By noon tomorrow, I would be in the custody of federal agents and charged with several counts of conspiracy to spy for China.
“You okay?” Cope asked when he answered my call.
“Scared shitless, if you wanna know the truth.” There wasn’t anyone I’d admit that to other than Cope. Not even Decker.
“You can trust me.”
“That’s what I’m counting on.”
12
Flynn
Crested Butte, Colorado
September of Previous Year
“Goddamn commie bastard.” When my father slammed his fist on the coffee table, I rushed out of the kitchen.
“What?” I asked, drying my hands on a dishtowel.
He pointed at the screen. “Look.”
“CIA Officer Arrested for Conspiracy to Spy for China,” the news headline read as a man was led away in handcuffs. “Look!” I shouted the same word he had and rushed over to the screen. “That’s Buck!”
I watched as my brother moved through the crowd of reporters, escorting the man to the waiting vehicle. Right before getting in, the man who’d been arrested turned and, for a split second, looked straight into the camera. I put my hand on my heart as though I could feel his pain as my eyes looked into his.
My brother’s image flashed across the screen a few moments later, and even though he hadn’t looked at the camera, something in his expression, too, seemed off.
13
Irish
Richmond, Virginia
January
“What happened with the extraction?” I asked Cope when the guard, really Ink undercover, brought me to the visitation room of the Federal Detention Center in Richmond, Virginia. Before answering, he slowly walked the perimeter of the room.
“What are you doing?”
He put a finger to his lips.
“They got ’em out,” he said before sitting down.
“But?”
“Edge took a bullet in his arm. Last I heard, he was in surgery.”
“Is Lynx with him?”
Cope nodded. I couldn’t explain why that made me feel better, apart from the fact I knew their parents had been killed in a car accident when they were both still kids. From what I’d read, all they had were each other.
“How’s Emme?”
Cope sat back in his chair and drummed the table with his fingers. “Upset. By the way, we can talk freely.”
“Is that what the walk was about?”
Cope patted his shoulder, which didn’t mean jack shit to me. “You know Decker.”
“Back to Emme. Is she upset about Edge or me?”
“Worried about Edge. Mad at you. Incredulous that she didn’t realize what was going on under her nose.”
“That’s because it wasn’t going on.”
“I know that, but I can hardly admit it to her.”
Surely, if I had really been a double agent, Dr. Emerson Charles would’ve been the first to realize it.
“What else?”
“My dad has been asking a lot of questions.”
Cope’s father was the senior Senator from the State of Louisiana and the sitting chair of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“He’s suggesting the agency try harder to make a deal.”
“Has he come to you for help making that happen?”
“He brought it up, but I shut him down.”
“McTiernan?”
“He asked me to brief him but otherwise hasn’t said much.”
“My guess is he’s trying to determine your involvement.”
“I agree.”
Cope looked more tired than I remembered ever seeing him.
“If you’re worried about me, Ink and Rage won’t let anybody touch me.”
His eyes met mine. “Was this the right decision, Irish?”
“As long as you and Decker are holding up your end of the bargain.”
Cope shook his head, and I saw a glimmer of a smile. “Hard to believe Deck hasn’t gotten the whole thing figured out already.”
I knew what he meant, but I didn’t smile. Given Decker didn’t have any leads that I was aware of, this thing was buried deep by people who knew what they were doing and, more importantly, knew how not to get caught.
“Do you think it’s China?” he asked.
I’d thought of little else since I arrived here, and no, I didn’t think it was. “Maybe involved, but not acting alone.”
“I came to the same conclusion, but I’m curious to know why you did.”
“Mainly because I can’t come up with any reason why a few of the agents killed had nothing to do with Chinese ops, never set foot in mainland China or Hong Kong.”
“Who do you think is behind it, then?”
Only one entity made sense to me, and there was no way in hell I’d utter the words out loud.
“What about Dr. Benjamin? Do you think he’s involved?” he asked.
I shrugged. “No idea, but I have an equal distrust of Saint.”
“I’ll be back in a couple of days,” Cope said when Ink rapped on the door. “Hammer will be in tomorrow.”
“Hammer,” I muttered under my breath.
“Decker trusts him.”
“And yet he hasn’t told him the truth.”
“He will when he thinks the time is right.”
“In the meantime, he treats me like shit on his shoe.”
“Good for your cover.”
He might be right, but it was my soul I was more worried about. I thought I was prepared to handle whatever people like the Invincibles’ attorney hurled at me. What I hadn’t anticipated was the level of vehemence.
While my brain knew I was undercover, playing a role, the impact of others’ hatred had a physical effect on my body. I found myself nauseous and in pain frequently. If I were out on bail, something that wasn’t a possibility, I would do everything I could to find solace in the arms of a woman, which was even less likely than bail. My body craved the touch of another. I’d take any comfort at all. My pride, though, prevented me from asking for it. Even a simple hug from a man I considered my brother.
“Paxon?”
I looked up at Cope, who had his hand on the doorknob. “Can you do this?”
“Just get it done so I can get the fuck out of here.”
It seemed to take forever for my case to go to trial, and that was with the agency fast-tracking it.
In that time, I’d grown increasingly agitated and angry to
