Jaxon
“Oh good, lover boy is back,” Zane chuckled.
“Come again?”
“Not this again. Christ, all you fuckers think I fell off the turnip truck last week. Jasmin lit up like a kid on Christmas when Linc first walked in the conference room, remember that? She denied it, fought it, and pushed him away. In the end, he won. Panther, the big fucker threatened to quit and take Olivia on the run, all while denying how he felt about her. Abe saw it, he was there. He finally lost the battle and claimed her. Now, you’d think after seeing this play out two times before, you’d cut the shit and give in. Save yourself the trouble of bullshitting everyone around you.”
“Z, man, I have no clue what you’re talking about. I’m not feeling any sort of way around her. She’s leak, and is going to jail,” I told him, reiterating something he already knew.
“Yeah, whatever. You keep telling yourself that. But if you threaten to quit on me when I use her as bait to flush out Ortega, I’m shooting your ass. Fair warning.”
“You’re doing what?” I seethed.
No fucking way was Violet being used as bait. If Manuel Ortega got his hands on Violet, he’d be in the wind, and Violet would be gone. Once she was trafficked we’d never find her, and if by some miracle we did, she’d never be the same.
“There it is,” Wolf laughed.
“Fucker!” I shook my head. We didn’t have time for Zane’s idea of humor.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think she knew about Declan prior to the interview. I also believe her about her reasons why she went along with the demands.” Abe stopped and put up his hand. “You all know how I feel about liars. I have no use for anyone who doesn’t speak the truth. But before we send her to the executioner, let me ask you something. Have you ever loved so deeply that you’d sell your soul if it meant the other person could live? I’m not excusing what Violet has done. I’m telling you, that while I wouldn’t’ve done the same, I can understand why she did. She was backed into a corner. She doesn’t have the training, the know-how, the resources, or the skills we have. We can play post-game quarterback and pick out all the flaws in her plays, or we can admit she was trained for flag football and was thrown in the NFL. I believe her when she says she had good intentions, and that goes a long way for me in this case.”
Holy fuck. It sounded a lot like Abe, the most candid and honest person I knew, was in some ways taking Violet’s side. I hadn’t thought of looking at her situation through her eyes. It was hard for me to see everything that had happened, as her, a woman, who had no training in the art of war. She’d been used and blackmailed. I couldn’t go as far as calling her a victim, but I was understanding why she’d gone along with Timothy.
“She saved my life,” Jasmin said.
We’d yet to debrief about what had happened back in the hotel room, other than Jasmin seeing two men strapped with AKs coming into the hotel. They’d kicked in the door and she’d easily taken them out. She hadn’t mentioned where the third one had come from or how Violet had been shot.
I could tell Jasmin was uncomfortable when she started fidgeting. She neither liked having to admit some asshole had almost gotten the drop on her, nor that it was Violet, someone she didn’t like, that saved her ass.
“After I dropped the two asswipes, I’d gone to check out the window to see how much attention we’d gained and out of the corner of my eye I see Violet creeping out of the bathroom. Before I could tell her to get her ass back in, she’s yelling my name and flying at me like a goddamned spider monkey. Fucking bullet flew by our heads. Swear to Christ I could feel the air move from the velocity. She knocked Penelope out of my hand when we hit the ground. I pulled around my AR to fire, and in all my years this has never happened, but I had a misfire. Before I could clear the bullet stuck in the chamber, the crazy bitch had already unloaded a full fifteen round magazine into asshole number three. I know at least one or two hit him; the other thirteen are a crap shoot - they were spraying all over the place.”
My respect for Violet had grown exponentially; that’s to say, I now had some for her. She’d saved Jasmin’s life, and in the eyes of the team that meant something. We owed her a debt of gratitude. To say I was shocked Violet would risk her life to save a woman that had made no secret of not liking her spoke volumes about her character. Maybe she was telling the truth about the reasons she’d helped Timothy.
“How’d she get hit?” I asked.
“I told you, she’s a crazy bitch. When we hit the ground, she rolled so she was in front of me. She took one to the arm and still grabbed Penelope. If she hadn’t, with my AR jammed, we both would’ve been dead before you guys could’ve made it into the room.”
“Well, fuck me running. Now what the hell am I supposed to do?” Zane looked irritated he now owed Violet.
“Hell if I know. If someone saved one of my guy’s lives, they’d be family,” Wolf said, only adding to Zane’s frustration. Then added, “Tex said he has some new intel. He wants to video in.”
Dude pressed some buttons on his already open laptop and soon Tex appeared on the screen.
“We got problems,” Tex announced.
“Tell us something we don’t know,” Cookie said.
“The national security kind of problems.”
“Is Violet involved?” Zane asked, with a hopeful look on his face.
“Not unless she was in charge of putting the guidance chips out for contract to foreign companies,” Tex answered.
“How is that possible? All military hardware is made in the US,” Dude said.
“It’s supposed to be. All other parts of the mini drone, including the fabrication and assembly, were done in the US but some pencil pusher thought to save money and contract the electronics out, thinking the Chinese wouldn’t catch on,” Tex explained.
“Has no one looked at eBay lately? Those fuckers clone everything US companies produce there. Hell, most of the time the Chinese clone makes it to market before the real one does. So, what you’re saying is the Chinese manufactured proprietary hardware for the US government?” I asked.
“That’s what I’m saying. Without having the chip in front of me to test, I’d guess the Chinese bugged the chip. It’s what I would do. Anytime the drone is turned on, not only can the US track the device, the Chinese can too. One other thing, there has to be a virus embedded as well. That’s how Ortega was able to get classified intel on the team’s mission,” Tex informed us.
“I need to call the President.” Zane pulled the satellite phone out of his pack.
“Already done. I thought it was best to go to him directly. Given the situation with Violet, I’m not real trusting of anyone else at the moment. I don’t want to be one of those conspiracy theorists, but too many people are involved. I think the CIA has lost control of their agents.”
“Oh good, maybe I get to torture little Miss Lose Lips after all.” I didn’t like the smile that formed on Zane’s face when he talked about torturing information out of Violet, but now was not the time to voice my objections. “Jasmin ran into a problem at the hotel. I’ve got three stiffs I need you to run if you don’t mind. I’ll send their pictures to you when we’re done. Seems Manuel Ortega was impatient and tried to snatch Violet before she made contact.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would he take her before she verified she’d secured the chip? We’re missing something.” Tex looked away from the camera and to his left, his fingers pounding on the keyboard in front of him. “We have to go back to the beginning, forget what we know, and start over. Violet knows something. She may not realize it, but Manuel doesn’t want the chip. He just wants her.”
“That’s not gonna happen.” Before I could stop myself, I continued. “Over my dead body he’ll get his hands on her.”
“And another one bites the dust,” Zane chuckled. “Christ, you don’t make things easy on yourself, do you.”
“What the fuck does that mean? You know as well as I do what happens when a woman is trafficked. She’ll be drugged and raped within hours. They’ll break her as fast as they can. That is not going to happen to Violet. I don’t give a fuck what she’s done, but she doesn’t deserve that.”
Zane sighed, Jasmin shook her head, and Wolf’s eyebrows shot into his hairline as he looked over my shoulder.
Shit, Goddamn, I prayed Violet wasn’t standing behind me. When I turned to look, there she stood, her face paled, hands covering her mouth and her eyes closed.
“We won’t let anything happen to you,” I tried to assure her.
“Send me those pictures so I can get started.” I heard Tex’s voice but didn’t bother turning back to the screen. I only had eyes for the trembling woman in front of me.
“What do you mean trafficked?” she stammered.
The moment of truth was upon us. I watched as Zane explained to Violet that Manuel had put her out to bid. The trembling turned into a full body shake and she grabbed the seatback next to her to keep her balance. I wanted to go to her and comfort her, soothe her fears, but I couldn’t. We needed to see her reaction.
“Why?” she asked. The tears she was trying to hold back had begun to fall. “Do you think he knows what I did?”
“What did you do?” I didn’t have to look back at Zane to know he was grinding his teeth.
“That I left breadcrumbs in my hack so you could find Olivia, that I saved the conversations and call log from the prison I was supposed to delete, that I came to you with information about them.” Violet nodded toward Wolf. “How else was I supposed to get the fucking chip he wanted without help? I did everything he asked. I’m so stupid. I thought he’d give me the list back if I helped him. So goddamned stupid.”
“Yes, to all that. But that’s not why he wants you. He could care less about the conversations or how Olivia was found. At this point, I don’t believe he wanted the chip. It doesn’t make any sense. If I hadn’t been caught up in wanting to get to Wolf, I would’ve seen it. He doesn’t need the drone to get the guidance system. The Chinese have it and they’ll sell it, so there is no money to be made. One thing about the Chinese, they have no allegiance. That was the smoke screen. The real question is why he wants you,” Zane told her.
There was no faking her fear and confusion. She was scared to death, not that I could blame her. I hated to agree with her, but it was stupid thinking Manuel Ortega would keep his word. Anyone willing to stoop to blackmail was not someone you could trust. Unfortunately for her, she was learning the hard way.
She thought she’d sacrificed the few to save the many, but she had it backwards. The few were the undercover agents, the many were the American people.
She was fucked.
Her only hope was we could track Manuel and eliminate the threat.