“Prove it,” Felix said.
“Which part?”
“Let’s start with the undercover bit.”
“How?” She shrugged.
“That’s the problem we’re going to need Abigail’s help with. Actually...” Isaac stared at Felix. “Ian worked for Interpol, right?”
“He did.” Felix nodded.
“It’s late for Seattle. Can you give him a call?”
Felix had his phone out before Isaac finished the question.
“Do you know Rob’s last name?” Isaac asked her.
“No, he’s just—Rob. I’ve seen him, though.”
“Seen him? What do you mean?” Isaac tilted his head, the frown lines deepening.
“That was part of the protection measures. Rob only spoke with Quade, not me. Rob and I never formally met. He knew there was a second agent in Orlando’s operation, but not who. That’s probably what saved my life.”
“Shit,” Ian muttered.
“The guy, Rob, what’s he look like?” Felix asked.
“Late forties, balding, has a distinctive mole on his chin, speaks with a bit of a lisp. He’s married, lives in Epping with his wife. No children.” Tanya knew more, but she kept it to the details, facts, things that could be verified with ease.
“Okay.” Felix held up his hand, the phone pressed to his ear. “Hey Ian, sorry to wake you guys. I know this is very inconvenient, but we need you... Putting you on speaker.”
“What can I do?” a gravely, male voice said.
“Hey Ian, we’re looking to identify an Interpol guy, someone who handles undercover operatives, his name is Rob and he lives in Epping, outside of London,” Isaac said.
“Rob... You mean Robert?”
“Maybe?” Isaac glanced at her.
“Robert... Fuck. Funny little man, distinctive way of talkin’, yeah?”
“He had a lisp,” Tanya said softly.
“Ian, did this Robert have any...defining characteristics?” Isaac asked.
“What? You mean that hairy mole on his jaw? Fuckin’ thing creeped me out. You can get shit like that removed these days.”
“That must be our guy.” Isaac’s shoulders slumped.
“What about him?”
“I don’t want to go into detail right now, but...if you have any contacts you trust, get in touch with them. Someone should check into what Robert is up to. The sooner, the better. We have a hit out on our asset and Robert might be involved.”
“Copy that. I’m up. Should have something in an hour or two.”
“Thanks, and tell Taylor we’re sorry for waking her up.”
“She didn’t budge.” Ian chuckled.
“Tell her to get sleep while she can.” Felix grinned.
“Right? She’s about to pop.”
“Later.” Felix ended the call.
Isaac glanced around the room. Tanya stared at the wall just over Kyle’s shoulder. No one spoke for several long moments.
“Anything else you’d like to tell us?” Kyle asked.
“Orlando wants revenge for the death of his sister. She was on vacation in D.C., got taken hostage and wound up in the federal building bombing.”
“Christ. That was a nightmare.” Felix’s eyes got distant and his face grim.
“Why was the sister of an intel dealer in D.C.? That doesn’t make sense.” Shane leaned forward and braced his arms on the table.
“Orlando doesn’t talk about it much, but from what I gather, he didn’t know she was even there until the people holding her called with their demands. When he starts talking about his sister, Orlando gets...different.” She didn’t want to put a label to it. He wasn’t technically her patient, though she could identify the signs of a deeper issue in his psyche.
“What does all of this have to do with now?” Kyle asked.
“Orlando has a weapon. A chemical bomb he wanted to sell to someone specifically targeting Americans. When I left he’d narrowed down his buyer list to three groups. The top bidder was a terrorist group rooted in the Middle East. The second highest bidder was a...homegrown group of dissatisfied people. They’re unhappy Americans. The third was a political activist group who has essentially purchased fabricated disasters before.”
“Fabricated disasters?” Felix parroted back at her.
“Yeah. You want to protest gun control, they make a gun incident happen. They’re the ones I think Orlando will sell it to, and they’re the ones that worry me the most. They want the worst possible outcome so they have the biggest rallying cry.”
“This is... This is fucking insane. How do we trust anything you have to say?” Kyle held out his hand as though he were pleading with her.
“Guys, look, we need to focus on right now. We have an hour before we know anything. We’ve got a leg up on anyone who wants the bounty on Tanya right now, so we need to take advantage of that,” Isaac said.
“What we need is to have a conversation without Tanya.” Kyle’s gaze slid to her. “If you don’t mind?”
“Of course not. I understand. Go ahead.”
Tanya took a step back. She fought the urge to bolt for the safety of her room and instead strode away, head up, shoulders back. She’d made the right call and done everything in her power to do something. The rest was in the team’s hands. She’d put her faith in Isaac, but that didn’t mean the others were totally on her side.
11.
Saturday. London, United Kingdom.
Isaac remained standing, one hand braced on the table. No one spoke. They all listened to Tanya’s soft footsteps fade down the hall and the snick of her door closing. The others all blew out a breath.
He held up his finger and took two steps back.
He trusted Tanya, but she’d already listened into their conversations about her because they didn’t think to be careful enough.
The hall was clear. No Tanya.
He wasn’t sure if he was glad or worried. She seemed to have pulled herself back together. It would be nice to take credit for that, but in truth she was the one doing the heavy lifting. One amazing woman in over her head.
“We need to turn this over to someone,” Shane said.
“Who?” Felix asked.
“The...NSA? CIA?” Shane glanced around and shrugged. “I don’t know, but you tell me that there’s some sort of threat, a weapon, on the move—that’s not what we do.”
“What are we looking at, Isaac?” Kyle planted his hands on his hips, a grimace on his face.
“Highly-volatile chemical weapon in the hands of Orlando, or one of his customers. Tanya told you almost everything she told me.”
“Okay, what didn’t she share?”
“She’s got a tracking device on the weapon, so we at least know it’s on the move.”
“If it’s that dangerous, someone will know about it.” Felix leaned forward. “We can’t just let this go.”
“We need to tell someone.” Shane shook his head.
“Procedure dictates we go up the chain of command, tell Zain and Crawford. Let them decide what we’re doing. Abigail is on her way here, and we’ll hopefully know more within the hour, so until then, we need to prepare.” Kyle turned to Shane. “Get the head of security up here and let’s coordinate with them. We can’t be their first high-risk guests or they wouldn’t have the team they do. Also, see about getting meals prearranged, okay?”
“On it,” Shane said.
“Isaac, I want you on Tanya at all times. Don’t let her piss alone.” Kyle nodded at him.
“Wait—is that a good idea?” Felix didn’t look at Isaac.
“Why isn’t it?” he asked.
“Felix has a point.” Shane slid his gaze toward Isaac. “You did sleep with her, and you clearly have a bias.”
“She trusts me,” Isaac said.
“That’s why Isaac is going to stay on her. Besides, this isn’t new territory for you.” Kyle didn’t so much as bat an eyelash. “Sort out how we want to report the threat. We do need t
o tell someone, even if it’s not going to do any good.”
“Will do.”
Isaac gritted his teeth.
He had a reputation. So, what? Kyle had point blank told him to get as close as possible to her. Had Isaac planned on getting into Tanya’s bed? No, but that didn’t reduce their time together to another notch on the bedpost either. She was struggling, and he’d merely been there to catch and comfort her. Maybe he did feel stronger about her than other women, but that was because deep down, he understood her sacrifice.
Kyle went down the line, handing out the assignments for the next few hours and dismissing everyone to their post. They could only worry about so many things right now, everything else would have to wait.
Isaac turned on his heel and stalked down the hall.
Why couldn’t they see that Tanya was different?
“Yo, Isaac?” Kyle called out.
“What?”
“Called your mom yet?”
“Fuck you.” Isaac flipped Kyle off.
Deep down, Isaac believed Tanya. Maybe that meant she was taking him for a ride, or maybe he’d earned her trust to the point of total honesty, he couldn’t tell. But there was no second guessing his commitment if they were going to see this through, and as far as he was concerned the threat to human life was too great to spend unnecessary time arguing about it.
He pushed Tanya’s door open and stepped into the room. She’d pulled the blackout curtains aside. The thin, gauzy material let in plenty of natural—if dreary—light.
“Hey.” Isaac closed the door behind him.
She didn’t acknowledge his presence. Remote in hand, she sat cross-legged on the big bed and flipped the channels.
“What’s going on with your mom?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing.” He circled to the other side and sat with his back against the headboard.
“Then why does Kyle keep asking you about her?”
“Because... I guess she called the office or something.”
Tanya turned her head and stared at him, her gaze shrouded and thoughtful.
Shit. She’d laid herself out there for all the world to see, and he couldn’t even tell her this.
“Mom... It’s complicated.”
Tanya arched a brow.
Right.
Because she didn’t get complicated.
Isaac hated talking about this shit.
“My brother’s widow—well, Ruth was only ever his fiancée, technically, but that doesn’t matter to us—she’s dating someone Mom set her up with. They want me to like the guy.” Isaac grimaced.
“You said he died years ago, right?”
“It’s been a couple years.”
“Is there something wrong with her new boyfriend?”
“He’s not my brother.”
Tanya stared at him, her dark eyes missing nothing. He could see why they’d picked her for this job. Behind the pretty face was a mind smarter and a heart stronger than many men.
“It sounds stupid when I say it like that.” He sighed.
“I can’t pretend to understand family dynamics like that. My specialty in school was dealing with trauma, helping people cope. I struggled whenever we did a section on family dynamics.”
He could understand how her peculiar set of life experiences would equip her to help others handle the nightmares of life. He would have never guessed at what she’d been through at a glance. That kind of strength had to be cultivated.
“Why the CIA?” he asked.
“I wanted to do more with my life. I wanted to stop the bad guys like my dad.”
“You ever see him?”
“I thought about it once, but what’s the point?” She shrugged. “He probably couldn’t pick me out of a lineup of his children. Why do I want to give someone like that a minute of my time? I was a commodity to him. A resource. If he gave me to someone, he got something else in return.”
“Sorry, that was an insensitive question.”
“Not really. A lot of people in my situation would want to face the source of their trauma. I just didn’t see the point. He’s never been apologetic about what he did. He fully believes in his religion and that he had the right to his wives and children. We were property. You can’t reason with a person like that.”
“I’d want to see him just so I could punch him. Just once, you know?” Isaac pantomimed throwing a right hook.
Tanya chuckled.
“Probably couldn’t. All that glass, right?” he asked.
“Probably right.” She smiled for the first time. “Not that you asked my opinion, but you should give this new man in your friend’s life a chance.”
“I don’t want to.” He leaned his head back against the headboard and stared at the ceiling. Usually he didn’t talk about himself to assets. Everything about this situation was turned on its head. “It’s like everyone else is done grieving him.”
“Ruth, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Ruth probably feels as lost and strange about moving on as you feel watching her do it.”
“Funny way of showing it.”
“We all handle big life things differently. I bottle them up, for example. It’s the most British thing my father gave me, the whole keep calm, carry on, don’t deal with it mentality. Not the healthiest coping mechanism.”
“That’s not how the saying goes.”
“I know.”
“You seem to be doing all right from where I’m sitting.”
“Thanks to you. I was a wreck when you guys pulled me out of that safe house.” She smiled once more, briefly. “What happens next?”
He considered playing the question off, but she was too smart to be dissuaded from getting an answer.
“We’ve got someone calling up Interpol, someone who has ties to who might have trained you, we’ve got feelers out to find out about this weapon, and Kyle is making the call up the chain of command to see what our boss wants us to do.” He wished he could be the one making that call, but it was Kyle’s prerogative.
“There’s a hit out on my life,” she said.
“Only one.”
“One isn’t enough?”
“Nah. If you’ve got three or four, that’s when you might want to think about being worried.”
“Then why would Orlando put the bounty out there?” Tanya frowned at the bedspread. “He put this address, so he wanted to be very specific.”
“Could be he really wants you dead.”
“Maybe, but he’s usually more...purposeful, with things like this.”
“Okay, so what does he get out of this?” Isaac did not like this train of thought.
“His enemies will know me, now they’ll know where I’m at. He’s painted a target on my back.” She sat there with her mouth open a moment. “He just ensured I can’t go anywhere without someone recognizing or watching me. If someone else wanted the weapon, they could think I know where it is and how to get it.”
“We’ll handle this.” He reached over and took her hand.
“I don’t know if I’m cut out for this, Isaac. I really don’t.”
“Never make a decision about your future when you’re in the worst of it. Come here.”
Tanya curled up against his side, her head on his shoulder. If she was telling him the truth, she’d lived through two years of covert work. She was one tough cookie, and he wasn’t going to abandon her. If the boss said to come home, Isaac would just put in a PTO request and turn his phone off. Deep down, he believed her, and he wasn’t about to leave her to fend for herself, not with people gunning for her. The sooner they verified her story and got someone at any intelligence agency to acknowledge her, the sooner someone could handle the threat of the chemical weapon. The red tape might kill them, if they didn’t get something done soon.
“Thank you,” Tanya said.
“Just doing what needs done,” he drawled.
“Is this part of the Aegis Group service?”
“We excel in uniq
ue solutions to unique problems.”
“I’m scared, Isaac. I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen, and I can’t stop it, no matter what I do.”
“You’ve got me, cupcake. We aren’t going to leave you high and dry.”
“I don’t understand why you’d stick your neck out for me. What if—”
“Stop making up problems. We have enough.”
If he had to strike out solo with her, that was when he’d get nervous. He had a tidy sum socked back, but it would only go so far in providing the kind of protection Tanya needed. Hopefully it didn’t come to that, but if it did, he’d have her back.
Tanya squeezed him and buried her face against his shoulder. He hugged her back and kissed the top of her head. Everything about her was different. Even him.
Saturday. Epping, United Kingdom.
Robert had become something of an expert on Tanya Graham since learning she was his other undercover agent. From her unusual birth, to the tumultuous circumstances of her rescue and upbringing. He could understand why she’d been selected. The facts about her were easy to nail down. There was ample proof she was who she said she was, and enough of a history to make it believable she’d lean toward illegal trades. There were a number of charges against her as an adult for trafficking and abducting people, which were likely mostly lies, now that he knew what she was. Anything she’d have done as a child was under duress.
If he were looking at a lineup of Orlando’s people, she was the last one he’d have picked as his spy.
He leaned back and stared at the stacks of reports on his desk.
What the hell was he doing?
Orlando had him by the balls. If Robert did anything to hinder the man’s plans, Donna could die.
He should kick back with a drink and wait for the world to burn down around him, but he couldn’t. He’d been at this job for too long to simply not fight back.
Dangerous in Action (Aegis Group Alpha Team, #2) Page 12