Critical Density

by Desiree Holt

  Stop it!

  There went her nipples again, hardening so much they were almost sore, and the pulse between her legs throbbed with an unfamiliar but insistent need. Crap! She slid a glance around the table to see if anyone was paying close attention to her, but luckily, they were all occupied. And they were working on her problem. Every so often, one of them would walk away from the table to make a call on his cell.

  She wanted to pinch herself to make sure this was all real. These four wealthy, macho men who could pick and choose their clients had chosen her. She watched and listened to them, again enormously relieved it had only taken Viper’s word for them to they’d do this. Whatever they ended up charging her, she’d find a way to pay it.

  She leaned close to Viper so she could whisper. “What are they all doing?”

  “Digging for information. Like I said, you learn in the SEALs that information is the key to everything. You’d better have it before you make a move. These guys know where to find a pebble under a rock in the middle of the earth, if there’s even a smell of it out on the internet, dark web and all. We’re going to take Lowden apart from the beginning and see just what there is about your latest project that has everyone getting their panties in a twist.”

  “Oh. Um, they can do that?”

  “They can do anything.” He winked and looked at everyone.

  “We all set?” Blaze asked. “Everyone else ready?”

  Viper glanced at Rocket. “Before we do that, Rocket, you need to get hold of Tom Hernandez. I tried to find out information on the fallout from Hannah’s disappearance but there wasn’t a sniff of it anywhere I looked. Of course, I pretty much figured there wouldn’t be. We need Tom’s connections.”

  “You want me to call him right now?”

  Viper nodded. “Let’s see what we can find out. The sooner the better, so we know what we’re dealing with.”

  Rocket pulled out his cell and punched a contact number. “Hey, Tom. It’s Rocket Man. Give me a call as soon as you get my message. Thanks.”

  “Not there?”

  Rocket shook his head. “I called his private cell. That reaches him everywhere. When I get a voice mail message on that, it means he’s really tied up. I’ll keep trying, though.”

  “Good. Okay. Who goes first with what you’ve got?”

  “I will.” Rocket leaned back in his chair. “First of all, Hannah, I started with you since you’re our client. Everything evolves from you and your situation. I did some research on your history, what there is of it, particularly your job, and I have to tell you, I am pretty much blown away. You have to be one of the smartest people I have ever met. That is some complicated job you have.”

  Her lips curved in a tentative smile. “I’ve been fascinated by electronics and avionics all my life, so it was a natural for me to study this. And I was lucky. I got a scholarship to Embry-Riddle.” She hated talking about herself, but she’d do anything if it helped her to get out of this situation.

  Rocket grinned. “Well, I’d take my hat off to you, if I wore one.”

  Viper took her hand and squeezed it, then looked around the table. “Can we get back to business, please?”

  “Just letting you know how devilishly smart your girl is,” Rocket teased. “Maybe too smart for you.”

  “Certainly more than too smart for you,” Viper snapped, then let out a slow breath. “Sorry. So, work?”

  Eagle tapped his keyboard. “Here’s the public story on Senator Mark Hegman, the victim. When I got your message, I dug into what I could find about him. Which, by the way, is a lot.”

  Viper glanced at it. “Good. Can you give me the Cliff Notes version?”

  “Mark Pruitt Hegman comes from a military family. Father, grandfather, two brothers. Father and grandfather both retired from the Army as generals. One brother was a Force Recon Marine, the other a SEAL. All highly decorated.”

  “And Mark is, what, the youngest? Not military? What’s the deal?”

  “He’s the middle son. Went to Annapolis. Entered the Navy as soon as he graduated.”

  “And?” Viper made a ‘come on’ motion with his hand.

  “And broke his leg the second week he was on active duty. In four places. Damage was so bad they gave him a medical discharge.”

  “Ouch.” Viper frowned. “Bet that didn’t sit too well with him.”

  “No doubt. Anyway, he got his shit together and went into politics. People love to vote for former military.” He grinned. “We’re all glamourous, didn’t you know?”

  Viper snorted. “I’ll be sure to put it on my resume. So then what?”

  “Well, it seems his major at Annapolis was political science, so he got himself a position at the Snellings Institute of Political Sciences.”

  “The think tank.”

  Blaze nodded. “He was theoretically researching political concepts, but I think he was being groomed to run for office. Two retired generals in the family carry a lot of weight out there. He also wrote a couple of books during this time that sold really well.” He tapped the keyboard. “The senior senator from their home state was getting ready to retire. That makes the junior senator the—”

  “Senior senator now.” Viper waved his hand. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it.”

  “Hey. You asked for the story? I’m telling it.” Blaze looked back at the screen. “So Hegman makes a run for it and wins in a landslide, thanks to a lot of pressure from a lot of people. And before he starts his freshman term, he marries Trish McCallan. Her family tree includes members of a rich and powerful family. What more does a man need to have success, right?”

  Viper frowned. “You saying Hegman bought his political positions?”

  “Not at all.” Blaze shrugged. “Just stating the facts. Like, here they are with an estate in Kentucky and a summer home on Chesapeake Bay. A fairytale marriage. Two perfect children. Worked his way up in a successful political career to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee. The military thinks he’s a god and half the population idolizes him because he holds hearings on people who may be skirting the law in some way with the military. He’s death on contractors he becomes suspicious of.”

  “For god’s sake. Has he also been nominated for sainthood?”

  Blaze shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Does it say if there was a particular hearing coming up? And who might be in the hot seat? Would that be reason enough for blowing him up? Here’s another question. How did whoever it was know he’d be alone in his house? Because according to what I dug up after your text, no one was there but him. Not one member of the house staff in sight. I mean, not even a housekeeper? Doesn’t that sound a little odd to you? If Senator Hegman was vacationing, would he do it alone?”

  “Don’t know.” Blaze shrugged. “I’d say we have a lot more research to do.”

  Rocket tapped the keys on his laptop. “I managed to dig up a list of all the contracts Lowden has completed since the company opened. At least the ones that are public knowledge.”

  Hannah stared at him, open-mouthed.

  “How did you do that? Eric Lowden is a fanatic about keeping everything secret, even the projects that have no confidentiality attached to them. There isn’t anyone besides him that has all the details of any project. It’s all on a need-to-know basis.”

  Viper grinned and winked at her. “Secrets of the black ops trade. But some of his contracts are government-related and those have to be open. And maybe some of his clients didn’t know they were supposed to hide things.” He nodded at Rocket. “Go on.”

  “So,” Rocket continued, “I went back to the beginning. It seems Eric Lowden came out of nowhere. I mean, virtually. He had worked as a technician at Bright Star Avionics and from what I can find, he was a satisfactory employee. Did his job. Not outstanding but not a problem, either. Good routine worker. Period.”

  Eagle frowned. “Doesn’t sound like the kind of guy to get involved in shady activities.”

  “Right. Only then, things changed
.” Rocket tapped a couple of keys on his laptop. “He quit his job at Bright Star and just disappeared off the face of the earth for a year. Literally. I couldn’t find a trace of him anywhere.” He paused and looked around the table. “Yet.”

  “A year?” Viper frowned. “Where did he go?”

  “Still looking for that.” Rocket clicked his keys again. “Then, suddenly, he opened Lowden Tactical in a top-notch facility, all the bells and whistles. He had a quality team and a stack of contracts. They’ve been going full tilt since then.”

  “How did he get the government contracts?” Viper asked. “They aren’t so easy to come by unless you have the right connections.”

  “We all know there’s a bidding process that’s supposed to be open and aboveboard. But every single one of us is also aware that there’s a lot more that goes on beneath the surface. He obviously has the connections, but no one knows who or what they are.”

  “I know about the government contracts,” Hannah told them. “The one that literally exploded in my face was one, although it was part of a black op. The objective was to blow up a terrorist leader hiding in this country. So I’m not sure how open that one would be.”

  “Not much if at all,” Rocket said. “How many times have you read online or heard in the news about funny business with government contracts that only came out because something fell apart? On the surface it looks smooth, but we don’t know what went on behind closed doors or what money or favors changed hands.”

  “It’s obvious,” Eagle suggested, “that, accident or deliberate event, Hannah was targeted as the fall guy for this. If someone wanted Hegman out of the way, they’d have to figure out a way to get it done. A straight-out shooting would cause all kinds of stink and a shitload of cops, both state and federal, all over it, which is why they did it this way. Then, like we said before, stash her away until it’s safe to get rid of her and hide the body so it’s never found. Pass the rumor that she got a shitload of money for doing it and she’s living incognito in some tropical paradise.”

  “But I’m telling you,” Hannah insisted, “I check all the settings myself. I don’t know how on earth a mistake could have happened. Someone would have to believe me.”

  “Assuming you ever got to talk to anyone,” Blaze reminded her.

  “Maybe Lowden’s money man is behind it,” Eagle added. “The one who’s pulling the strings. Nobody gets as many lucrative contracts as he did without someone in a powerful position making it happen. There’re too many possibilities here. We have to narrow it all down. I read drone companies get all kinds of contracts.”

  Hannah nodded. “You’re right. We map property for real estate developers, do mineral surveys, check forest fires…you name it.” She nibbled on her thumb nail. “We did other stuff, too, but after what happened I’m not sure they were actually legit. They seemed to be, but…” Her voice trailed off.

  Blaze quirked an eyebrow. “What kind of other stuff?”

  “Getting video footage of military establishments, especially overseas. We were told the Defense Department needed it to plan their strategy, but now I wonder. Another project is checking miles of border, supposedly for human traffickers. But we had footage in there, too, of vehicles that we were told were drug smugglers, although it was very hush-hush. And although I haunted the news sites, I never saw anything about big drug busts. There’s usually a major story about it if there is one.”

  “You’re right. That’s a great way to track your own drug shipments and stay out of the line of fire.” Viper typed something. “Guys, let’s make a note to see how far we can check on this stuff.”

  Hannah frowned. “But if the media never covered it or it didn’t make the business pages, how will you find out?”

  Rocket chuckled. “Don’t worry. We can find out anything.”

  “We also did a lot of military stuff.” Hannah couldn’t believe she was sharing all this, but these men—and Peyton, of course—gave her such a feeling of security and trust. Besides, if Lowden was skating the edge of legitimacy, they needed to be stopped. And her own situation cleared up. “Photographing facilities in other countries. Even getting video footage of some high-value targets. Twice we delivered explosives to terrorist camps. My group did, anyway. Maybe the others did, also.” She rubbed her cheek. “I always thought we were taking out terrorists who the military were targeting. It was a lot easier than sending in people who might get killed. But now…”

  “Now you’re rethinking it,” Viper finished for her.

  She nodded.

  “Did you get sent to a location off site for an operation very often?” Rocket asked.

  “Once I became part of a GO-Team I did,” Hannah answered. “Only the GO-Teams are sent off site. And it depended on what the situation was—if it was surveillance or carried a payload, and what the payload was. I did five off-site launches in the past two years. Otherwise, I worked from headquarters.”

  Viper exchanged glances with the others. “My guess,” he said, “is that there were payloads or assignments Lowden didn’t want broadcast company-wide. But I’d like to know why he didn’t want to monitor them himself.”

  “Wouldn’t it look suspicious if he handled any contracts himself?” Peyton asked. “Just sayin’.”

  “Probably,” Rocket agreed. “And the real purpose of the mission could be disguised.”

  “He had a setup in his office,” Hannah told him. “He was the only one with access to it. He could monitor there if he wanted to. And maybe he did, but we didn’t know it. He was pretty closemouthed.”

  Eagle leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. “Here’s what I’m thinking. This guy had a lot of contracts that he got under the table, whether from a government contact or someone else. Jobs he did not want to expose to a lot of scrutiny. Hannah, did he ever act funny about them in any way?”

  She shook her head. “He was kind of odd, anyway. He was always stressing how hush-hush the government and paramilitary contracts were, so I just figured they were mostly some kind of black ops jobs.” She took a minute to sip her drink and settle her thoughts. She didn’t at all like what was unraveling here as she took a close look at her job.

  “A logical assumption,” Viper agreed.

  She sighed, wishing she hadn’t been so trusting with this whole thing. “When I was hired, I got this big, long indoctrination on how everything at Lowden was confidential and it could cost me my job if I asked any questions except about the particular assignments.” She rubbed her forehead. “And I did all kinds of drone assignments—taking video footage, mapping areas, mapping underwater areas. I got a feeling some of the missions I flew were not necessarily on the up and up, but there was nothing I could put my finger on. I even delivered explosives a few times. I was told, just like this last one, that these missions had to be off-book. They were for the government, but fully sanctioned.”

  No one said anything for a long moment. Hannah could almost hear the gears in their brains turning.

  “Listen, guys. If I’d had the least suspicion things were even slightly off kilter I’d never have taken the job. I certainly wouldn’t—”

  “Ssh, ssh.” Viper pressed a finger gently to her lips. “It’s all good. You had no way of knowing anything. You got hired for a great job because you had the creds—”

  “And was terminally unobservant,” she interrupted, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

  “Hannah.” Rocket leaned forward so he was closer to her. “Why would you even think there was something wrong to observe? No, please. Do not beat yourself up about this.”

  “He’s right.” Peyton smiled at her. “I don’t know a lot about drone pilots, although I did a little research for one of my books. Hannah, I have to say, your knowledge and abilities blow my mind. That’s a complicated job you have.”

  Hannah shrugged, even as she was warmed by Peyton’s tone of voice. “That’s very nice of you to say, but—”

  “But nothing.” Vi
per cut her off. “She’s absolutely right. They were damn lucky to have you at Lowden. Brains like yours don’t come along every day. Especially when they belong to someone who is really nice. Okay, guys, what’s next?”

  Eagle woke up his screen. “When something like this happens, it usually isn’t out of the blue. The fallout has to be managed, and the nature of it makes me think there’s something screwy about it. So I asked myself, what else is out of whack at Lowden? Do they have contracts that include funny business that they shovel under the table?”

  “What did you get?” Blaze asked.

  “I discounted the contracts Lowden’s got that can stand up to scrutiny and ward off questions. So then I dug around in his past, looking for squirrelly friends and connections. People he’d been involved with in any way that are, uh, let’s say, questionable. Jesus, the man’s got a list long enough to fill a small phone book. And from a lot of different sources.”

  Hannah tugged her bottom lip between her teeth. “I know Lowden has many different types of clients. I never interacted with any of them, though. He kept his clients away from the staff. All the deals were handled in his attorney’s office.”

  “So, you didn’t have clients touring the facility?” Eagle wanted to know. “Getting a feel for how things worked?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “And to tell you the truth, I don’t think any of us were concerned about it. We had our projects and those were what counted.”

  “I’m not surprised he kept his connections away from the facility,” Eagle told them. “He’s spent a lot of time with a strange mix of people. He’s got Washington elite on the one hand and some not-too-savory uber-wealthy people on the other. His clients are both domestic and international. We need to do a lot more digging, but that takes time, even with all of us on it. Want my off-the-cuff assessment?”

  Viper nodded. “I do.”

  “We can’t tackle all of them,” Eagle pointed out. “One of us has to focus on the Mark Hegman situation and the so-called contract for the drone to take out the terrorist.”