Chapter Ten
Curiosity was poisonous and had no antidote. If he’d received another assignment and didn’t respond to it, William knew there was more than termination from his job he’d have to face. The act of refusal was considered insubordination and likely would cause William a court-martial. So once he finally made his way back to the hotel, via several wrong turns and backtracking, he removed the memory card from the cover of the notepad and slipped it into the small laptop. He keyed in the decryption code and waited for the information to compile finally.
Renee Owens was William’s case agent from the beginning of his career in the military. The government entity used her like a shadow placement; put her in charge of his command to see how he handled situations under her orders. While other non-commissioned officers didn’t like Renee’s attitude or how she presented the material, William felt her advantages as a woman allowed her a stronger reaction when it came to ordering people around. He didn’t mind having a woman as a commander. And it led to his further assignments when it came to advanced training into the covert field where he currently worked as a general consultant on the surface, a standard passport that had stamps from several Middle-Eastern companies, but underneath William worked first-and-foremost for the U.S. military.
It was his job to see if companies used their funds for nefarious means. It took a lot to track money nowadays because it happened electronically. But William’s ability to slip in and out of highly secure buildings and businesses made him the perfect asset to cultivate. He evolved into a particularly credible and accomplished burglar who happened to work for the U.S. government.
The latest assignment suggested he travel to China and covertly integrate into a multinational business that had people going in and out of the main building often. He’d blend with the businesspeople. But that’s where his skill set took over. It was a corporation that had ties to some unsavory people. William would work overnight, slip into the server room, plant a device that mirrored the account data, and sent duplicate files to the home office. He was good at that.
It was the last job that had him upset. While he sometimes knew the situation took a dark turn, he didn’t expect to have a wet-work assignment. He stumbled into a funding branch from the local bank that made millions from human trafficking. While the head of the organization was untouchable, the accountant was easy to track and eliminate. William understood the value of a good accountant. And someone who willingly washed money for deplorable causes wasn’t easy to find. And now that one of those men was eliminated, there was a business out there that had to put out feelers for a new accountant.
William saw the news on the television in the hotel. A bank manager in Ankara died today of a heart attack shortly before noon. William saw a photograph of the manager. It was the man he’d fed something while the man slept in the bed next to his wife, while his teenage son slumbered in a room across the hallway. Sometimes, William went out of his way for a good cause.
He had plane tickets to fly to Suffolk, England, where he’d assume his regular identity as an average American non-commissioned officer, stroll on base, and head back to Quantico on the next available flight out of the United Kingdom. That was the plan. But Renee had other plans for him. And since the beginning, if he felt off about a job, she’d let him choose a different path. Now it seemed he didn’t have a choice and she wasn’t budging from the course.
“Three years,” William mumbled. He flipped through the random cable television stations. It was supposed to be for only three years. But he hadn’t anticipated falling in love. The pictures on William’s smartphone of Ronald and him together made William realize what was most essential for him in life. He spun through the photos, reliving the moments he had with Ronald. What was he supposed to do?
With training came the responsibility. He knew the opportunity to take a life could happen. It was part of the exercise. But there was a difference between ending a life at the end of a gun, and the personal advocate of death he’d become the moment William set foot into that man’s room and administered the poison. He had to live with it. He had to face that decision alone because no matter what he said or how he said it, Ronald would look at him and only see a murderer, not a soldier.
He texted Renee and waited for a reply. It didn’t come immediately. William considered that because the woman had an umbilical tether between the phone and her. Was it a moment of celebration on her part? A moment was allowing William to simmer under the weight of his decision because at that moment, he knew returning to Ronald wasn’t going to happen.
His thumb hovered over the ‘send’ button after he scrolled through the directory and found Ronald’s number. A smiling face looked back at him from the ID photo. How was he supposed to look at Ronald when his conscious suggested he’d taken a step too far? If he’d changed his mind before he took the assignment, it was a different story. The story where he’d end up at home with the person he loved most in the world, making a living in the private sector. While the news report said the banking manager died of a heart attack, with no foul play, William knew the truth. He had no idea the profound effect that instant had in his life.
William allowed the phone to go dark again. He didn’t key in the security code to bring back the home screen. Instead, he waited for Renee to return the call and give him the details of the next assignment.