“Where is she?” Dave asked, not missing a beat.
“She’s dead, Dave. I’m sorry.”
Dave’s lips twitched, the little tick betraying that he wasn’t as calm as he wanted to appear. “Dead how?” he uttered through his teeth.
“She killed herself. I was going to tell you after we’d questioned her, but… Dave, she was really unstable. I don’t think you would’ve gotten anything out of her. She wasn’t the one in charge.”
Dave blinked and cocked his head. “When did you find her?”
“Just last night,” Peter replied without missing a beat.
“Last night?” Dave repeated, looking for something, anything in Peter’s face.
“Yes.”
Nothing. Not a blink.
Dave’s eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms, holding Peter’s gaze. “I see. Is this what the briefing is about?”
“Not just that. Did Chad tell you about the tunnels?”
“What about them?”
“He didn’t? Well, we’ll go over everything we’ve got so far in a few minutes. I just wanted to tell you about Victoria without the others.”
Dave nodded, lips pursed. “It’s okay. Seems like I’m the last to know about everything anyway.” He walked out of the room before Peter could say another word.
The office was already full of people, and Dave took a seat, seething. The vile tangle of emotions that he’d been carrying inside for weeks had risen at Peter’s words and now simmered right under the surface. All he could do was keep a straight face and control his breathing.
The others sat tapping their feet and fingers as they waited for Marco and Skull. Chad locked eyes with him, his face still haggard, but his gaze bright now that Pain was sitting at his side once again. He raised a brow, probably wondering if Dave was okay, and Dave nodded ever so slightly before switching his gaze to Jane. She was expertly avoiding her sister’s unblinking glare, and Dave wondered if he’d be able to look so nonchalant while someone was trying to set him ablaze with their eyes like that.
The chatter in the room died down as Marco walked in and sat at Pain’s other side. Skull closed the door and strode to the head of the table. His large hand fell on Pain’s shoulder for a second, startling her out of her glaring, and he gave her a quick smile before taking a seat across from Rob, the two of them closest to Peter’s chair.
She nodded at him and ran her fingers through her hair, flattening it over her head for the hundredth time.
“Everyone here?” Peter said, coming out of his room with a stack of papers in hand. He tapped Rooney’s shoulder so he’d take off his headphones. “Good. Let’s keep it brief, just so you’re all up to speed.” He dropped the papers on his desk and paced along the table. “Actually, so the six of you are up to speed, after your trip and your…” he trailed off, looking at Pain.
“Death?” she offered.
Peter closed his eyes. Marco glowered at her. His arm moved under the table, and she flinched and cursed under her breath.
Peter used the commotion to reach out and ruffle her hair. “Good to have you back, pumpkin.”
He was already in his chair when she straightened her hair and glared at him, cheeks glowing red.
“We’ve had a major breakthrough just last night,” Peter said. “Before you left, we already had some data on the Commandos’ routes and also concluded that they’re nothing more than a private operation.”
“What about the base? Did you scope it out?” Pain asked.
“No. It was compromised by one of our allies, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Since they haven’t gone after the Commandos yet, it’s safe to say there was nothing helpful there.
“Anyway, just before you six left, we installed a few more cameras at the locations with the most sightings of the Commandos. It allowed us to follow them out of Brooklyn the night you returned, and then the whole… clusterfuck in Queens, plus we also got Victoria on tape, face and all.”
Pain perked up at that, and Dave swallowed down the disgust at the lies that were about to follow.
“Took us some time to find her, especially since Victoria isn’t her first name, but she really was ex-military, and she really did have a motive for doing this.”
“Was?” Chad asked, and everyone’s eyebrows rose.
Skull gave him a grave look, and Peter sighed. “We got her last night. Unfortunately, before we had a chance to get anything out of her, she slit her wrists down in the cells. All we know is that there’s someone else at the head of it all.”
“Da-a-amn…” Marco drawled, scratching his head.
Peter nodded with a grim face. “Last night, we discovered how the Commandos have been disappearing every time we tried to follow them. Chad and Marco followed one of them to a dead end and found a tunnel exit right there, one we haven’t used in a while. So we checked the other location, the one where you and Ryan lost a Commando, too?” Peter looked at Jane. “There was another manhole.” He paused, eyebrows raised as he waited for someone to speak up. “You need me to connect the dots for you?”
Dave nearly jumped out of his seat at the mention of the other manhole. He knew there was something else for him to cross-reference with the data he’d gotten from Rooney, but he’d completely forgotten about that night, about the jeep in the old warehouse and Marco getting tased.
He pushed it to the back of his head, filing it for later and returning his focus to the conversation.
“No way,” Phoenix said. “They’d never risk going in there.”
“That’s right.” Peter nodded. “Unless they knew for sure we were nowhere near
