GTA Headquarters
Shane dropped his head. Tears fell onto his phone, blurring the photo of sheet-covered Ramos.
SEAL memories flashed before him.
He and Ramos leaping off the raft with rifles up, and plodding through waves.
Shoulder to shoulder.
He and Ramos crawling through rat-infested tunnels.
He on his back, bleeding from his throat, fighting a knife-waving Taliban. Ramos looming up behind the fighter, drilling bullets into the son of a bitch.
Ramos scooping him up and carrying him to safety, saving his life…and stealing his heart.
Their deep conversations, hugs, and kisses would be no more. But the love they’d shared would forever stay within him, because Ramos lived in his soul.
Shane slipped the phone into his shirt pocket and wiped his face with his hand. He’d mourn Ramos in private when he could give him what he deserved: sacred time with his full attention.
Taking a deep breath, he rose. A soldier sucked it up and moved forward. He had a meeting scheduled with Easton right now to discuss the next steps in replicating the Black Widow’s cloaking technology.
He went next door to Easton’s office and closed the door behind him. Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 blared from the speakers, and its defiant and frustrated undertones seemed to erupt from the dark wood paneling. Easton sat at his desk in deep concentration, his eyes shut and his facial tic jerking.
Surprised, Shane stood there, taking in the dramatic change. Hours earlier, elation and excitement had vibrated in the air from the code’s successful cloaking of the prototype.
But now the atmosphere trembled with unsettled tension.
Something serious had happened. He walked over to Easton’s desk. “Sir, everything all right?”
Easton didn’t respond.
“Sir,” Shane said louder. “If I may? I just hung up with Zoe.”
Easton opened his eyes and turned off the music, and Shane briefed him on the conversation.
“I’m sorry about Ramos,” Easton said. “For both you and the agency.”
Shane tipped his head but didn’t say anything. Grief choked his throat.
Leaning back, Easton made a church steeple with his fingers. “I like Zoe’s plan. Letting the world think the child is dead will get China off our back for a while. President Wang broke his agreement with me to hold off on his search for the prototype, but I’m not surprised. I hope he’s prepared for the repercussions from his actions.”
He paused. “You told me that Ramos said Zoe was too attached to the kid.”
“He did,” Shane said. “But I don’t think that’s a problem in this case. I think it actually works to our advantage. The closer the bond, the higher the probability Leah will tell Zoe anything she knows.”
“True.” He thought for a minute. “Call Italy and make it happen—but in a week.”
“Why a week?”
Easton scowled. “We have higher priorities right now. We have a traitor to catch. Xavier went rogue an hour after we received the cloaking code. The snake took the Black Widow prototype and its code, our mind-control program research, and the access data on our biological and chemical WMD arsenal with him. Thankfully, he didn’t get his hands on the nuclear and radiological portion.”
“What? This is a disaster. How?” Shane tensed. Wait. Did Easton just say mind-control program? “What mind-control program?”
Easton waved his hand. “I don’t have time to get into that now. What’s more important is what you asked—how did he do it? Xavier couldn’t have stolen all that top-secret information without help from someone with high-level clearance, because he didn’t have the access.”
He pounded the desk with his fist. “We have a backstabber in our midst. The one who assisted the betrayer, Xavier. Effective immediately, everything—every resource—goes into finding both the thieves.”
“Absolutely,” Shane said.
“And our second priority is fixing the hole in our cyber security. The Chinese hacked us, and now you tell me that their assassins attacked Zoe and Ramos. I want it resolved now. And I want an investigation done as to how the Chinese broke into our system and found our operatives—and a fix so it’ll never happen again.”
“Yes, sir. As far as the hacking, Isabel has already assured me the breach has been taken care of.” Shane heard himself answer as he stared at Easton in disbelief. He didn’t expect to know every detail that went on at the agency—but mind control? He came to work every day with passion because they were doing the right thing: striving to obliterate evil terrorists with the greatest weaponry advanced technology could give them.
But raping human minds—violating another person by controlling them without their consent—crossed his moral line.
“I’m getting Isabel and Mercedes in here,” Easton said as he dialed his phone. “We need to resolve the Xavier situation immediately.” The directors were on call all weekend to assist if needed on the Black Widow cloaking.
He hung up and looked at Shane. “What’s your problem?”
“Me, not knowing about the mind-control program, is the problem. Us, having a mind-control program, is the problem.”
The green in Easton’s eyes turned a mesmerizing emerald. “You are a patriot. You do not remember us discussing a mind-control program. You never heard about mind control. Do you understand me?”
Easton’s luminous gaze trapped him, sucking him into nothingness.
Shane heard himself monotone, “Yes, sir, I do,” as his mind went blank.
* * *
Five minutes later there was a rap on the door. Easton glanced at the video monitor. Isabel and Mercedes had arrived. “Shane, why don’t you go and sit on the couch and let them have the chairs.”
“Yes, sir.” As Shane walked to the sofa, he shook his head several times as if trying to gather his thoughts.
Isabel waved to Shane as she headed to the closest chair. Mercedes glanced at Shane and then did a double take.
Easton took in Mercedes’s double take of Shane and cursed to himself. He needed to get it together. He was so damn tired he’d slipped up, mentioning the CIA program to his deputy. And he couldn’t remember how many times he’d said Shane’s trigger phrase—“You are a patriot”—which reinforced the brainwashing. He liked to say it at least twice to ensure his obedience. To date, his mind-control experimentation on his deputy had been successful, but he’d better keep an eye on him in case he hadn’t been thorough in erasing his memory about the mind-control comment.
Mercedes raised her brows. “What’s up, boss?”
A tense quiet hung in the room as Easton made eye contact with the directors. He believed one of them had been a culprit in Xavier’s heist. They were the only ones in the agency who had the skill and clearance to breach the layers of security with the speed it’d been done—within an hour of getting the code. He had several programmer geniuses, and didn’t question they could steal agency secrets. But to crack the multiple defensive software barriers and bypass the physical security scanners—it’d take days. Plus, both Mercedes and Isabel had been privy to the stolen material’s databases, at one time or another, for their work.
Except for the mind-control program. No one but him had knowledge of that.
So how the hell did Xavier get it?
As he looked into the women’s inquisitive eyes, it disturbed him that he’d have to pulverize one of those razor-sharp minds. He’d thought they were his loyal soldiers.
Ignoring her question, Easton studied Mercedes. He hadn’t taken her into his secret mind-control laboratory yet. If she were the one, it wouldn’t take long for his extroverted psychological warfare director to confess with sizzling electrodes attached to her head.
No mercy was given to traitors.
Easton moved his attention to Isabel’s wan face. A silky curl rested against her cheek and her lashes fluttered over dark circles under her eyes. She was a giver. He knew this from his time in the laboratory with her. He’d be surprised if she was the betrayer.
But then again, he wouldn’t be. At GTA, her life involved devising ways to outmaneuver the enemy.
No one could be trusted.
Mercedes cleared her throat. “Sir, is there something we need to know?”
“Yes, my supposedly stellar team sitting in front of me failed me. This morning, Xavier went rogue and inexplicably managed to steal top-secret information. The Wildcat will take care of Xavier. I want the information back and to know how he did it. That’s where you come in. Not only did he steal from the agency, all traces of his existence were deleted from our data bank. What he did was no miracle of great skill. He had to have had help from within.”
Mercedes spoke up again. “What did he steal?”
“The cloaking weapon prototype and its code, and the access information on our biological and chemical arsenal. We have six days to get it back.”
“Why six days?” Isabel said.
“Xavier plans to sell the stolen information on the black market in seven days. A colleague in the CIA informed me that an ad appeared an hour ago on the dark web for an online auction called”—Easton turned to his computer and read—“‘Invisible Death and Human Robots: Revolutionary Warfare and Other Arms for Sale.’”
He looked at the group. “The auction boasts an ‘invisibility’ weapon for sale. It has to be the cloaking prototype.”
He wasn’t going to tell them that on Monday, when the Security Council amendment passed appointing him president, he’d have access to China, Russia, and the US’s military nanotechnology programs, so all was not lost for GTA. But to win, he needed to fast-track the replication of the cloaking technology, and to do that he needed the prototype.
Shifting on the sofa, Shane pulled the sleeves of his black blazer down farther over his wrists.
Shane would never betray him, Easton thought. Shane and Ramos’s SEAL team had been involved in two ops he’d led. In one of them, Shane had saved his life and they became close. After Shane got injured and retired from the SEALs, he suffered a breakdown and dropped out of contact. Fearing he’d commit suicide, Easton instituted his own private operation to find him. And he did—in a cabin in northern Minnesota. He’d never forget how when he kicked in the door there stood Shane dressed in camo gear pointing a rifle at him. But Shane dropped the gun when he realized it was Easton, as Easton knew he would. Shane’s loyalty ran deep. That’s why he selected him as his deputy.
Easton continued, “Xavier, and his inside helper, believed that by erasing GTA data Xavier would be untraceable. But they were wrong.”
He gestured at the button control panel on his desk. “Nothing escapes the Global Network. With so many tentacles, erasing data from one means nothing. Deleting two communication lines means nothing. The network is linked to many sources and has backups for backups. I’ll find him.”
He pressed his thumb against his desk’s top drawer. The desk’s warm sheen was deceiving. The cherrywood covered a two-ton blast-proof vault with US government classified high-tech computer circuitry embedded in it.
The drawer unlocked at his thumb scan, and he removed three computer drives. He handed two to Isabel. “This has the name of the individual who the CIA believes is Xavier’s ally: Stoyan Petkov. He is a brutal Bulgarian weapons trafficker. I believe Xavier is associating with Petkov because he’s a big player in the black market. Petkov is most likely the one arranging the auction, and probably the auctioneer.
“Xavier knows our methods, so I want Petkov wrapped in our web. I want his email hacked, his phone bugged, his financial affairs tagged, and a nanodrone slipped in his house. We must get to Xavier before the auction. Find out everything you can about Petkov and document it on these drives. Give one to me, and the other to Mercedes so she can develop a profile based on your information.
“Also, on one of the drives, you’ll find some new computer bugs and tracers. Drop them into any database or communication related to him. They’ll be as infectious as an influenza pandemic, alerting us to new communications.”
Easton looked at Isabel. “Are we secure now?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, because preregistration is required to participate in the auction, and I want us registered ASAP. Link us in so we can find out who the other interested buyers are. That list will be a terrorist treasure trove. I’m sure Xavier or Petkov will be screening the online registrants and Xavier knows our cyber footprint, so I want your group to develop several new untraceable ones and register under different terrorist affiliations. The auction website address is on a drive.”
He handed Mercedes the third drive. “Once Isabel gives you her information, put your profile reports on this and give it back to me. Why would Petkov have formed an alliance with Xavier? What does he have in common with Xavier? No detail is too small.”
He sat back. “Thank you. That will be all.”
Mercedes and Isabel rose.
Easton looked at Shane, who then stood.
The three headed to the door.
“Isabel,” Easton said. “Please stay behind.”
She turned around. “Yes, sir.”
Easton sighed as he felt regret at what he was about to do to her. She was valuable to the agency.
But he had to know.
It ate him alive that a betrayer slithered in his house.