Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(57)

Alex pushed his chair back and pulled out his own laptop. “How’d you get into that chat room?”

“Here,” Roxie said, grabbing his laptop and showing him. “All done.” She handed it back and went back to work.

Alex dug for the old posts. There hadn’t been five people, there had been seven in the group. Two were no longer active. “Who are you?”

“What?” Roxie asked.

“Sorry, I talk to myself when I work. I found two other people in the group who have been inactive for the past week. I’m following up on them.”

“Good. I didn’t have time to find the identities of everyone. I’m into Locke’s personal files. He’s not a good person, Alex. In fact, he’s very dangerous.”

“I figured . . .” Alex trailed off as his eyes narrowed. A few more threads and then he was in the rabbit hole. And when he finally came to the end, he just stared. “Oh crap.”



* * *



Dalton stepped back from the window of their penthouse overlooking CBL. There had been no sign of Locke. While there was a back entrance, they’d confirmed with the local food truck that Locke’s car service dropped him off at the front door most days. He looked at his watch. “Dude, it’s nine-forty. I thought Lizzy and Valeria would be back by now.” Grant punched Dalton hard in the shoulder. “What the fuck?”

“You just said dude. You’ve been around Alex too long. I thought to break you of the habit because I can’t be part of the group if two of you are duding it up. Speaking of Alex, I thought he should be back by now as well.”

Dalton heard the electric lock slide open on the front door. He and Grant turned to see who was back when the door was flung open and the sexiest little woman stumbled in with Alex practically falling over her. The two held open laptops and white faces.

“What is it?” Dalton asked as the familiar sense of dread hit him hard.

“We found the bombs,” Alex said quickly. “There were seven, now there are five. One bomb was confiscated in a soft run at the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the man killed. The other one was already used in DC to target Birch. The guy who had the bomb is the same CIA agent who tried to take Tate right after the bombing. He went silent after the bombing. Not because he was successful, but because he was dead,” Alex said so quickly Dalton didn’t have time to process it before the girl spoke.

“And Locke has one of the Russian suitcase bombs. Along with a combination of military, former military, and government agents in London, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Zurich.”

“Fuck,” Grant said softly. It was the same sentiment Dalton had.

“What are their targets?” Dalton asked.

“I think it’s the financial institutions,” Alex said with a little less confidence. “Roxie . . . um, this is Roxie. This is Dalton and Grant.”

“I know,” she smiled. “I read your records when I hacked Alex’s private message board you all use. Sorry,” she grinned in a proud way that Dalton knew meant she wasn’t the least bit sorry.

“Well, then I guess Alex has some work to do to make it more private.” Dalton glared at Alex.

“I already took care of it.” Roxie smiled tightly at the group as she looked back at her laptop.

“You are so awesome.” Alex sighed before his face went back to a look of deadly seriousness. “The report Thurmond made on the New York Stock Exchange combined with the failed attempt in China and the attempted hacking of the London Stock Exchange led us to look into it. Here are the men carrying the weapons. All of them are in a city with an international exchange. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“Alex, send everything to Birch and Humphrey. Text a picture of Locke to us as well. Grant, get hold of Lizzy and Valeria to fill them in. I’ll let Jason know. But when are they going to strike?”

“Fourteen hundred hours, but I don’t know what time zone,” Roxie said, nerves causing her voice to sound slightly strangled and her British accent thicker.

“Everyone is hitting at once?” Grant asked as he sent a text to Lizzy and Valeria.

“Yes,” Roxie answered. “They said they were going to move into position.”

“UTC,” Grant said tightly as he and Dalton cursed.

“What?” Alex asked.

“Coordinated universal time. Dammit, they’re attacking in seventeen minutes.”

Chaos ensued, but you would never know it. Grant and Dalton were two of a kind. The worse things got, the calmer they appeared. It was how they made life-and-death decisions. Grant sent follow-up texts before checking his weapons while Dalton tossed him a Kevlar vest and strapped one on as he filled Jason in.

“What can I do?” Roxie asked in near panic.

“Call in a bomb threat. Have your friends call them in at every exchange. Anything to get as many people out of the buildings as possible,” Dalton ordered as he strapped on his vest and guns.

“Can you freeze trading for the exchanges that are open?” Grant asked as he slipped his phone into his back pocket of his jeans.

“We’ll get the word out,” Alex told him as he and Roxie stood at the bar top with their laptops open and fingers flying.

“Wall Street is five blocks away. We need to move,” Dalton barked as he and Grant ran out the door with an extra gun and vest for Jason in hand.