Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries #11)(42)

“I found out about the memory drugs Hope McDonald was using,” Mia continued. “I read about it and then my brother Riley and I went through a bunch of holdings and properties that were connected to Kronberg Pharmaceuticals.”

“We did that, too,” Case admitted. “Liam thought they were based in Argentina for a while, but when he finally made it on the island where the base was, they were gone.”

Mia looked at him while she explained. “They don’t stay in one place for very long. I believe they originally were being funded by Kronberg, but at some point they cut ties with her. Likely around the time the Agency got interested in her. I’ve tracked her to three places in South America, each successively worse. She was hurting for cash. And that was when I heard about the Gringos.”

“The Gringos? The bank robbers?” Fain asked.

“I’ve never heard of them,” Case had to admit.

“I read a story about them. I try to keep up on international issues.” Fain leaned forward. “They’re a small group of bank robbers who’ve hit four banks so far. They’re quick and clean. The one time they met resistance, they put it down without killing anyone. They’re known for being almost military in their precision and they speak English to each other.”

He knew a lot about a group of South American bank robbers.

“I asked Tony what he knew and he hadn’t heard much. Then they hit bank number five in Cartagena. Tony knew I was interested in the Gringos so he tapped into the police network and found the photos from the CCTV cameras.” Mia looked to Case to continue the story.

He was kind of in awe of the way her brain worked. He was a soldier. He tended to follow orders or instincts. He’d been trained by Ten to see past the words in a report and to evaluate motivations, but she thought ahead of such things. She was like Liam. She had instincts he didn’t understand.

She was the brains and he was the brawn. He kind of liked that.

“At one point one of the three bank robbers takes off his mask and looks up at the camera.” He glanced back at Michael. “It was Theo.”

“Why would Theo not just get away?” Michael asked, obviously confused.

“It’s the drug.” Case had studied up on everything written about the time dilation drug Hope McDonald had been working on. According to Ten, it short circuited the neurons in the brain to make minutes feel like hours, and it also made whoever took it very susceptible to suggestion. It was how Hope was controlling his brother. “Ten struggled with it after a single dose. I can’t imagine what Theo’s been through. I only know that in that one moment, he knew he had to try to get a message out. He knew he had to do something. He might have sunk back into whatever persona Hope McDonald has trained him to have, but he was defying her then. He was telling me to come and get him.”

And Mia had brought him the message.

“So we’re going to talk to this Tony guy?” Hutch yawned. It was easy to see that explaining the truth had seriously calmed him down. “The one Ten said was such a pain in his ass.”

“This guy is CIA?” Fain asked.

“Ex.” He wished he could talk to Ten, but Ten wouldn’t listen to Mia. He would immediately call Ian. But damn he wished he could call him. Ten could tell him how to deal with Tony Santos. Hell, Ten might be able to tell him how to handle Mia because it was suddenly so important to handle Mia. She was important. “He left the Agency a couple of years ago according to what Hutch discovered.”

“He was unstable,” Hutch continued. “From what I can tell, a few years back he was captured by MSS and the CIA disavowed all knowledge of him. He spent a year in a Beijing prison before he managed to get out. I suspect Ten had something to do with that.”

Case wasn’t surprised. As much as Ten loved subterfuge, he cared more for his men. He would have worked hard to get his guy out, but things got complicated in a place like China when he couldn’t depend on the State Department.

Sometimes he was damn happy he’d gotten out when he did. He could have been that operative left behind by his country. He could have been asked to do things for his country no one should have to do. Working for Big Tag was simpler. His brother tried always to do the right thing, the honorable thing. Even when he had to make a hard call, he tried to mitigate the damages.

“Tony left the Agency and started to do odd jobs, as he called it,” Mia explained. “He moved to South America and that’s where I met him. He’s a hard guy to pin down, but he owes me a favor. He’s been following the case but he won’t talk unless it’s in person.”

In person and with Mia.

He needed to know everything he could about Tony Santos.

“He won’t talk to us,” Case explained. “Only Mia.”

“That’s why you won’t tell Ian,” Michael surmised. “He wouldn’t accept it. He would try to catch the f*cker and make him talk. Ian doesn’t know Mia. He wouldn’t trust her to get the intel.”

Yes, that was the problem. “We have to watch her but give her enough room that Tony doesn’t get spooked. If we don’t, we could lose Theo.”

Michael nodded. “I’m in. And by I’m in I mean I’m out because I won’t be able to walk for a couple of days. I’ll hole up and run communications with Hutch. You’ll take Fain as your backup and if he gets you killed…”