Forsaken Duty (Red Team #9)(38)

“So you got involved in what my team was doing. Throwing us bones. Reeling us in.”

“I hoped I was helping,” Jax said. “I didn’t come to you directly because I thought at that point, you’d never believe me.”

“I probably wouldn’t have, since I thought you’d gone rogue. You know no former Red Teamers are allowed to go off grid,” Owen said.

Jax nodded. “Which was the inciting event, getting you all to come out to Wyoming.”

“Why didn’t you join my company?” Owen asked. “I offered you a spot.”

“Because more than year ago when you were putting it all together, I still thought you were dirty. I knew my dad was. And knowing he was a silent partner and that he’d helped you get set up with some lucrative contracts, I was convinced you were in bed with him. And you had Val with you, whose dad thought he was running some maniac game. From my perspective, it didn’t look good.”

“How is your dad in contact with the Omnis?” Owen asked.

“I think Roberta is an Omni.” Jax looked at Owen, then Addy. “I can’t prove this yet, but I believe she was involved with our mothers’ deaths. I don’t know how or why, but think about it. She murders my mom, then sets herself up to take her place. Then she has dad—the senator—vouch for her in that community…and just like that, she owns Dad. He can’t expose her without ruining himself.”

“But why take out my mom?” Owen asked.

Jax shrugged. “Maybe Roberta tried to work your dad over first. Maybe Jason did it to get your dad into the game. I don’t know. Just think about it. Your cousin Val’s mom died the same way Lion and Hope’s mom was murdered. Roberta got a foothold in my family after my mom’s death. Why wouldn’t your mom be in that same mix?”

God. Owen hadn’t seen that pattern. “Did you talk to my dad about this?”

“No. Not yet.”

“So your dad sold his daughter to the devil instead of owning his own crimes?” Owen asked.

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“I hope this can be proven, Wendell,” Addy said. “I’d like to have some justice.”

Jax nodded. “That’s what I’m working on.”

“You know, Dad told me he paid you to go away.” She said to Owen. “He said you were happily settled down with a wife and kids of your own. I didn’t believe it until he showed me a newspaper clipping of your wedding announcement. It was dated only a few months after I was taken.”

Owen shook his head. “Never happened. Never could happen.” Her eyes filled with tears. She nodded. He pulled her close again and looked at Jax. “So are you ready to bring our teams together to end this once and for all?”

“I don’t think it can be ended. The Neo-Omni network is too pervasive. But yes, I am ready for our teams to work together. First, though, I need to track your father down so I can get Addy some help.”

“Do you know who King is? Is it Val’s dad?”

Jax shrugged. “He could have been. Maybe he is. But instead of being the lead dog, he diversified. He let others in, forced others in, distributing the infrastructure…and the blame. He went a little crazy. He calls this a game. Sometimes it feels like it is, like we’re all just pieces on a game board, some evil Omni game of Life. Not sure he can ever be caught—or ended. He’ll just morph into another persona, making someone else take the fall. Plenty of fools on hand to do that.

“But while he’s been busy working his corner of hell, Edwards and others were building an empire. They’re the ones with the true power. They have the international connections. They’re behind the biological weapons. I’ve wondered sometimes if Edwards is King.”

Owen thought about that, thinking about its impact on the whole team. He’d never pegged Jason for such a wily kinda guy. Didn’t think he had the smarts. Or focus. Edwards, on the other hand, did. But if he was King, then that meant that Addy had been married to their worst enemy.

“How long has this been going on?” Owen asked.

“Decades. Jason was brought up in the inner sanctum of the Omni World Order. He liked the power his grandfather and father built after the end of the Second World War. By the time they bequeathed it to him, it was already a living, breathing fiend in need of a psychopath to run it. The Edwards have been in the Neo-Omni world for generations, too. From what I can tell, the Parkers and Edwards have been at odds for most of that time, fighting for power. Your dad is pushing back, forcing them to take some drastic measures to erase their footprints. And his search for the scientists behind the biological weapons is causing the Omnis to kill off their researchers…the only ones who could develop antidotes for the weapons they created.” He met Owen’s eyes. “I took you to draw your dad out.”

Owen grunted. “Finally, some honesty. Where is my dad?”

“I don’t know. I don’t communicate with him directly. Which is why I needed you.”

“How do you communicate with him?”

“Through Santo.”

Owen sat back in his seat. “Santo’s a piece of work.”

“We all are. We’re all fucking pawns in this game.”

“Santo was helping me,” Addy said.