Littleton slapped Hawk on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll survive the rest of the day, and no one will be the wiser.”
“You’re probably right, sir,” Hawk said as he watched the engineer slip into his coat.
Littleton inspected his coat once more and then strode toward the door—and the flash drive was still nowhere to be seen.
“Almost there,” Carson said into the coms. “Stall him for ten more seconds, Hawk.”
“Sir, just a moment,” Hawk said as he walked across the room after Littleton. “You forgot something.”
Littleton placed his hand on the door before stopping and turning. “What is it, Tex?”
Hawk’s mind went into overdrive as he tried to concoct a reason to stop Littleton from exiting the restroom.
“Your pocket square, sir,” Hawk said. “It’s a little crooked.”
Carson flushed the toilet and emerged from the stall. He seamlessly slipped the device into Hawk’s hand, which he held behind his back.
Then Hawk approached Littleton and stood eye to eye with the engineer before taking his jacket by the lapels and easing the flash drive back into the coat pocket. Hawk pulled Littleton’s blazer taut before brushing off a piece of lint on his right shoulder.
“Now you’ll be able to survive the day—and maybe get a second date, too, if you so wish,” Hawk said.
“Thanks,” Littleton said before he spun and exited.
When the door fell shut, Hawk exhaled and turned toward Carson. “What the hell was that?”
“You thought plan B was going to run smoothly after our first idea bombed?” Carson asked.
“I never anticipate everything going as planned, but I thought they brought you on because you were some computer genius and could crack any encryption in a matter of seconds.”
“Perhaps my skills were oversold a little bit.”
Hawk shook his head. “That almost cost us this operation. And we can’t be setting off alarm bells when we’re in this deep.”
“Just relax, will ya? It all worked out.”
Hawk set his jaw and clenched his fist. For a moment, he contemplated punching Carson.
“Do better next time,” Hawk said. “We don’t have the margins to be screwing around here. Every other scenario that could’ve happened would’ve torpedoed this mission, especially our chances of digging deeper into what Orlovsky is up to.”
While Hawk and Alex had earlier retrieved a list of clients from Orlovsky’s computer, specific information about who exactly some of the people were and how to contact them were unclear. However, the CIA recognized they had an opportunity to embed a virus onto Orlovsky’s computer that would create backdoor access. Hawk pleaded with Phoenix Foundation director J.D. Blunt to let Alex join them, but he deferred to the CIA, who had assumed command of the operation. With Carson’s near flub, Hawk hoped that would be worthy ammunition to convince the agency that his wife was the best operative with extraordinary skills when it came to computers and various other forms of electronics.
Carson met Hawk’s gaze and locked there for a moment. Nothing was said, but it was clear that the CIA’s darling didn’t like getting called out for sloppy work.
“Let’s get upstairs,” Carson said. “They’re going to make the exchange soon if everything is going well.”
Hawk followed Carson out of the restroom and down a long hallway before taking the stairwell up to the fifth floor. Once they entered their room and shut the door, Carson held up his index finger, signaling for Hawk to be silent. Carson walked across the room and picked up a gray box about the size of a matchbox and flipped a switch.
“Please speak freely,” Carson said.
“I thought I already was,” Hawk fired back.
“Look, I get it. I know you’re upset that we barely were able to get the device back into Littleton’s pocket in time, but we did,” Carson said. “So just chill out. I may not have been your first choice, but we got the job done.”
“It’s not over yet,” Hawk said as he settled onto the foot of the bed in front of several monitors that Carson set up on the dresser. “Littleton still has to go through with it. And I’m not sure he has the stomach for it.”
Carson raised his eyebrows. “You get a soft spot for that traitor all of a sudden just because he said some nice things about Texas?”
“Just call it a hunch,” Hawk said. “But even if he does go through with it, he should be easy to extract all the necessary information from once you capture him.”
“It’s your job to capture him,” Carson said with a snarl.
“My job is to make sure you don’t screw up again. Now, once this transaction is over, I’m going out. And I expect you to snatch Littleton to ensure he doesn’t get away.”
“You’re going to just abandon me here?” Carson asked, his voice sliding up an octave every few words.
“We discussed this earlier,” Hawk said. “I have somewhere to be.”
“Does your wife know about this?” Carson asked. “I can just turn our coms back on.”
Hawk wagged his index finger at Carson. “You might get to call the shots when you’re with the agency, but not here. I suggest you shut your mouth if you know what’s good for you.”
The two men sat in silence for the next fifteen minutes while Carson pounded out a few commands on his keyboard. The monitors came to life, showing an empty hotel room.
“Are you sure they’re going to make the exchange here?” Carson asked.
Hawk nodded. “That’s the intelligence we received.”
“I hope it’s right. Otherwise, we’re screwed.”
“Just keep watching. He’ll be there.”
While posing as a member of the hotel staff, Hawk discovered what room Carson’s contact was staying in, which was the room next door to Orlovsky. After gaining access, Hawk had used some of the CIA’s most advanced surveillance technology to set up undetectable cameras everywhere.
“Let’s bring Alex back in on this and see if she can be of any assistance,” Carson said.
Hawk didn’t mind. In fact, he preferred that someone else be listening to the kind of inane banter
