless.
The limousine pulled up in front of the hotel and came to a stop.
Jane stared once more into Gus’s eyes.
He wanted to kiss her again, but knew the time had come. “Ready?”
She nodded.
He touched the communication headset in his hear. “Cole?”
“Gotcha,” Cole said into the earbud communications device in Gus’s ear. “Indigo?”