Chapter 7
Riley stared at the whiteboard in the planning room. It was filled with names, dotted lines between them, and ton of questions. Too many questions. Not enough concrete information.
The Russian Revolutionary Army was an ideologically motivated terrorist organization that believed western democratic political systems, basically anyone outside of Russia and China, should be replaced with a socialist communist state. The best way for them to achieve that end was through armed revolution. The State Department had recently added the RRA to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, along with allied European countries.
Which dictated the creation of a highly covert, dark special operations unit that was able to focus solely on taking down emerging terrorist threats. If they could remove these organizations before they became major players on the world theater—like Al Qaeda and ISIS—they could avoid the horrors of 9/11. The 13 was established to address these organizations, and given wider latitude to deal with terrorist than other special operations units.
The problem was, at this early stage of discovery, there was not much they knew about the RRA. While Riley had been an analyst in Jordan, she and Lance had uncovered two possible members of the terrorist organization. One man had worked for Riley. It still bothered her that he operated as a mole right under her nose.
It bothered her even more that his actions had resulted in the death of a Navy SEAL during one of her ops. Not a day went by that Riley didn’t think of Ripper and miss his quirky smile and sarcasm.
She had never killed a man—but she never regretted killing Andrew Kelly. Rubbing the raised scar tissue at her side from a recently healed gunshot wound, she remembered lifting the gun. All her training had been to aim center mass. But that went out the window when she had a clear shot to the head. The bullet hit the bastard right between the eyes. She never allowed herself to consider whether or not she would have shot him even if he hadn’t been trying to kill her. It didn’t matter.
What did matter was, with Kelly dead, it made it more difficult to ascertain if he was actually a member of the RRA, and if so, who else was inside the organization. Luckily, during the same raid on the Embassy, Lance had captured another RRA operative, Alrick Orlov, who sat in a cell down in Guantanamo Bay. So far, Orlov had been less than forthcoming with information. However, with the new administration in place, GiTMO had returned to a harsher environment. Riley had been told that Orlov was beginning to crack.
She stared at the information her team had obtained regarding Daniel Forrester. It wasn’t much. The only reason they had an inkling that he was potentially a member of the RRA was the cage-rattling of a man named Yurik Stepanov. That was a name she was more familiar with.
Stepanov was the nephew of a high value RRA member, Komandir Grigory Petrov. Ben Wells, another member of The 13, had killed Petrov in Colombia. Stepanov was the man dropping threats against Jess Baylor to avenge the death of his son.
Daniel Forrester.
Lance walked into the room, and dropped into the chair next to her, and her heart rate sped up. The man was gorgeous—and all hers. Not that anyone other than Colonel Holt knew about the relationship. No doubt people would find out eventually, but no need to jinx the burgeoning relationship but letting everyone in on the secret.
“Solve the puzzle yet?” he asked, gesturing toward the whiteboard.
She snorted. “It’s like trying to force pieces together that just don’t fit. Plus, I don’t even have half the pieces I need to make a complete picture.”
“So, what do we know about Daniel Forrester?”
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Rudy and Beverly Forrester. Father was a dentist. Mother was a stay-at-home mom. Both deceased.”
“Kind of young. How did they die?”
“Car accident. Four years ago. Ruled an accident, but given what we are learning about Daniel, it’s a little suspect.”
“Think they were killed?” Lance asked.
“I think it’s a possibility.” Riley leaned back in her chair. “I also think it’s possible Daniel Forrester was adopted.”
Lance raised an eyebrow.
She knew where his thought train was headed. The same place as hers. Andrew Kelly had been born in Russia and adopted by very wealthy parents through a private adoption. Andrew’s parents were able to have his birth certificate altered to appear he was the natural born son of Edward and Martha Kelly. Born in the U.S.A.
“We need to find out if Daniel Forrester’s parents adopted him from Russia.”
Tony Abbott, a CIA analyst Riley had brought with her from her former team, popped his head around the corner. “Riley, I got something.”
Riley and Lance swiveled to face Abbott. “What’s up?” she asked.
“We obtained some information and did a little digging to verify authenticity. It appears Laura Townsend is missing. No one has seen her since after she left the police station last night.”
Shit…the other woman at the bar with Jess. One of her friends.
“Could she have decided to get out of town to escape the media?” Riley asked.
“We’re looking into that. We intercepted some chatter that suggests she may have been abducted.”
“Anyone taking responsibility?” Lance asked.
A grim line crossed his face. “RRA.”
Riley groaned. “Well, fuck…”
Lance exhaled and rubbed the growth on his chin. “That’s not good news.”
Riley looked at Lance. “I think it’s time to make a trip to GiTMO.”
“Agreed,” Lance said and stood. “I’ll call Mason.”