JACK’S MIND SCRAMBLED to put together the pieces of the bizarre coincidence as Adam pulled them into the empty prayer room filled with a dozen padded chairs and a stained-glass window in the front. The connection between his case and Bree was something he wanted to dismiss, except the facts were staring him in the face. Thomas Hwang was the man who’d shot the senator and snatched Bree. And he was on the list of suspects he’d come here to find.
Jack had worked the case for the past thirteen months. Two days ago, they finally caught a solid lead, and he ended up flying here in order to chase it down. So while he had no idea how the two cases were related, there had to be a connection.
“Jack . . . Jack?”
Jack’s attention shifted to his brother. “Sorry.”
“I’m just trying to figure out what you’re saying. You believe there’s a connection between the case that brought you here and what happened this morning?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but yes. He’s part of what we call the Albatross File.”
“We’ve been working on a series of threats where the Chinese are targeting US intelligence. We discovered a spy ring that’s using a secure source-messaging browser to share files and documents. The setup is actually a bit old school, but they create a chatroom and have other users join them. The chat names and usernames are always birds.”
“Thus the Albatross File,” Adam said.
Jack nodded. “Once we discovered how they were communicating, we started working on a way to decode what they were doing. Tracking them down has been difficult, but a couple days ago I got a lead that several of them were here in Corpus. The problem is, we don’t have real names or any photos.”
“So you came here to see if you could track them down,” Bree said.
“Yes, but when I met up with Adam for breakfast, and he told me you were missing . . . I couldn’t exactly leave when I found out.”
“Have you thought that it could simply be a coincidence?” Bree sat down on one of the cushioned chairs and rested her arms against her thighs. “There’s got to be dozens of Thomas Hwangs. And you mentioned selling secrets, and spies, but I can assure you the senator is no traitor and would never get involved with someone like that.”
Jack paused before continuing, not ready to make any assumptions at this point. “I’m not implying he’s involved, but I do believe it’s possible he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe both of you were. I’m just looking at the facts. Just like we can’t yet rule out the possibility of Nico being involved. But if there is a connection with the Albatross File, and if we can finally get our hands on a list of names through Hwang’s phone . . .”
He hesitated again, the worry in Bree’s eyes evident. He knew how much the senator had meant to her and her mother growing up, and she’d never believe he could betray his country unless the facts were indisputable. He just needed to ensure they looked at all the facts before coming to any conclusions.
“Let’s look at what we do know.” She leaned back in the chair, clearly exhausted, and yet not ready to back out of the fight. “All of this has seemed targeted and planned. Shooting Papps, my abduction, and even the drive-by at the dock.”
“I have to agree,” Adam said. “You were off the beaten path when the senator was shot, but it definitely seemed planned.”
“What about the boats?” Jack asked.
Adam frowned. “Unfortunately, both boats they used were stolen.”
Jack could tell Bree was trying to distance herself from the situation and look at it objectively, but that wasn’t possible, and they both knew it.
“What about the photos Jack took?” Bree asked. “Were you able to identify the men?”
“Not yet. The pictures are being run through facial recognition software.”
Jack made a quick decision. “I need to talk to Hwang. Alone.”
Adam shrugged. “I’m not sure I’m the one who can arrange that. Technically, I’m not in charge anymore.”
“Then I can arrange it.” He pulled out his FBI badge and held it up. “If there’s even a hint that he’s connected to my case—which there is—the FBI is officially getting involved.”
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Jack walked into the room where their prisoner was handcuffed to the metal frame of his hospital bed. The intended kill shot had missed its target and was going to leave a nasty scar, but at least he wasn’t going to die from it. Which Jack was thankful for. He also hoped that any pain medicine the man had been given wasn’t going to impede his memory or his judgment.
Jack sat down beside the bed. There was a bandage covering the spot where the bullet had struck and a bruise on Hwang’s cheek where Bree had managed to hit her target. After his day, the man was lucky to be alive.
“I’m FBI Special Agent Jack Shannon. We met out on the boat a couple hours ago after you kidnapped Detective Grayson.”
The man’s jaw twitched, but he just continued staring straight ahead.
“Here’s the thing,” Jack said. “You might believe, like you did earlier on the boat, that keeping silent is somehow going to make all of this go away, but you’re wrong. We know you shot the senator, and we know you kidnapped Aubrey Grayson. There’s no question about either of those. On top of that—you’re going to think this is humorous, or at the least a crazy coincidence—I’ve been looking for you in connection to a Chinese spy ring. So if I were to do a bit of calculating, I’d say that the charges that are about to be brought against you will probably add up to life in prison. Not to mention the fact that someone tried to assassinate you this morning. With all that against you, I’m not sure silence is your friend right now.”
Piercing black eyes stared straight ahead. “You don’t know anything.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I actually know quite a bit about you, believe it or not. I’ve just had trouble tracking you down. I know how you’ve been working to grow your government’s network of contacts in the US and how you’ve passed on hundreds of trade secrets of classified projects to your superiors.”
That got his attention.
“Surprised to hear that?” Jack asked. “You’re not as anonymous as you think you are. What I didn’t know—until this moment—was how to find you. But my lead paid off and here you are, handcuffed to a bed with the DA ready to charge you with both attempted murder and kidnapping, and I’m ready to add to the charges.”
“You’re lying.”
Jack moved directly into the man’s line of vision. “Your code name is Blackthroat, and your boss uses you to do his dirty work because he trusts you implicitly. You’re what we call a lackey. What I want to know is, why Aubrey Grayson?”
Hwang shook his head, but Jack didn’t miss the beads of sweat running along his forehead. “You’ve got it all wrong. I was out duck hunting, and I saw this girl. She stumbled and almost fell into the water. I was trying to get her help. I don’t know anything about the man who was shot.”
“And that nasty bruise on your cheek? How did you get that?”
“She fought me.”
“I’m not buying your story, and neither will the DA. So let’s cut to the chase.”
Hwang turned his head and caught Jack’s gaze. “Like I said, you don’t know anything. I was just an innocent bystander trying to help.”
“The problem with your story is that we have evidence that links you to the shooting. A bullet from your gun and gunpowder residue on your hands.”
“This is nothing more than a setup.”
“We both know that’s not true.” Jack stood up and leaned over the bed, letting a long silence fall between them. “You’ve got yourself in quite a lot of trouble. And if there is any chance at all of you spending even a day outside of prison before you die, now’s the time to start talking. I know a lot about you, but you’re not the one the FBI really wants. If you’ll agree to cooperate, I can see about getting you a deal.”
Hwang’s knuckles turned white where he was gripping the sheet. “I don’t need a deal.”
“Really? Because we also both know someone wants you dead. That was no accidental shot out there on the pier. That was an assassination attempt, and I’m assuming someone you work for wants you silenced. If they hadn’t missed, you wouldn’t be here, you’d be in the morgue. But we can always put you out there on the streets and see who comes for you again. You might not be so lucky the second time.”
Hwang tugged on his handcuff, clearly worried.
Jack had just found the man’s vulnerability.
Now he needed to find out how Senator McKenna and Bree were involved.
“Maybe I do need police protection.”
“Finally we agree on something. But you can’t possibly think I’m going to give you police protection without you giving me something. It doesn’t work that way. If I were you, I would seriously start thinking about my current situation and my need to start cooperating.”
Hwang drew in a slow breath and caught Jack’s gaze. “What do you want to know?”
“Two things to begin with. Who do you work for, and what did they pay you to do?”
“I was sent to grab her.”
Jack noted the evasion of question number one. “So the senator wasn’t the target?”
Hwang shook his head.
“Then why shoot him?”
“That wasn’t a part of the plan. She was alone at first. When I got into position, the senator showed up—except I didn’t know who he was. I knew the hunting day was about to start and thought no one would notice anything unusual. I just wanted to get the woman and get out.”
Jack felt his patience begin to ebb. “Explain. I need to know how she’s connected to all of this.”
“A few months ago, we discovered a problem with some of the intel we were buying from a certain asset. If you know the men I work for as much as you say you do, you’ll know as well that if you betray them, they’ll hunt you down and kill you.”
Jack worked to put things together, but nothing made sense. He could no more believe that Bree was involved with selling government secrets than the senator. And yet for some reason she was in the middle of all this.
“Our asset’s handler needed to confront him, so he set up a rendezvous like they had dozens of times before, but this time the asset didn’t show up.”
“And you were sent in to ensure he showed up.”
Hwang nodded. “If he intentionally double-crossed us . . .”
They’d hunt him down and kill him.
“What’s this asset’s name?”
Hwang hesitated.
“Do I have to remind you again that I’m your only friend right now?” Jack said.
“His name is Charles Ramsey. If he’s smart—and we know he is—he’ll have an escape route already charted.”
“Does he have a code name?”
“Junco.”
Jack frowned. That name had been on their list. And if he was planning to disappear, they needed to find him before he could. His options were limited, but if he had the right documents—a social security card or other form of ID—how hard would it be for someone who had spent years in intelligence to simply vanish? But at the moment, Jack was more interested in Bree.
“You still haven’t told me why Detective Grayson was your target.”
Hwang hesitated. “We needed something to, let’s say, persuade the asset to come to a meeting.”
Jack gripped the rails on the side of the bed and put his face inches from Hwang’s. “What does that have to do with Aubrey Grayson?”
Hwang laid back on his pillows. “We took her for leverage.”
A sick feeling spread in Jack’s stomach. “Why?”
“Aubrey Grayson is Charles Ramsey’s daughter.”