“I figured they stayed inside with you.” Martin explains for the sixth time as we walk inside the Boston Field Office for a meeting with Karyn. “The two goons brought him in to you and that’s the last I saw of them. They never came back out.”

“So, you just hung around out there with your thumbs up your ass?” Georgia won’t let up.

“Fuck you.” He doesn’t appreciate her verbal jabs. “I followed orders. You’re just pissed because the Irishman got the drop on you.” He fires back at her. “Marry me luf’ and I’ll share me pot of gold with ya,” in a bad Irish accent.

Georgia stops walking and spins around to face him, blocking his path. “You want to be very careful what you say to me next.” She leans in with fire in her eyes, until she’s only a few inches from his face. Martin backs up and slowly steps around her as she stares straight through him.

“Are we finished?” I ask her after he passes. “Let it go.”

“I should’ve seen it coming.” Georgia finally admits once Martin’s out of earshot. “How did I not see it coming? Fucking Belfast.”

“He got to you.” I can’t help but think of Zoe. “It happens.”

“Not to me.” Georgia walks away without another word. I watch her stalk through the front entrance security checkpoint and part of me can’t help but feel bad for what Belfast has coming, if she ever sees him again.

“My understanding is you’ve come across information regarding a High Priority Target?” Karyn walks into the conference room we’ve been waiting in since shortly after our arrival. She’s followed closely by her second in command at the station and the Special Agent in charge of the region’s Critical Incidents Response Group.

“Yes, ma’am.” I answer for the squad. “During our investigation into an international human trafficking operation we received credible information that leads me to believe HPT Marius Popov is back on U.S. soil, and has been for approximately one week.”

“This evidence is the same hard drive you turned in to me upon your arrival at the field office this afternoon?”

“Yes ma’am, the same.”

Karyn continues for the record. “This hard drive is being analyzed by the digital forensics lab as we speak.” She nods to her second in command, who nods back in agreement.

“Now Agent Garrison can you tell us, for the record, how you obtained this evidence?”

There’s no mention of the abduction, drugging and setup of James Parker. In my official report he's an attorney who got in over his head with a ruthless Chechen gangster. Upon questioning he became frightened and eventually turned in the drive as evidence.

I tell them how Nicholas Ruslan murdered Parker for his betrayal and then vanished, current location unknown. Karyn suggests Ruslan may be one of the multiple bodies being pieced together for identification after the warehouse explosion, suggesting a possible connection between the two events.

No one talks about Belfast. There will be no accounting for the murders he committed at the warehouse, or the explosion he used to cover it up. Ruslan’s abduction, torture, interrogation and then loss at the dispensary will never be part of the official reports. This is the version of events Karyn and I agreed to report during our private meeting after my team and I arrived. This is the same version both Georgia and Martin will confirm under oath.

“This report will remain sealed pending completion,” Karyn addresses everyone in the room. “And from this point forward no one outside this room will be read in on this mission without my direct approval.” She nods to her second who begins to hand out the standard agency non-disclosure contracts while she continues. “The CIRG team will handle point on the investigation and any search for Popov. You can use the secondary command center, off site. Garrison, your team will handle our in-house security concerns.” Karyn quickly dismisses everyone else and asks me to stay behind, waiting for the door to completely close again before she speaks.

“From the moment she leaves this building today, your team is her shadow.” Karyn looks concerned. “I want you close enough to catch her spit before it hits the ground,” Her need to protect Zoe again is apparent. “Without her knowing. I want Marius Popov to pay for everything he did to her, to us and for threatening our family. You’ll be kept up to speed real time with the CIRG’s progress and whatever else you need is yours, but it’s time to end this bullshit once and for all. I want Marius Popov to pay for everything he’s taken from her, and from this agency.”

“Consider it done.” I try to keep my feelings less obvious as Karyn stands up to leave.

“Nash keep your eyes open on this, Popov knows his status with us and he’ll want to make his first move fast.” On her way out the door she stops to issue one final warning. “He couldn’t have gotten this far alone, and he didn’t just come back for Zoe, there has to be more to it.”

Georgia, Martin and I set up in two agency impounded, nondescript vehicles and rotate watch once Zoe leaves the Field Office. We plan on catching sleep in shifts across one of the back seats as needed and we all post up in one vehicle once we’re at Zoe’s place. I let them sleep first while I deal with the flood of memories and re-emerging feelings that I worry might compromise my focus. I spend most of the night floating between thoughts of Zoe and racking my brain, thinking through every possible scenario we may encounter. I get routine updates from CIRG but nothing promising. Popov is a ghost and the only way we’ll find him is when he comes for Zoe.

“You shouldn't have let me sleep through my watch.” Georgia wakes with the sun and calls up from the back seat.

“Relax, you didn’t miss anything.” Martin answers from behind the wheel.

“I need caffeine.” Georgia stretches her lean frame and starts to rub the sleep from her eyes as she steps out onto the sidewalk.

“Dunks is two blocks up on the right. I’ll take a large black,” I say, feeling a little tired after a long night with zero sleep and no fresh leads from the station.

“How about you, sunshine?” She asks Martin with a sleepy smile.

“I’m all set, thanks.” Martin smiles back and tilts his head under the rear-view mirror to watch her walk away. “So exactly how much sleep didn’t you get last night?”

“All of it.” I lean forward and rub the back of my neck.

“What’s with you? I’ve never seen you worked up like this on an op.”

“I’m not sure really, I’ve been thinking about it all night and something isn’t adding up. I get Popov coming back - hell I figured he’d be back years ago. What I don’t get is why he feels he has a legit shot at pulling this off now. This isn’t a stupid man, he wouldn’t risk this without truly believing he could get it done - not after all this time. Where is he getting intel that gives him that level of confidence?”

“What do you mean?” I can hear in Martin’s voice, he already knows my answer.

“What I mean is, I think we’re looking at this as only coming from outside the agency - from Popov. But maybe we need to look within for a connection as well.”

We sit in silence as Martin thinks about what I’m saying.

“You don’t really think someone inside the agency has been helping him, do you?” Martin doesn’t want to believe it, but I know from his voice, he’s considering it.

“I do and so does Karyn. I reached out to her last night and she agreed. The CIRG team is digging into every agent who has even mentioned the Boston Office in the last ten years.”

“You did what?” Martin sounds like I have his attention now.

“I was going to fill you both in once Georgia got back with the coffee, but I can catch her up in a minute.” I'm so tired I can’t fight a long, slow yawn as I check Zoe’s house for activity.

“Yeah, where the hell is she? What are they roasting each of the beans individually?” Martin pulls himself up with the steering wheel to look for her from the driver’s seat. “Do you see her?”

I lean up again in my seat and glance down the sidewalk, but don’t see her coming. Before I can answer I feel the sudden, sharp prick of a needle stinging the side of my neck. I try to stop it but I’m too late. I try to fight it, but the struggle doesn’t last. All my strength is sapped within seconds and my senses are blurring.

The last thing I see is Martin’s face. The last thing I hear is his voice. “I’m sorry.”