You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(114)

Faith. She had to suck it the f*ck up, as Erin so lovingly put it, and have a little faith.

“I’m not going back to bed. I need to see Ace’s file. I don’t care how the hell we get it. I’ll pay the nastiest hacker in the world to figure out who wrote his recommendation.”

“I am the nastiest hacker in the world, thank you very much,” a voice from her left said. “Turn me around, babe. I believe Hermione is impugning my reputation.”

Simon turned his laptop and Chelsea Weston glared out at her from the screen.

“You know calling me Hermione isn’t an insult,” Phoebe explained. “She was kind of badass.”

“Yeah, well, she was also in a kid’s book, so there’s that.”

She wasn’t ever going to win with Chelsea. “What do you have on Ace?”

Even through the screen, she could see the way Chelsea flushed. “They’ve purged his records. I need something else. I need somewhere to look. The Internet’s a big f*cking place.”

“Politicians keep records.” She was taking a big step that would likely blow up in her face, but she had to do it. “I need you to hack into Senator Hank McDonald’s files.”

“Phoebe!” Ten put his phone down, staring at her in obvious shock. “You’re talking about a United States senator.”

And why wouldn’t he be shocked? She’d been the perfect little Agency soldier. She’d done everything she was told, with the singular exception of ignoring the kill order on Jesse Murdoch. She played everything by the book because that’s the way her father taught her. But this wasn’t her father’s Agency anymore and she wasn’t going to let a man she loved die because she couldn’t take a chance.

“On it.” Chelsea’s eyes lit up and her hands flew across the keys.

Simon shook his head and took a long breath as though he was used to worrying about the NSA showing up at his house.

“Phoebe, do you know what they’ll do to you?” Ten asked quietly.

“I don’t care. He’s involved, Ten. I can feel it. He’s the connection. He’s the line between Eli Nelson and Hani al Fareed and The Collective.”

“He’s also a goddamn United States senator with the kind of pull you can’t even imagine.” Ten put his hands on her shoulders. “This is the kind of thing that gets an operative killed.”

“Then what are we f*cking fighting for, Ten? He doesn’t get to use us. He doesn’t get to dishonor his vows and sell out his country. And as far as I can tell, we’re the only ones who can even try to stop him. If I’m right, he’s already cost me one husband. I won’t let him take another. I’ll take him down even if I have to go down with him.”

“Bingo. Son of a bitch has a file of recommendations,” Chelsea said. “Mostly it’s kids getting into military academies, but Ace Monroe is here. There’s no recommendation for the CIA job, but Ace’s father worked on McDonald’s campaign for Congress way back when. He wrote the recommendation that got Ace into the Air Force Academy. There’s your connection.” Chelsea winced. “He also has some e-mails to al Fareed. They date back years. He asks how al Fareed’s experiments are going. He knew what the f*cker was doing. Phoebe, I think you’re right. There’s nothing here that would hold up in a court of law, but when you put it together, there’s only one logical conclusion.”

Ten had gone a little pale, but he wasn’t arguing.

Hutch stood up. “Sir, I request permission to leave.”

Ten frowned. “Of course. The next plane home will be here in an hour.”

Theo moved in beside Hutch. “Me, too, sir. But Hutch isn’t talking about leaving the team or the operation.”

“No, sir,” Hutch agreed. “I’m not going anywhere but downstairs to where that motherf*cker is probably eating breakfast. I intend to lop off his dick and shove it down his throat.”

Theo nodded in agreement. “He sold out Ace. He sold out Murdoch. I don’t know why, and I don’t give a shit. He needs to be brought to justice. One way or another.”

Ten looked at his men. “Do you understand what this means? What you’re giving up? They won’t let this go lightly. We’ll be disavowed if we go after this man. He’s probably the very one who’s influencing the director to call us back. You don’t understand how bad this could get.”

“I’m in. So’s Case and so’s Mike and Boomer,” Theo said.

Hutch nodded. “I’m in and we’ve got Bear and Deke, too. They’re waiting to come over if we need them. Screw the Agency, Ten. We’re your team. We follow you. And hell, if it worked for the damn A-Team, I figure it’s good enough for me. Disavow me.”

They weren’t alone. Ten wasn’t alone.

He stepped forward and put his hand out, reaching for Theo, who grasped it. Theo shook Ten’s hand and then Ten hauled him in for a hug. They did the manly back beating thing and then Ten turned and brought Hutch in for the same.

He took a deep breath when he stepped back and he looked over at Phoebe. “All right, sister. He’s your man. This is your op. What do you want to do?”

“Erin, I need you to sweet talk Kamdar into lending us one of his men. There’s no way we get close to the senator, but I think Albertson knows everything he does. We need to get him up here and we need to find out what he knows.” She steeled herself. “By any means necessary.”