Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(22)

A cold, hard set of eyes stared back at them from an image projected onto the wall.

Sarah swallowed.

The man in plaid.

“His name is Kim Young-sik, a known MSS agent who operates outside of North Korea. I imagine the other two men work for him. We lost track of Young-sik, but he’s not our main concern. This man is.”

The image of a man wearing a long business coat, hat, and sunglasses took Young-sik’s place.

“Oh, God,” Sarah whispered. She turned her hand in Rand’s hold and squeezed.

“Who is it?” Rand asked.

“No one really knows. The only alias we have for him is Zhang Wei, but chances are it’s only what he’s using now.” Mitch sat back in his chair, staring at the image.

“He has too many names.” Sarah glanced at Rand. “He’s something of a spook. A Chinese ghost story. If you do something the government doesn’t like, you’ll get a visit from the Silent Man.”

“How do you know that’s him?” Rand leaned forward, letting go of her hand, and peered at the screen.

“Because he doesn’t exist on any passenger manifest,” Mitch said. “The South Koreans are cooperating with us, but they lost sight of him and can’t place him on any flight in or out of the country.”

“He can’t just disappear. He has the briefcase, doesn’t he?” Sarah glanced between Mitch and Hector. That was the only logical line of thought.

“Yes.” Mitch flipped to another image of the same man carrying her briefcase.

“Shit.” Sarah pulled her feet up in the chair and leaned back. “But they can’t open it, that’s good, right?”

“That’s what we were hoping you could shine some light on.” Mitch turned, leaning forward. “Usually, Irene would be here and part of this, but she’s unavailable right now. We need you to run down the specs on the case.”

“Oh, uh, okay.” She’d always been told to never disclose the specs, but these men worked for the company. They needed to know, right? Still, divulging this much information went against what little training she had. “It’s biometric and infrared.”

“What?” Hector frowned.

“I have a lower than average body temperature. The theory is that I have to be alive to open the case.”

“Is it password enabled?” Mitch asked.

“Yes.”

“What’s the password?”

“I can’t tell you that.” She winced, but her instructions were clear. No one could know the password in case the biometric precaution could be circumvented.

“Tell me.” Mitch leaned forward, his kind gaze going hard.

“I can’t. Not even Irene knows the password.”

“Mitch, back off,” Hector said. He pushed off the wall and stepped into Sarah’s peripheral vision. He sank into the chair on Sarah’s other side, his hand braced on the conference table. “Sarah?”

All eyes were on her. She held the keys, but the problem was, they weren’t the kind she could hand over.

She shifted and Rand let go of her hand. “Telling you the password won’t do anything. Without me, no one can open the case.”

“And without the case, no one can contact our assets in Asia. You see why we need the password?” Mitch extended his hand across the table toward her.

“Then we need the briefcase back.” It sounded like such an easy task, yet Sarah had no illusions about how difficult that would be.

“It wouldn’t have been lost if you’d kept it on you, like you were supposed to.” Mitch sat back, his lips curled in a grimace.

“What?” Sarah frowned. “I followed protocol.”

“No, protocol is to never let the information out of your hands.” Mitch jabbed his finger against the table top.

“No, protocol is to secure the briefcase—then make the drop.” Sarah glanced between Rand and Hector. They were both looking at her funny.

“Goddamn it,” Mitch muttered.

“Let me see if I can’t find Irene.” Hector got to his feet.

Sarah desperately hoped they could get Irene on the phone or here in person to clear this up. She didn’t like the idea of telling them more, because what if what Rand said was right, and they had someone on their team working against them?

She wasn’t going to utter another word about the specs or the double-password system. They didn’t need to know more than what she’d already told them, which was that without her, the case was completely and totally secure.

…

“Hector? Hold up.” Rand jogged down the hall. The four-hour debriefing was one long, grueling practice in dodging punches. He wasn’t sure what Mitch or Hector were after, but they were sure as hell looking for something.

“You should get some rest. You look like shit.” Hector lumbered forward.

“When can I get back? Do we have any word on my assets?”

“MI6 is taking care of it, you know that.”

“Yeah, but they’re my people.”

“Not anymore.”

“Hector, please?” Rand stepped in front of his handler and stopped, forcing the giant of a man to halt in the middle of the empty hallway.

“We’ve got bigger problems than a couple of assets,” Hector said quietly.