Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (30 page)

Nick patted the doctor on the back. “It wasn’t your choice to get involved in all this. Even so, you are doing what you can to help fix it. That counts.”

Robert smiled weakly in gratitude.

“I’ll be back. Katie is upstairs and I want to see if she’s still sleeping or if she needs anything.” Nick got up and left the table.

Gage frowned as he watched his friend leave the room. Mikayla squeezed his hand. “He loves her.”

“I know. It’s just gonna take me a little bit longer to get used to them being together now.” During Gage and Mikayla’s break from reality they had been informed that Nick and Katie had their own sequestered hiatus together. At first Gage had wanted to kill his friend, but Mikayla had told him about Katie’s feelings for Nick and he had finally come to terms with everything. It was either let Katie suffer alone or let Nick, a man who loved her, help her through it. Gage had accepted it, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

“So, Katie’s upstairs. Trinity is downstairs. The evil doctor and his henchmen are now in LA, where I’m sure this Stryker is making them wish they were dead if he’s anything like you,” Gage said to the group, getting back to the issue at hand. “What now?”

“Now we figure out where the third facility is located in Denver and we take all three out at once. But first we need to figure out who the hell is running this operation. We figure he is either in control of the unknown location or at least is tied to it. According to our data this boss isn’t expecting contact until Saturday when he’s expecting Lynx to be delivered to him,” Slade explained.

“Well, he is going to be pretty fucking disappointed,” Gage snarled, furious even thinking about it.

“He is.”

Mikayla began tapping her fingers on the table as she thought everything through. She separated the parts of the operation in her head. Fundamentally, there were several issues that needed to be handled congruently. They needed to find and track the boss, take down the facilities, rescue the kidnapped women, figure out who the drugs had already been sold to, and find the stash of existing drugs.

“I know that look,” Tara said as she stared at Mikayla. “What do you have, Lynx?”

“Maybe we are going about this in the wrong way. We’ve assumed that tracking the boss will lead us to the third unknown location, but what if…”

“Ah,” Brett said, leaning back in his chair. “Not him…”

“But it…”

“And where it’s stored…”

“Exactly.”

“Fuck, I hate when you guys do that,” Adrian muttered. “Fucking binks…”

Gage looked around, utterly confused. “What the hell?”

“Bishop and Lynx sometimes speak in code,” Tara explained. “Our friend Finn calls their secret language ‘binks.’ It’s annoying, but they usually come up with some pretty brilliant shit.”

Mikayla smiled. “Sorry, I was just working it all out. If we can’t find the boss we should try to come at it from both ends. Track the sales. Figure out who it’s been sold to and where they got it.”

“You think the third location is a facility where the processed drugs are being stored. That’s why no one knows where it is,” Brett finished as Nick returned and sat back down.

“That makes sense.” Slade nodded slowly. “Henley was pissed when we hammered him to tell us the location. He was telling the truth when he said he didn’t know. Apparently he was caught trying to sell some of the product on his own and the boss made adjustments to the storage of the drugs shortly after that.”

“Why didn’t they just kill him?” Tara asked, confused.

“Harsh…” Lucian murmured.

“Yeah, but it makes more sense than keeping that jackass around if he was stealing from them.”

“Henley was the one who put together all of the key parts of the drug from all of the different scientists. He must have held back information from whoever is running this as insurance,” Slade said.

“He did. But he didn’t know that I was able to fill in the missing pieces because the foundation of the drug had been my idea,” Robert added.

“So you know how to recreate this shit?” Lucian didn’t seem very impressed by the notion. In fact, he looked downright disgusted instead.

“Yes, but I would never do it. Sin…I mean Commander Hamilton told me that I can work for you, for IAD, and I wouldn’t have to worry about someone trying to make me.”

“Ah, you’re using your genius Jedi powers for good now.” Tara smiled. “That cryo-fix stuff is amazing. I can’t believe how fast it healed Lynx.” Robert Ellis blushed at the praise.

“The Doc will be staying here at the training facility. He’s been working on Trinity and can be the resident doctor on site…if that is all right with Lynx since she will be running this division,” Sin said.

“Fine with me.”

“Okay…so, we track the sales and that will lead us to the asshole in charge?” Sebastian asked.

“How do we do that?” Nick asked. “Do we know who they sold the drugs to?”

“We’ve heard of three groups so far.”

“Shit…”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Why are we waiting? If we know two of the locations now then why not take them down? It’s a safe bet that someone from the other two will know where the third location is, right?”

“We can’t risk it,” Brett explained. “It sucks wide, I know, but if we take down the other two locations and don’t have the third, all of that product will poof. They could dump the stuff in a quick sale and we’ll end up with a shit storm of lust dust flooding the marketplace with no way to stop it.”

The horror of what Brett was explaining was clear on everyone’s face.

“I have an idea, but you aren’t going to like it,” Tara announced.

Julian sighed. “You seem to say that far too often.”

Tara patted his hand then focused on her commander. “I think we should ask Phoenix for help.”

“Fuck!”

“I said you wouldn’t like it…”

“That son of a bitch pisses me off. He hacks into our systems, taunts us then expects us to sit back and just accept the data he sends us?” Sin all but growled.

Tara winced. “I told you, you wouldn’t like it. But seriously, everything this Phoenix guy has told us has helped us. During our last mission he said he was leaving the message board operational in case we ever wanted to get in touch with him. If he can get into systems we can’t, why not use him? Sure, we’ll have our own people working on this, but why not use him too?”

“If he can track the sales for us we can figure out where the hell the third location is before the Saturday deadline,” Rock agreed.

Sin was silent as he thought about it. “Fine. Set up a message. And while you are at it, ask the bastard if he can give us the name of the asshole who is running this thing. If he can find that for us then maybe I won’t gut him when I find his ass.”

“I think it’s Arvan Kelner,” Mikayla said softly. “The guy in charge, I think it’s him.”

Adrian shook his head. “We checked him out. He’s clean, Lynx.”

“I know what you said, but he’s dirty. I know it.”

“If Lynx says he’s dirty then he probably is,” Brett agreed. “I wouldn’t bet against Lynx and her gut feelings.”

“True. Fine…I think a little surveillance on this asshole might help find something,” Adrian mused. “I think I’m going to go see what I see.”

“I’ll go with you,” Lucian offered.

“Good,” Sin said as he stood, taking command of the room. “Now I’m going to call some of my contacts to see if I can track the sales through underground channels. Dr. Ellis, if you could get back to working on that antidote and check on Trinity?”

“Of course.”

“Bishop, I want your team to tear that motherfucker’s life apart. Find me something. He has to have an alias buried. Hidden accounts. A network like this, he has to have ties somewhere. If Arvan Kelner is connected, find something.”

“Got it, boss.”

“T-rex, send a message to Phoenix. See if you can make contact.”

“Yes, sir.”

“ Lynx, you’re with me. We’re calling your uncle so he’ll stop driving me bat-shit.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Get to it, people. Tick-tock.” With that the others rose to follow his orders and Sin turned and left the room, cell phone in hand. Mikayla kissed Gage lightly then followed after her commander.

Julian slapped a hand on Gage’s shoulder after she had disappeared into the kitchen. “This might be a good time for us to talk.”

“Yeah? Sure. About what?”

“Brother, I’m gonna do you a huge favor and save you a whole lot of trouble.”

“How’re you going to do that?”

“I’m gonna tell you how to be a good house husband.”

Gage’s eyes narrowed. “What the—”

Julian laughed. “Okay, so the name was a joke, but the sentiment is the same. No matter how bad-ass you think you are, the truth is you’re nothing compared to the woman you love. You’ve just officially become a sidekick.”

“I’ve…what?” Gage sighed. “Shit…”

“Yeah, buddy. Welcome to the world of loving a spy.”

The waiting was always the hardest part of a mission.

When working an op, sometimes the action was only a small part of the whole. The legwork was what took the majority of the time. It could be slow and frustrating. Essentially, putting together an operation was a pain in the ass.

The IAD team had approximately two days to figure out who was in charge of the lust dust and kidnapping operation before whoever it was discovered that one of their locations had been taken out. The team had pulled out the stops, working the case as if it were a ticking bomb just waiting to go off.

Adrian and Lucian had taken off to do surveillance on Arvan Kelner. They would track him while digging into his life to find the evidence they needed to take him down. They ended up taking Sebastian with them since he knew the Denver area better than they did. Tara had posted on the secured message board, hoping that whoever Phoenix the hacker was he would respond.

Under the watchful eye of Sin, Robert was able to treat Trinity with a small dose of cryo-fix to help heal her wounds. The doctor had been worried as it had never been used on such extensive internal injuries, but the small doses around the stab wounds she had suffered had already begun to heal. They had put her into a deep sleep to ensure she wouldn’t react to the painful healing and now it was just a matter of time before she would be back on her feet.

The other agents had put countless hours into tracking down leads, with almost nothing new to show for it. They had been in contact with the Chicago and LA divisions of IAD, pooling their resources, but they still had no evidence as to who was running the lust-dust ring.

The only good news had come when FBI agents were able to track almost all of the girls David Henley and his men had sold based on the information they provided. The day Mikayla and Katie had been taken the men had sold five girls who had been on the lust dust for weeks. The men who had bought them were now in custody and the girls were safe, although a few of them were still suffering from the effects of the extensive and continued use of the lust dust.

Mikayla was still feeling the effects of the drugs so she had sympathy for what those girls were going through. She couldn’t even imagine how much worse it would have been for her if she hadn’t had Gage to help her through it or if she had been given more of the insidious concoction. Dr. Ellis was working hard on figuring out an antidote to combat the effects of the lust dust, but he still hadn’t found anything that could reverse the effects.

Frustrated they still didn’t have the answers they needed, Gage suggested they make use of the Starks’ gym to take the edge off. The Starks had cancelled all of their clients at the ranch for the rest of the week, wanting to be completely focused on helping the agents wherever they could. Brett and Sal agreed to stay back at the cabin with Sin and Dr. Ellis to continue working and to watch over Katie and Trinity.

The rest of them made the short trip over to the Stark ranch where they took an arsenal into the shooting range to shoot the shit out of some targets. Once they were there, Mikayla took the time to work with Dylan, showing him some pointers to improve his accuracy. As Gage watched them, he noted that she seemed to have a natural ability to draw out the best from the people she worked with. She was the perfect choice to head the new IAD training facility and rehab center that would be run at the cabin.

After their urge to shoot at things was satisfied the group moved into the gym. Slade and Nick took to the center of the boxing ring and put on an impressive performance. Tara, Julian, Rock, Dylan, Gage and Mikayla stood outside of the ring, watching the two men square off. The deputy held his own against Slade, not knowing that the IAD agent was pacing him.

Mikayla knew that Slade was using the technique he often did when teaching the new recruits. He was using a mixed style of fighting, alternating between letting Nick attack to putting him on the defensive simply to feeling out his strengths and weaknesses as they fought. She knew that Slade wasn’t trying to offend the other man. Actually, he was helping Nick, even if he didn’t know it.