We wind down a long corridor, into a room, then through the back of what looks like a cupboard which has a false door that Ghost opens with a code and thumbprint.
“Wow, you don’t do things by half, do you!” My voice is a little louder than I meant as the door closes behind us. “It looks like you could protect the whole country from this room.”
“I could.” He doesn’t even hesitate with his reply.
In front of me is a wall of screens, monitors, different computers. There’s a secured gun cabinet, but I can see through its clear doors that there’s enough weaponry in there to keep the army in supply. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but still.
“Shit, how did you afford to do all this? High tech like this doesn’t come cheap,” I ask, wandering around the room, really taking it all in. I feel calmer that I can see the security feed of the girls playing in the living room, Ace and Bandit both curled up on the floor with my girl. What is it about her and dogs?
“A grandfather who left me a big nest egg and a family of leeches I didn’t trust, so I moved the money offshore, which came in very handy when I needed to go to ground. I invest wisely, and it keeps us comfortable.”
“If this is comfortable, I’d hate to see extravagant.” We both laugh, and it breaks the tension of why we’re in his control room.
“Time to get to work so we don’t have to be away from those two for too long, and I’m sure you are more than ready to get Asha to the cabin alone.” He winks at me as he takes a seat in front of his computers.
“Don’t even go there, I need to concentrate. Tell me what’s been happening while I was in the air and driving here.”
“I think you’re right about Hawk. We’ve been misjudging him. He has told me everything he knows, including everything from the night of the car bomb. He was under instructions from Oscar that night, who took over from Davina. She originally had Hawk following you, but Oscar switched her to working with instructing Rocco in one of the other cars and Oscar took over you and Hawk. He then had Hawk going a completely different direction, which turns out was away from where you were. It was never investigated, and Hawk was told to stay quiet because the agency didn’t want a big thing made that the clients died on their watch.”
Computer screens around the room were lighting up with timelines and maps.
“Fucking assholes, how dare they play with people’s lives like this.” Guilt starts creeping in for the way I’ve been treating Hawk, when he’s been used as a pawn in their game.
“Is Hawk okay? What happened with Davina after he reported he lost Asha?”
“Fireworks, as we would expect, but something interesting out of it all. I’ve hacked into the database, which is infuriating that I was able to, but that’s another issue entirely. Anyway, there is still nothing recorded about Asha being moved, missing, or being with you anywhere in her file. In fact, Davina logged in the system at six thirty-five this morning and reported that last night there were no incidents and all is normal this morning.”
I can’t sit still, so I’m up and pacing, more like stomping around the room. Asha trusted them with her life, and they have done nothing more than tried to put her in the danger zone.
“Why the fuck have they waited until now to try to get rid of her? They’ve had years to do it, so why at the last minute, why now?” I slam my fist on the desk, knowing this room will be soundproof, but I just can’t hold back any longer.
“No proof of that yet, but my guess is that the court date is soon, and they wanted her to disappear just before court, so the star witness doesn’t appear, and the case becomes as weak as piss and Rusty and the others get off.” The mugshots appearing on the screen of the men who were there that night have every hair on my body standing up and pure rage racing through my body like a freight train. I hone in on Rusty’s hair, slick and greasy, a face that has been weathered, probably by the amount of smoking and alcohol he has consumed, and dark seedy eyes that are almost black in color. He doesn’t look like he has one ounce of goodness in that rough face.
I’m not a violent man, yet the feelings that these faces are bringing are not ones a peaceful man would be thinking.
“What do we know about them in the last few days?” I growl through gritted teeth.
“They are all being held in the same prison, which to me makes no sense. My sources tell me there is talk among the inmates about overhearing the plans to get rid of the witness and that their people inside the system will have them off the charges and out on technicalities in the next few days.”
This whole thing is total bullshit.
We work for the agency to protect the victims because it’s not safe for them to live in the public, not to help the scum of the earth get to them and do what we are trying to prevent.
“Fuck!” I run my hands through my hair and grab the back of my head.
I want to put my fist through the screens showing the smug grins of men who knew the charges were never going to stick. The whole WITSEC plan for Asha has been a sham.
I shake my head. “I don’t have the resources to fight something this big or beat the connections that they have. I’d be fighting a silent enemy solo.”
“Bullshit, you won’t be fighting them solo. Who the fuck has been here every step of the way? Don’t you
