Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(61)

“It wasn’t me.”

“I know. I saw the body.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Whoever did this enjoyed it.”

And Rand did not relish taking a life. He understood the necessity, but it wasn’t something he wanted to do.

“How’s Sarah doing?”

“She’s shaken up, but holding it together.”

“Good. Make sure she doesn’t contact Irene.”

“Why?”

“I only have suspicions…”

“Tell me.”

“I’ll tell you when I see you.”

“I’ll meet you now.”

They set a spot and hung up. Rand hopped the metro, switched a few lines, circling back, taking a longer route than necessary before hitting the meet spot five minutes late.

…

It was time.

Mitch put one foot in front of the other, his stomach churning.

The hoops of getting Charlie back to the U.S. and into CIA custody were many and complicated. His estranged half-brother acted as the face of the whole thing, doing the bulk of arrangements to get the body on a cargo plane and lining up a funeral home to receive the remains. Due to the tricky nature of Charlie’s family, none of them wished to be involved with anything after delivering him to CIA custody, which was good for Mitch. In a way.

He placed his hand on the plastic bag, the coolness soaking through the glove.

Charlie was many things. A cold bastard. A quick student. Analytical. Competent in the field. No one could spin plates like Charlie. And now, Mitch was going to have to deny him his final rest. Because there was no way to lay out their plan without incriminating them both.

It’d begun as a few standard ops going sideways. Then they’d lost an asset. Little things began to add up. Mitch and Charlie had to admit their worst fear, that someone was selling them out. Likely someone from within the company. One of their own.

Charlie was so deeply imbedded in China that his employee records were some of the most highly classified documents. If someone sold him out, it meant they had the highest clearance level possible.

Mitch had begun to fear that Charlie would be next. There was no proof they had a leak, only speculation. Without hard evidence they could do nothing to protect Charlie. At least within normal operating procedure.

Over the years, Mitch had grown to see Charlie as one of his few friends, the people he could trust. He couldn’t let Charlie die in the field, stabbed in the back by a traitor.

So they’d made a plan. Mitch had taken Charlie’s dental and medical records and swapped them for fakes. If a mole wanted to point someone at Charlie, they’d have nothing but the wrong information on hand. The kicker now was that Mitch couldn’t come clean. He couldn’t tell anyone that the man on that slab was Charlie, despite the records not matching up, without putting himself under the microscope. There was still no proof that they had a leak.

There was no easy solution.

Mitch tugged the zipper back.

The medical examiner had already been over the body. The higher-ups would be buzzing about the lack of definite ID. The groundwork was laid.

He gulped down a breath and folded the sides of the bag aside—and stared into the face of a stranger.

That was not Charlie.

…

The spot was a stretch of deserted side street with no other pedestrians.

The hair on the back of Rand’s neck rose.

A car idled at the curb across the street. Someone stood at an office window overhead, talking on a phone. The car horn honked, and the passenger window rolled down.

Hector.

Rand glanced left, then right, and ducked across the street. He got in as the window rose, closing them into a tinted box of silence.

Hector didn’t offer a greeting. He stared straight ahead and started talking. “No one can accurately place Irene anywhere in the city for the last week. Since she last met with Sarah, she’s been MIA. Nothing on the books.”

“That’s unusual?”

“Yeah. Irene hasn’t taken that much time off in… It’s been long enough that this makes me second-guess what she’s up to.”

“Why?”

“Because something’s happening. Something’s up. And Irene is always around the office, sticking her nose into other people’s business, offering her opinion when no one wants it. I just don’t want your girl to get caught up in something.”

“Irene would have had the ability to put a tracker on Sarah.”

“She would have known where Sarah stashed the case.”

“She’d know the access codes to track them both.”

This was not looking good. Rand had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t relish the idea of telling Sarah the one person she’d thought she could trust to watch her back had sold her out.

“Come on, Noah’s waiting for us.” Hector shifted into drive. “Maybe he can tell us more about Irene.”

“He works for her?”

“Used to. Until he started operating Stateside and they moved him to me.”

“On a scale of one to ten, how crazy is Noah now?”

“Shit, he’s a fifteen.” Hector laughed.

Great. And this was the guy they wanted to trust with their lives?