Merc dropped into a nearby chair, his energy demolished with the realization that he couldn’t do this alone. He needed his team. And he would have to trust in them not to condemn Caroline, but to help her, because deep in his heart, Merc knew she was a pawn somehow.
He blew out a breath and faced his teammates. “I need to tell you all something, but you have to promise to keep an open mind.”
Hunter, his team leader, nodded.
“I’ve been watching Caroline. I caught her snooping around Cotter’s study and then his bedroom.”
“His bedroom is the entry to the safe room,” Hunter said.
“I know, but I don’t think she does. When I confronted her, she broke down and confessed Mankel was threatening her family if she didn’t find Cotter’s classified government intel and pass it along.”
“Jesus,” Ethan said.
“I talked to her, let her know we would protect her and her family from Mankel and she seemed to believe me. Everything was working out, the bait for Mankel, I haven’t caught her snooping again. I thought it was resolved,” Merc drummed his fingers on the table, finding it harder to say his next thoughts.
But his team didn’t need him to spell it out. Ethan said, “Until today.”
Merc nodded, wracking his brain for another plausible explanation. “Exactly. She’s too good. And there’s something else. I keep having this dream from when we were held in the desert, a dream that up until now I dismissed as my imagination.”
“I think Caroline slit my captor’s throat and rescued me. Not only that, I think she took out the men guarding the horse pen and stole the horse we escaped on.” Which didn’t make any sense whatsoever.
“And she kept us pinned down on the mountain,” Hunter chimed in.
“Has she had training? You know, maybe she does Olympic shooting or something,” Riser said.
“Where’s her file?” Ethan asked.
Merc turned to the table, pulled up Caroline Cotter’s dossier on the secured lap top and passed it over to Ethan. There was an explanation, one that filled him with dread. “Do you think he could have gotten to her like he did Shane?”
Shane Carter had been TF-S’s original sniper and Ranger James’ best friend. He’d been taken captive during an ambush, set up by Mr. J, given over to ISA and brainwashed. A year after being declared killed-in-action, Shane had returned, brainwashed and on a mission to steal government weapons. He’d nearly killed his wife and child in the process.
Ranger shoved to his feet, his blue eyes blazing. “Impossible. Mankel held Shane for almost a year. He had weeks to brainwash him.” Ranger looked away, but everyone in the room saw the agony on his face.
And Merc had put a bullet in his head.
He’d done it without regret, but the thought of that happening to Caroline made nausea burn up his throat. He could never hurt Caroline. Ever. He’d put a bullet in his own head first.
Riser cleared his throat, “For the amount of time Caroline was held hostage, brainwashing is impossible. That is not what’s going on here.”
Ethan’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “No training in weapons or self-defense. No equestrian training, either. She’d been in ballet since she could walk, taken art, piano and violin. She can speak French, Italian and Spanish fluently.” Ethan looked up from the screen. “The toughest course she’s completed is Miss Holloway’s School of Etiquette and Decorum.”
“So her explanation about Mankel holding her family’s lives over her head could be true, except for the escape, expert Marksmanship and the knee-jerk round house,” Riser said, his voice clinical.
Merc was thankful for that. The wild emotions churning up his insides clouded his judgement. He needed to start at the beginning. “Ethan, pull up the Senator and Caroline’s history. We need to go back to the beginning.”
“Here, let me sit at the table and you can all look with me.”
Merc got up and Ethan took his seat, placing the lap top on the table for everyone to see.
He pulled up Cotter’s file first. “Looks like his youth and young adulthood remained completely unremarkable and predictable. Law degree from Yale that he never used, but went straight into politics. He became a senator at a young age, met his wife that way. Dr. Sarah Fisher, an upper level Technical Researcher in the Directorate of Science & Technology (DS&T) for the CIA. They dated six months before getting married. A year later Sarah gave birth to twin baby girls.”
Cotter told him Sarah died during childbirth along with one of his daughters. “Pull up Sarah Fisher.”
Ethan clicked away and a few seconds later the image of a stunning young woman, eerily similar to Caroline, popped up.
“Says here she lived a full week after giving birth, as did Caroline’s twin sister, Marissa.”
Merc leaned in, his muscles contracting. “Cotter told me Caroline’s twin died in child birth. Pull up Caroline’s file again.”
Caroline’s image popped up on the top right corner. Date of birth: March 25, 1989. “What was the date on Sarah’s death certificate?”
Ethan clicked over. “April 1, 1989.”
Hunter leaned down. “That’s a week after giving birth to two girls, Caroline and Marissa.”
Merc swallowed past the huge knot forming in his throat and said, “Pull up the file on Marissa Cotter.”
Ethan did some digging and few seconds later the word ‘Classified’ popped up in bright red. “What the Fuck? Why would Caroline’s dead sister be classified?”
“Ethan, can you search the local newspaper archives?” The government files weren’t meshing with Cotter’s story, but maybe the paper could lend a hand in solving this puzzle.
Ethan typed in the local newspaper and clicked on the archives. First he searched Caroline’s date of birth and there was no mention of anything out of the ordinary. Just the typical street maintenance and cars for sale.
Merc wasn’t willing to give up that quickly. “Keep going.”
Ethan clicked over to the next day and the headline they’d been searching for popped up. “Senator Tom Cotter’s baby disappears from local hospital. Police are frantic searching, maternity ward on lock down.”
Reeling from the shock, Merc said, “Keep going.”
Ethan scrolled to the next day and the next, each column getting smaller and smaller as the manhunt continued to turn up nothing. And then a week later, two obituaries. Dr. Sarah Fisher Cotter and Marissa Cotter. Sarah died from complications of birth in Cotter’s home. Marissa Cotter assumed dead. A nurse’s body from the hospital was found floating two miles downstream, with Marissa Cotter’s wristband in her pocket. The baby’s body was never recovered.”
Marissa Cotter’s body had never been found.
“Holy shit,” Ethan fell back in his chair.
“You don’t think it’s possible…” Ranger’s words trailed off into stunned silence.
His chest feeling like he’d been hit by a Mack truck, Merc snatched up the secure satellite phone and dialed Agent K, TF-S’s CIA liaison, who answered on the first ring. “K here.”
“It’s Merc, I need you to look up something for me, right now.”
“Kind of in the middle of a meeting here,” Agent K said.
“I couldn’t give a fuck about your meeting, get to a computer. Now.”
He heard K cover the phone, his response muffled to whoever he was in a meeting with and then a door shutting. “This better be life or death, you have no idea who I just walked out on.”
“Yeah, I think I might have just made a crack in the case on our friend Jack Mankel.”
“Okay, at my computer. Tell me.”
“Look up a woman by the name of Jacqueline Smith. She died either at the end of March or beginning of April 1989.”
Merc heard keys clacking in the background. “Got it. What am I looking for?”
“Are there any records of her being married or engaged? Boyfriends?” Merc held his breath, almost positive he’d drawn the right conclusion.
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“Nothing.” Agent K’s answer knocked the wind from his lungs. “What is it?”
“I thought for sure she was in some way connected to Mr. J.”
“Hold on, let me run an extended family check.” Merc heard keys clacking and then agent K sucked in a breath.
Merc slapped his palm down on the table next to the laptop. “What?”
“His second cousin… she’s related to Jack Mankel.”
Merc’s blood turned to ice. “She worked at the hospital when Caroline was born. The same one her twin sister was kidnapped from, and a week later Jacqueline’s body was found floating in the river.”
“Mother of God.”
“Keep this to yourself for now. We need to follow a couple more leads before we make any moves, you got it?” Merc ground out.
“If it’s possible Senator Cotter’s other daughter is still alive, he has a right to know Merc,” Agent K snapped.
“And I’ll be the one to tell him, but not until we have more proof than this.”
“What the hell is going on over there?” K asked.
“I don’t know, not yet anyway, but I will. I’ll be in touch.”
“I’ll give you forty-eight hours. But after that, if you’re lead doesn’t pan out, I have to investigate.”
“Roger.” Merc disconnected the call, staring at the computer screen but not seeing it.
The thoughts running through his mind were so insane, so remote he wanted to laugh at himself. What if they were true? What if Mr. J had arranged the kidnapping in the first place and this whole time he’d been secretly raising Marissa as his own daughter?
“That son-of-a-bitch kidnapped Marissa from the hospital,” Hunter muttered, echoing Merc’s thoughts.
“So who do we have now? Marissa or Caroline?” Riser asked.
Merc felt like his insides were being ripped apart and burned. “Marissa.”
She’d lied to him the whole fucking time. Everything. Every action. Every word. Every kiss.
His lips tingled, taunting him. She planned to betray him. And I told her I loved her.
Merc threw back his head and roared. He’d given her his heart and she’d taken it and laughed behind his back. The first time in his life he’d opened himself up and she’d betrayed him.
“Merc, hold on a minute. You’re forgetting a few details,” Hunter held up his hands.
“Like what? Like she lied to us all? She’s planning to steal Cotter’s classified files and hand them over to Jack Mankel?” They’d made love, he’d taken her virginity for Christ’s sake – had that all been part of her plan, too?
“She saved your life and she didn’t have to. She defended you when you were unconscious. She’s had any number of opportunities to take each and every one of us out, but she hasn’t. All she’s done is snoop. I don’t think she wants to hurt anybody,” Hunter said.
“She’s been sent here by Mankel, which means he’s still got Caroline. And we just had Cotter taunt the man on national TV. God he must be laughing his balls off. Marissa belongs to Mankel, she would never turn on him.” She’d even given her body to carry out the lie.
Hunter shook his head and Merc wanted to grab his team leader and shake him. “What? Why are you shaking your head? Can’t you see, they must’ve been planning this for years?”
“But why now? And why not just kill us and hack into Cotter’s server? It doesn’t add up. Mankel might have raised her and trained her, but he hasn’t succeeded in making her evil,” Hunter said.
Merc could beg to differ. Only an evil woman could fool him into thinking she loved him the way Caroline – fuck Marissa – had. She might as well have left him strung up in that tent with Salaam.
Hunter kept going. “Think about it. If Mankel kidnapped her as an infant, the easiest way to keep her in line would be to raise her as his daughter. What if Mankel turned the story around? What if he told Marissa that Cotter killed Sarah Fisher and kidnapped Caroline?”
“Why the hell would he do that?”
“Because Jack Mankel is a sick, twisted bastard who will do anything to get what he wants. And for some reason he wants Tom Cotter to suffer.” Hunter held up a finger, pulled out his radio and hit the comm button. “Senator, come to our bunk room now.”
“On my way.” The senator’s voice filled the room.
“We’re going to find out exactly why Jack Mankel hates Cotter,” Hunter said.
A few minutes later, Cotter made it to the room. Hoyt shut the door behind him and turned the lock.
“Well, what did you find out? Anything new? You sounded urgent on the radio.”
Merc kept his mouth shut, knowing his emotions would cloud his logic. He let Hunter do the talking.
“Why does Jack Mankel want to harm you?”
Cotter paled. “I’m not sure.”
“Senator, do you see that man right there?” Hunter pointed to Merc. “If you don’t start talking, and telling the truth, I’m going to let Merc do the questioning.”
“Listen, it was a really long time ago and I really don’t like to talk about it.”
“Senator, you talk or we walk. It’s simple.”
“I need a drink.” Cotter tugged on his collar and edged toward the door. Merc nodded at Hoyt, who shifted to stand directly behind the Senator. Cotter bumped into him and jumped. “Okay, okay. But none of this leaves this room.”
“Talk.” Merc managed one word.
Trapped and surrounded by TF-Scorpion, Cotter obeyed. “Jack Mankel and I used to be friends. We didn’t really match up. I came from wealth; he was raised in an abusive household in the slums. But we both had one thing in common – ambition. We worked harder, longer and smarter than anyone around us. I promised to help him and he would help me. My goal was to reach Senator. His was the CIA director. We planned to do great things.”
“As time passed, more and more opportunities came my way. But not much with Mankel.”
Merc interrupted, “You mean your family’s connections helped you get the job.”
“Yes, they did. It’s the way it works in politics. Anyway, Mankel had no one. I tried to pull what little strings I had to help him, but I didn’t have the clout back then. He started to resent me, and I couldn’t blame him. We spent less and less time together, but we still saw each other daily at work. And then Sarah Fisher was hired as a new researcher.” Cotter’s tight expression softened. “She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I wanted her like I’d never wanted anyone, but I was dating a D.C. socialite at the time. Mankel made the first move and he and Sarah started dating. Then she was assigned to my team and we couldn’t deny the attraction any longer.”
“You took her from Mankel,” Merc said.
Cotter shook his head. “Sarah broke it off with him. I broke off my relationship with my girlfriend. We spent every spare minute together.”
“So Mankel thinks you stole her from him and he wants revenge?”
“It goes deeper than that. His resentment toward me and my wealth went deep. I made Senator and he never made it above the status of supervisor. I could have married that socialite and solidified my seat in the Senate, her father was a veteran Senator, but I fell in love with Sarah Fisher. The way he saw it, I’d purposefully kept him down in his job by not using my own family connections to propel him up the ladder.”
“So Mankel thinks you stole his woman and his job?” Hunter asked.
Cotter nodded. “When he found out Sarah was pregnant he went into a rage. You see, in his sick mind, he thought she should have had his children. He wanted a family to erase his own abusive past. So in his mind, I took that redemption from him as well. And then Sarah died, and he lost it completely. But I never thought,” Cotter choked and then cleared his throat, “I never thought he’d come back over two decades later and take it out on my little girl.”
“He didn’t take his revenge out just now, Senator. He took his pound of flesh when your daughters were born,” Merc said.
“Wh
a-what? What are you talking about?”
“The nurse, Jacqueline, who was found dead in the river with your other daughter’s wrist band in her pocket, was Mankel’s cousin.”
Cotter’s pale face turned white and he wavered on his feet. “What are you saying?”
Merc didn’t hesitate, “I’m saying Jack Mankel had his cousin kidnap Marissa. Then he killed Jacqueline and kept your daughter out of revenge.”
“That’s impossible. Marissa drowned twenty-seven years ago.”
“No she didn’t. Marissa is in your house, right now.”
Cotter’s knees buckled and Riser caught him, maneuvering him to the bed. “That’s not Caroline?”
Hunter shook his head, “We don’t think so. Which means Mankel still has Caroline.”
Cotter’s legs buckled. “You mean I just called Mankel out on TV and he still has my baby girl!?”
Riser pushed him back to the bed. “Calm down. We need to reason this out. You’ve provided the motive, but now we need to know why. Why wait all these years to make his move?”
“Think Senator, is there anything big going on in the government we need to know about? Anything he’d want enough to play his ace in the hole?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary. I mean, the wedding for Caro and the General was a big deal then. It would have helped solidify our ties in JSOC, but that’s not Earth changing.”
Merc exchanged a glance with Hunter. Cotter had treated his daughter like a business deal and even though Merc knew that he’d fallen for Marissa and not Caroline, he still despised the man for that.
“There has to be something else, something he wants access to that you can give him,” Merc said.
“No – wait. Maybe – but it’s just in the developmental stages. He can’t want that,” Cotter said.
“Why don’t you let us be the judge,” Hunter said.
“Rainier has been working on a new training program, it’s just now in the developmental stages, we haven’t implemented anything yet.”
Revenge River: Men of Mercy, Book 9 Page 21