“Good work,” he said. “The next step is to make Lynx believe we’re running surveillance on you.”
I continued going to my office at MIT for several more days, each time tailed by either Edge, Grinder, or Rile.
“I want you to stick around here today,” Decker said, showing up at my apartment as I was getting ready to leave for Cambridge.
“What’s going on?”
“Matrix is in the city, and I’ve asked him to get Lynx and Dr. Charles back here.”
“This is it, then.” The plan was that once Emme returned from the Cape, Decker would set the stage for her to stumble on the evidence suggesting I was selling secrets to the Chinese.
“I’m also hearing chatter coming out of Beijing.”
“What kind of chatter?”
“My sources say an announcement is going to be made today regarding Saint and Dr. Benjamin.”
“Do you think they’re alive?”
“I haven’t heard otherwise.” He took a small earpiece out of his laptop bag and handed it to me.
“What’s this?”
“Ears.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed in the same way he often did when I asked a question about something he thought I should already know or understand. “I’ll signal you when we’re ready to set up the arrest. In the meantime, you’ll be able to follow along.”
I listened over the course of the next few hours as several things happened.
First, Decker sent me a message saying he’d been successful in replacing the reports Emme had taken with her to the Cape with the ones that held the code that would “prove” I was the mole. With that done, all that was left was furthering the setup of my arrest with Lynx, Emme, and her father.
“We have reason to believe Paxon Warrick has been gathering intelligence that he is selling to the Chinese,” I heard him say a few minutes later through the earpiece.
“He’s a double agent?” Emme asked.
“We believe so,” Decker answered.
“Lynx said this involves me somehow.”
“We need to be certain,” a voice that sounded like her father said. “In order for that to happen, we need you to return to your office.”
“To feed him specific information?” she asked.
This was news to me, and I didn’t like it. There was no reason Emme needed to be anywhere near MIT when my arrest took place.
“That’s right,” said the voice I assumed was her father. “Emme, you should know Lynx is not in favor of this.”
“Why not?”
“In order for this to work, the two of you will need to be alone,” I heard Lynx’s voice for the first time.
“We worked alone for weeks.”
The next thing I heard were several alerts going off on cell phones, including my own.
I walked over and turned on the television when I heard Decker say there was a press conference taking place.
The ticker on the bottom of the screen said, “Breaking News/Special Report,” and the headline at the top of the screen read, “Two Americans and two Brits arrested in China, sentenced to death on drug-trafficking charges.” There, on the dais to the side of the podium where a Chinese official stood, were Dr. Adam Benjamin and Niven St. Thomas. Next to them stood two other men—both I recognized as CIA agents I’d worked with on past missions.
I continued to listen as Decker made arrangements for a team to immediately mobilize to Beijing. He would not be part of that team as originally planned since he was needed here to facilitate my arrest.
Lynx, Rile, Grinder, and Edge were set to be dispatched to China along with Buster Stevens. The ambassador would be accompanying them under the auspice of further negotiation, rather than the planned extraction. Buster’s job would be to insist he and the UK ambassador meet with the prisoners to confirm their health and well-being before making the deal to meet the Chinese demands. By the end of that meeting, the Invincibles team would have the prisoners’ extraction set up and ready to execute.
I’d seen missions like this happen dozens of times. I just prayed that whoever the real mole was, wasn’t privy to the details of the op and that the agents involved all made it out alive.
I was making myself dinner when I received another text from Decker, alerting me of a meeting he was about to have with Emme and her father.
“Decker, do you want to fill Emme in on what you’ve uncovered?” I heard Matrix say.
“As you know, US intelligence—the CIA specifically—has suffered major setbacks in China. The agency has been convinced there was a mole feeding information to Chinese intelligence officers,” Deck told her.
“And you suspect Paxon?”
“More than suspect, Emme,” said her father.
“While it wasn’t his original mission, Saint was also investigating Irish, based on information he was given by Dr. Benjamin.”
“Dr. Benjamin? You think he left proof. That’s why Paxon has been at MIT even though I haven’t. It’s also why he didn’t want me to return last week.”
Having to listen to the sadness in her voice was the hardest part of this plan. I wanted to take the earpiece out, but I knew I couldn’t. If she and her dad didn’t find the evidence on their own tonight, I’d be forced to lead her to it at MIT tomorrow.
“There’s more,” said her father.
“What?”
“There’s evidence suggesting that Irish may have had a hand in Saint’s and Benjamin’s disappearances.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Two things,” said Decker. “First, find the evidence Dr. Benjamin left, and then lead Paxon to the remaining evidence we planted.”
“Wait. You don’t have Benjamin’s evidence already?”
“No. I have enough on Irish without it, but finding it would give us the names of the people he’s been working with.”
“You don’t think Irish knows where it is?” she asked.
“Even if he did, it’s unlikely he’d know what he was looking at,” said Deck.
“It’s in code,” she gasped, picking up the second to last bread crumb we’d left for her.
“Do you want to go to MIT tonight?” her father asked.
“That won’t be necessary,” I heard her answer. “I have what we’re looking for at my apartment.”
That was it. Everything Decker
