“Not sure, but just before the last guard entered the sanctuary, I heard him call in for back-up. I heard him say that ten minutes was too long, but he and York would try to hold you until they got here. That was eight minutes and fifteen seconds ago.”
The two of them crawled out the same windows they had entered as they heard the sirens and screeching tires in the front of the church. They stayed low, climbed back down the wall, and were in the boat before anyone else saw them.
27
Back at the Johnson place, Sin sat in the library watching Charlie try to play the video they downloaded from the studio.
He banged his fist on his desk in frustration. “They used some professional encryption software on the hard-drives and videos we found in the studio. It’s going to take time to break it.”
Sin sifted through the papers on her lap and waved him off unceremoniously. “You figured out the grassy knoll,” she said sarcastically, “you’ll figure this out.”
His shoulders slumped and he elicited a sigh, part in embarrassment, part because that was the one conspiracy that still ate at him.
Flipping through the transcripts from Heap’s office computer, Sin was getting more exasperated with each page. “This is all bullshit,” she said. “It’s just him sending out threatening emails to his underlings and kowtowing to his wife. Pussy.”
Charlie sat on the edge of his desk and pointed to the pile of papers. “Turn to the last page.”
As Sin read, her temperature rose. “Veloz!” she screamed. “He’s talking about Veloz!”
Charlie put his arms out as if they would somehow stop Sin’s anger. “We don’t know that, it just mentions a contact in Nicaragua who is sending a shipment of girls.”
Sin threw the papers at Charlie. “Bullshit,” she yelled. “It talks about money—lots of money—changing hands. No one buys girls so they can come live in a fucking orphanage.”
“So what do you plan on doing,” Charlie said in frustration, “go after him?”
“Damn right!”
“That’s suicide!” Charlie yelled back. “I won’t let you go. I’ll have no part of it.”
“You’re not my goddamn father,” she poked his chest with her middle finger, “and I don’t need your permission to do anything.” She ran her hands through her hair, clenched her fists, and squeezed the roots. “Grr,” she shrieked. “Girls are dying all around us, and I’m getting nowhere in this sand flea of a frickin’ town. Veloz may not be the supplier, but I would damn well bet he knows who is.” She looked straight into Charlie’s eyes. “You said it yourself. They sent me on a suicide mission. Well, damn it, if I’m going out, I’m taking someone with me.”
Charlie pulled at his beard. “Sinclair, think about what you’re saying.”
“I’m tired of thinking,” she raged. “The time for thinking is over. It’s time for action.”
Charlie put his hands up. “I give up,” he said, “but I’m not letting you go alone. I’m coming with you.”
Sin’s heart rate began to descend as she paced the room. “I need you here, Charlie. If I promise not to go alone, will you help me?”
“Whose help are you going to get?”
“The same people who have helped keep me alive since I left the bureau.”
“Your unit? You think they will?”
“For Veloz? They’d sell their first born.” Sin thought about what she just said and cringed. “Bad analogy.”
Charlie held his arms out and Sin hugged him tight.
“We haven’t screamed at each other like that since you were sixteen,” he said.
“You always were the only person I could vent on who didn’t hate me afterward,” she sighed.
“There were others, Sinclair, you just didn’t give them a chance.”
Maybe that’s one of the reasons fate brought me back here, she thought.
For a while, they sat with a hot mug of coffee in each other’s company, yet in the depths of solitude.
Charlie broke the ‘Zen-like’ mood. “We need to talk about you.”
“What about me?”
“You know damn well, York will tell the authorities that you were the one who broke in.”
Sin’s expression turned somber.
Charlie’s eyebrows rose as if he had just thought of something.
“What?” Sin said.
“How the hell did they know you were there, yet they had no idea I was there?”
“I think that was a run on sentence,” Sin smirked. She then tapped her wrist. “The government mole was able to track my moves. Whoever the mole is, he or she was able to access my microchip.”
“We need to get you the hell out of dodge and contact Graham and Westcott.”
Sin sat, motionless, and tapped the ceramic mug with her nails.
“What are you thinking?” Charlie asked.
“We can’t contact anyone because we have no idea how deep the subterfuge runs.”
“Okay, but we still have you to deal with. What—”
Sin rubbed her wrist over the implant and bit her lip hard as a sly smile came over her.
“What are you thinking?” Charlie asked.
“I need to contact Dr. O’Rourke and then I will let you know if my plan has any merit.”
Charlie pulled a burn phone out of his desk drawer handed it to Sin.
An hour later, Dr. O’Rourke was sitting at the kitchen table listening to Sin’s story.
“So let me get this straight. You’re not a Sergeant but an FBI agent who was sent here to investigate the killing of other agents, and a possible sex ring involving girls from the orphanage.” Dr. O’Rourke’s voice rose as she spoke—an auditory cue of disbelief.
“That’s the gist if it,” Sin said. “I had been out of the country on assignment. When my superiors heard about my father, they knew they had the perfect ploy.”
“And,” Dr. O’Rourke continued, “they micro-chipped you so you could be followed like some dog?”
Sin stood and leaned in close to the doc. “I don’t appreciate the dog comment, but yeah, that’s about right.”
“And you want me to remove it,” Dr. O’Rourke looked around. “here—in a non-sterile environment?”
Sin took a deep, calming breath and sat back down. “Look, Deborah, I know I’m asking a lot from you, but before we talk about
