The other end of the line went silent with anticipation. Will let it hang there as he set a plate of breakfast in front of Cooper.
“Really?” she asked. “Eggs on toast?”
He tucked the sat phone into his shoulder and pressed a kiss to her head. “Eat. You need the protein.”
“So bossy,” she grumbled, but dug into her food.
“You love it.”
“Having fun south of the border, are we?” Parker asked, his smile as clear as the mark on Cooper’s neck.
“You sure you want to pull at this thread, Livingston? ’Cause if I talk about my sex life, you’re going to talk about yours. That sound healthy to you?”
“Nope.”
“Good call.”
“So what reference did I miss?” Parker asked.
“Not really why I called.”
“You brought it up and you know I’m not going to let it go.”
Will shook his head and took a seat at the table with Cooper. “Ra’s al Ghul. Obviously.”
Stunned silence filled the line. “A Batman reference? No, wait, a classic Batman reference? You’re my new favorite Bennett.”
“I heard that,” Georgia shouted in the background.
“She hears everything,” Parker whispered, then got himself back on track. “So I repeat, whaddup, Ra’s?”
“Looking for an update. Maybe a little good news?”
“How about a lot of good news and just a sprinkle of bad?” Parker asked.
“Works for me.”
“Okay, so I managed to de-encrypt all of the files, and man, oh man, your friend Felix must have had some major pull because he was thorough.”
“Apparently Felix had some family connections I didn’t know about,” Will offered, though the idea still felt off to him. Nothing about Felix had ever come across as blue-blooded or old money. But then, he supposed that made sense if he hadn’t been raised that way. But it still made Will feel like they were talking about two different people. The guy who’d cursed like a sailor, sang like a dying cat, and issued challenges the way most people issued compliments. But then there’d been the guy who was a legacy. Part of a very old naval family. Wealthy. Connected.
A stranger.
“That makes sense,” Parker said, the sound of his keyboard clicking in the background. “No way was he able to piece all of this together on his own. He’d have needed contacts in the DoD, the CIA.” Parker sighed. “Truth is, I don’t think even Felix understood what he was dealing with here. These documents are all redacted and classified.”
“I thought you said you got through the encryption?”
“I did,” he confirmed.
“But you said the files are all redacted.”
Parker scoffed. “It’s a good thing you know your comics, because you don’t know computers. Or code. And your vocabulary is depressingly basic—”
“If you’re done insulting me, explain.”
“Encryption made everything difficult to access. Once I got past that, I found classified file after classified file. All of which are redacted—that means edited for content, by the way.”
“I thought you said you had good news?”
“Well, yeah. Because even though everything’s been sanitized, it was still enough for me to know what to look for. And that made the hack itself much easier.”
What to look for . . .? Jesus. The more things changed. “How many government servers did you compromise this time?”
“Hmmm?” Something high-pitched and noisy droned on in the background. “Sorry. Out of fresh ground. And I don’t know. Two or three?”
“Parker.”
“Yeah, yeah. Save the lecture. I don’t want to hear it twice and Ethan’s on his way over to deliver it in person.”
Will just shook his head. “So long as someone’s got it covered.”
“Anyway, it made it easier to find the full files. On the surface, everything looks legit. Smart, really.”
“How so?” Will asked and snagged a slice of toast off Cooper’s plate.
“Well, as it turns out some of these studies were legitimate. Olivia—”
“Dr. York?”
“Right. She’s a big-time rule follower. High compliance, process driven, a hundred and ten percent by the book—but for God’s sake, don’t play poker with her, you’ll end up fleeced of your quarters, your clothes, and your tech.”
“You lost the program to her in a poker game?”
“Well, I gave her an exclusive license to use it in the medical field due to a poker game—which was totally unnecessary, by the way. I’d have just given it to her if she’d asked. But anyway, focus. You’re worse than I am.”
“Excuse me—”
“So anyway,” Parker said, talking right over Will’s indignant objection. “Olivia had already nailed down a few government contracts. She was working on multiple classified studies in the lab, and a few had even been green-lit by the FDA for human testing in the field.”
“And the ones that hadn’t? She just tacked those on for shits and giggles?”
Parker grew quiet for a beat. “You’re mad,” he realized aloud.
“Of course, I’m fucking mad, Parker. This is some Dr. Frankenstein-level shit and people died because of it. You get that, right?” Cooper dropped a hand on his forearm, stroked her fingers along the corded muscles, but didn’t say anything.
“Hey,” Parker said quietly. “I’m not the bad guy here. And neither is Olivia.”
Will sat back on a surprised grunt. “Sorry. I know that. I do. It’s just a lot’s happened and I—”
“I know. Just don’t shoot the messenger, ’kay?”
Will shoved a hand through his hair. “Parker two point oh, huh? When did you learn to start putting people in their places?”
“Batman, Frankenstein—and you didn’t even confuse the doctor and the monster—and now a version two reference?” Parker laughed. “I’m not the only one who’s changed.”
“Maybe you just didn’t know me very well.”
“It’s a possibility,” Parker agreed. “And anyway, it’s Georgia’s influence, I’m afraid. Apparently, I’ve gotten mouthier.”
“God help us all.”
“You’ll learn to love me,” he promised. “All the Bennetts do.”
“Get back on track, Parker.” Will wasn’t ready to think about that. Not because he didn’t want his sister to be happy—of course he did. And not because Parker wasn’t good enough—he was, and anyway, that was his sister’s call to make. She’d put Will’s balls in a vise before she let her big brother dictate who she could or couldn’t date. But if Georgia was in a serious, committed relationship—and it sounded like she was—then a lot had changed. She had changed. They hadn’t talked long, but she’d sounded happy. Confident. Comfortable in a way he’d only ever glimpsed here and there.
It hurt, a little, that she’d grown so much without him. That she no longer needed him to be the steady touchstone he’d always been. He’d heard it in her voice. In the way she’d talked about Parker. Her home was somewhere, someone, else now. Will was happy for her, but that joy was tinged with a sadness he barely understood.
“Right. So as I was saying, York Pharmaceuticals already had several government contracts and as is typical, all of those studies were classified,” Parker said, cutting into Will’s thoughts. “Adding in additional studies wasn’t hard.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that on paper, all of these programs were authorized, which was a smart move. Most of the time when people get caught committing these kinds of crimes, it’s because of what’s not there. Funds allocated to things that don’t exist, missing paperwork, stuff like that. But all of this was documented and accounted for, then authorized and redacted,” he explained. “Olivia was working on four different studies, it was easy enough to expand beneath each of them and run rogue trials that tied back to the originals. Everything on York’s servers looks like it’s pa
rt of one of the approved and classified trials.”
“You just let yourself into their systems, huh?”
“Olivia wouldn’t mind,” Parker assured him.
“And you’re sure she didn’t know what was happening?” Will asked.
“Definitely not.”
“But how? It’s her tech, her research, her company.”
“A company that employs thousands. She can’t be everywhere and oversee everything. I know her, Will. Putting aside the fact that she totally cheats at cards, she’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. Generous to a fault. The studies she authorized? All geared toward helping combat veterans. She was doing some really exciting stuff applying my program to brain mapping. Early results in treating things like PTSD and traumatic brain injury are really promising.” Parker sighed. “She’s one of us and she’s missing. Has been for months and I didn’t even know it.”
“How has her disappearance gone unnoticed? She’s a billionaire, for fuck’s sake.”
“Because she’s always remained out of the public spotlight, and because her board of directors is hiding it.”
“Why on earth would they agree to that?” Will asked. One person, maybe two, could be manipulated into lying. But an entire board?
“The official story is that Olivia is doing outreach and patient advocacy in Africa. Since she’s always preferred to keep her charitable efforts from becoming PR talking points, it’s not a hard sell.”
“That doesn’t explain why her board would go along with it. Surely they aren’t all in on it?”
“No. Just one of them.”
“Let me guess. Gerald Reeves,” Will ground out.
“Got it in one. He’s vice president in charge of research and development and from what I can tell, he informed the executive team that Olivia was taken hostage by local warlords while helping with an Ebola outbreak in central Africa. From the emails I pulled from York’s servers, it looks like he’s convinced the board that the kidnapping and rescue specialist they contracted with has insisted that everything be kept quiet for Olivia’s safety.”
“But there is no K and R team, is there?”
“There is and there isn’t. It’s a CIA shell. So everything looks legit—”
“But nothing is actually being done.”
“Right. Turns out Gerald Reeves and a high-ranking CIA official named Pruett Davis—and what the fuck kind of name is Pruett anyway?—thought they could turn a profit selling the results of these studies. When Olivia caught on and restricted access to York’s servers, Davis had her picked up and dropped into a CIA black site.”
“Do you know which one?”
“No.” Parker sighed. “And searching for it is taking hacking to a whole new level. It’s risky, not just for me and the rest of the team, but for Olivia, too. There are only two reasons she’s still alive—one, because so far, this has all been contained to a handful of leaks and two—”
“She has something Reeves and Davis want.”
“Yeah,” Parker agreed. “But now we have enough leverage to bury Reeves and Davis. The crimes we can prove? They’ll deal. And they’ll give up Olivia’s location in the process.”
“And all of this will be over,” Will said quietly. “What about the contracts on me and Cooper?” he asked, reaching for Cooper’s hand.
“Best guess is Davis is behind that—he’ll either cancel the hits when we bring him in, or I will.”
“Can you do it now? I don’t want this hanging over Cooper’s head anymore.”
“I can, but are you sure that’s the best idea?” Parker asked. “The second I cancel them, we’ll be tipping our hand.”
Cooper squeezed his arm and shook her head.
“Isaac—”
“Flores?” Will asked.
“Yeah.”
“He still an attorney with the Justice Department?”
“And a consultant with Somerton Security. He’s going to get everything in order and secure arrest warrants, but it’s still going to take a few days to locate, isolate, and pick up quietly. Can you lay low a little longer?”
“Yeah.” Will sighed. “We can.”
“Great. And I’ve got something to keep you busy in the meantime,” Parker said.
“That little bit of bad news, I’m guessing.”
“Can’t be all dessert all the time,” Parker confirmed. “I looked into laboratory director in Mexico City.”
“Alonzo Pérez.”
“Right. And he’s a real gem. His name is all over these files, but he’s also got a major gambling problem and he’s in debt to the wrong people. I’m sending you everything I’ve got on him. Mitchell was right, he’ll be easy to flip.”
“That doesn’t sound like bad news, Parker.”
“So the bad news is that Davis can sense the noose closing in. Between you accessing the vault in Panama City and Pierce completing the hit on Mitchell, things are escalating. He’s activated a contract on Pérez.”
“Shit.” That complicated things. “Has he disappeared yet?”
“No. Contract went active early this morning and there’s no reason Pérez would know about it—kinda defeats the purpose.”
“Okay, hang on.” Will lowered the phone and quickly filled Cooper in. “How long does that give us?” he asked when he was finished.
“Days, maybe a week at the outside.”
“That much time?” Will asked, surprise coloring his voice.
“Professional hits take time. A guy like Davis, he’s not hiring some thug off the street to spray the back of a car with bullets.” She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee. “Well, it might go down that way, it is Mexico after all. But just because it’ll look like a cartel hit doesn’t mean it’ll be planned like one. Whoever picks up the contract will need time to assess his habits, his schedule. To do it right, this stuff, it takes planning.”
“So we can get to him first?” Will asked.
“No guarantees, but yeah, probably.” Cooper nodded, and Will pulled the phone back up to his mouth.
“Okay, send us everything you’ve got on the guy. We’ll arrange a meet.”
“You might consider bribes over blackmail,” Parker offered. “The guy’s in serious debt—he doesn’t have the resources to run. It’ll be easier—and faster—to buy him off.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have those kinds of resources either, Parker.” Will knew that Cooper had some money stashed, but not nearly enough.
“Yeah, but I do. I’ll set up the transfer. Think a million will do it?”
Will choked. “Parker, I—”
“It’s just money, Will,” he said quietly. “And not even a fraction of what I’d pay to get you home. Let’s end this. As quickly as possible. For Georgia’s sake,” he said, his voice soft and quiet. “She needs you back.”
Will sighed and fought back the pride that demanded he say no. “Okay. And, Parker?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for this.”
“Yeah, well you just remember this warm fuzzy feeling when you get home and start feeling homicidal, ’kay?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Will barked. But it didn’t matter. Parker had hung up on him.
And in any case, he’d be back on American soil in a matter of days.
He turned to Cooper, put a hand on her knee, and set about constructing a plan.
Finally, the end had begun.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tepito, Mexico City
On a street corner, beneath a royal-blue awning, Cooper nursed a paper cup of coffee that had been liberally laced with cinnamon and did her best to let the city ebb and surge and breathe around her. She’d been here before.
Was used to the thrumming, pulsing chaos.
Will, clearly, was not.
“Drink your coffee,” she told him from beneath a baseball hat she wore low on her head.
“Why here, of all places?” Will asked, watching as crowds disappeared into Mexico City’s ol
dest market. A claim to fame, for sure. But not what this area was known for.
“His mother’s family is from the neighborhood,” Cooper said. “He was lucky. She was beautiful, and he got out. But a place like this? You leave it, but it doesn’t leave you. Not really.”
And Cooper would know. Tepito was so much more than a series of streets or coordinates. It was a lifestyle. A community and in a lot of ways, a country unto itself, with its own commerce, its own rules, and its own militant presence policing a sense of right and wrong that could only be found in a neighbored that existed firmly in the gray.
Nothing here was black and white.
And nothing here was all good or all evil.
Nothing in the criminal underworld was.
“I feel like a fucking outsider,” Will grumbled, scratching at the edge of his beard.
“Because you are.”
“But not you?” he asked, bumping her hip with his.
She passed him small smile. She was an outsider, too, though not in the way he meant. And not in the way that mattered. Cooper might not have been born here, but she understood the market in a way Will never could. Over the last eighteen months she’d passed through a dozen of these markets in China, in Turkey, in Buenos Aires, and yes, even here. She had the contacts and spoke the language—not Spanish, but money. Desperation. A willingness to do what most people would never even consider.
That Will didn’t know this place—or one like it—was a comfort against the sad realization that she did, and worse, that knowledge had left its mark.
It would never leave her, as it clearly had not left Alonzo Pérez.
Because she knew he was nervous, Cooper glanced up to Will. “Walk me through it again.”
The words had barely left her mouth and already he settled into his stance, his gaze turning serious and focused. Operational readiness he knew. Walking into hostile territory he was used to. She just had to remind him.
“We enter the market separately and with an escort,” he recited. “You’re sure you can trust this guy?”
Fearless (Somerton Security Book 3) Page 26