ran into a couple of friends while you guys were off globetrotting.”
“Oh, yeah?” Gabe asked. “Anyone we know?”
“Not in the flesh. I was able to get a name out of one of them. I’ve had Ethan doing a little background check for me, and I think you’ll be interested in seeing what we’ve found.”
“Let’s go then. I’ll put my stuff away and meet you at Ethan’s.”
“I’ll take it,” Grace said, grabbing the black bag he carried. “I’ve got to take mine anyway. See you in a few minutes.”
Jack waited until she got on the elevator before he spoke. “Things seem a little easier between the two of you. I’m glad to see you scratched your itch. It’s not so obvious now.”
“I wouldn’t say things are easier between us,” Gabe said. “We’re still feeling our way. There are a lot of things we have to work through.”
They waited for the elevator to come back down and got on, hitting the button for the third floor, where Ethan’s apartment was.
“Just be patient, my friend. At least she still loves you.” Jack knew better than anyone what it felt like to love and have that love thrown back unwanted. If Grace still loved Gabe, then Gabe was sure to come out on top.
“I want you to keep an eye on Grace,” Gabe said. “I’m worried about her. Really worried.”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. But I don’t want to be waist deep in shit while we’re in Iran and have to worry about her too. Just stay close to her if I’m not around. She might need you.”
“Is it her health? Her personality has changed a bit. She’s harder than she was, and not as easy to laugh. She’s not hiding her feelings as well as she once did, either, but I haven’t noticed anything alarming.”
“She’s holding on by a thread. She’s got a lot of guilt inside. And I have a feeling she hasn’t really given herself the chance to grieve.”
“We can’t take her on a mission like that, Gabe. You, of all people, know it as well as I do. She’ll be a liability to all of us.”
“She needs to go, and I need to have her there. All I’m asking is that you keep an eye on her.”
Jack shook his head as the elevator doors opened and they stepped out. “I hope you’re not making a mistake, my friend. But I’ve got your back.
“You guys have good timing,” Ethan called out as they walked through his door. “Here’s our man.”
Ethan sat behind a black, U-shaped console that dominated the middle of the room. Every part of Ethan’s computer system was built into the console, and as Jack got closer, he could see what looked like five or six separate screens underneath the clear surface of the desktop. Ethan’s fingers flitted across the surface of the desk with ridiculous speed, so he looked like some sort of mad scientist, moving and shifting pieces of information from one location to the other with just a touch of his finger.
The first wall screen displayed an image of a man Jack didn’t know, but he recognized the type. He was tall and broad shouldered. Lots of muscle. His hair was buzzed short in the picture, and his eyes were muddy brown and mean. He looked like a SEAL at first glance, and the thought gave Jack a bit of unease that one of his brothers could be involved in this.
“Definitely has a military background by the looks of him.”
“You’d be right,” Ethan said. “Shawn Kimball was USMC Force Recon with two tours of duty under his belt before he retired. Sniper specialty. He was then recruited by Uncle Sam.”
“You’re shitting me,” Gabe said. “He was CIA?”
“It’s buried deep, but it’s there. He didn’t do as good of a job at wiping his records as you did.”
Jack whacked Ethan on the back of the head for admitting to Gabe that he’d been trying to poke through his classified files. The kid definitely suffered from foot-in-mouth disease.
Ethan rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry,” he said to Gabe. “I was curious.”
“Right. So where is Kimball now?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. Actually, it’s the twenty-million-dollar question. Kimball went rogue in the middle of a mission to intercept millions of dollars worth of museum-quality jewels from the Russian Federation while on their way to China. No one’s seen Kimball or the jewels since. But I found his Swiss bank account and another in the Caymans that both have tidy sums in them.”
“So we can assume that Kimball is now for hire,” Jack said. “A man who has those kinds of talents is dangerous out on his own.”
“Who’s paying his bills now?” Gabe asked. “Any luck with that?”
“Kind of.” Ethan fingers tapped another pattern across the desktop and another screen came up on the wall. “The Munich Exchange has made several deposits in his Swiss account. On the surface it looks like a Wall Street brokerage firm. They have dealings worldwide and offices in just about every major trading center. No CEO of record, though. The Munich Exchange is owned by the Darwin Corporation, which is owned by Fuhrer International. I can’t find a common name or a figurehead that pieces all of them together. But when you put all three of these companies into the computer, this is what comes up.”
Jack let out a long, low whistle. Someone had an intense fascination with Hitler. A surge of adrenaline hit his bloodstream and got his heart pumping. That was a cocky mistake for their enemy to make. They were close to finding the bastard. He could feel it.
Gabe leaned around Ethan and began scrolling through the information with a practiced hand. “Ethan, I want a full background check on every scientist involved with the original Passover Project. I want to know everything about them, down to what kind of toothpaste they used and every relative they had, no matter how distant.”
Ethan blew out a breath and scrubbed his hands through his hair. “Just so you know, that’s a massive undertaking. Even for me. It could take weeks to put all of it together.”
“Then you’d better get started. Pull Kimball back up.”
Ethan did as he was told, and Jack watched Gabe, wondering what his friend saw that none of the rest of them did. Gabe had a mind like a computer and could put pieces of the puzzle together better than anyone he knew.
“Something about him—” Gabe broke off, shaking his head. “If we’ve ever met, he was obviously in deep cover. Who was Kimball’s handler at the CIA?” Gabe asked.
“Let’s see.” Ethan’s finger flew across the desk as he hacked his way into CIA files. He whistled tunelessly under his breath as he worked, and the computer screen filled with jumbled numbers and letters before it cleared into an understandable language.
“It looks like Assistant Deputy Director Derrick Kyle with Weapons Intelligence.”
“Pull up Kyle’s file.”
Ethan worked more magic, and Derrick Kyle’s bio popped up on the big screen with a full-color photo.
“Now that’s a face I do know,” Gabe said. “He’s changed the shape of his face and hairline, but the eye shape is the same. Frank Bennett told me there was another plant in Tussad’s organization. I didn’t know who he was, but I suspected it was a man named Umar Salleh, also known as Derrick Kyle. He’d been undercover a couple of years already before I joined the op, but he gave himself away with little things. I wasn’t there six months before I had him pegged for an agent.”
“Tussad. That’s the guy you asked me about earlier. I did some research while you and Grace were gone. He’s one badass motherfucker.” Ethan’s brain caught up with the words that were coming out of his mouth, and his eyes widened. “Holy shit, you worked undercover for Kamir Tussad? And now you’re actively searching for him? You’re going to get us all killed.”
“Focus, Ethan,” Jack said, smacking him on the back of the head again. “One cluster fuck at a time.”
Ethan scowled and rubbed the back of his head. “Someday, Jack, you’re going to be sorry you ever messed with me.”
“I’m shaking, kid. It looks like you weren’t the only one who figured Kyle out, Gabe. He was shipped back to the U.S. in teeny-tiny pieces. Tussad practically gift wrapped the box before mailing it to Langley.”
“He was killed just before—” Gabe shook his head, clearing the thoughts that bombarded him. Ethan stared at him with curiosity, and Jack put his hand on Gabe’s shoulder, either in warning or comfort.
“Someone sold Kyle out,” Gabe finally said. “The way this all connects is making my skin crawl. I’m right in
