Dangerous in Action (Aegis Group Alpha Team, #2)

by Sidney Bristol

  There was nothing for him here. No reason to stay, except if Orlando wanted to check up on him.

  Yeah, right. The man had all but dismissed Robert.

  He got up and went to the hall closet, where he kept a bag ready. The story for Donna’s work would continue to hold water for some time. Everyone wished her well but didn’t want to overburden her. That meant there was time for Robert to figure out a way to turn this situation around, but he couldn’t do it from Epping.

  Orlando thought he was clever, and maybe he once had been. Grief and his plot for revenge had ruined his edge. He was distracted, overcome with his plans for getting back at his allies, and that was where Robert could do something. He’d need to make Orlando believe he was staying put and following orders though. That could be done easily enough. Route his cell phone through a variety of security channels to disguise his location. Time zones would be what might trip him up, so a schedule was in order.

  The first target was America. Always had been. It was where Orlando’s sister died, and it was where he’d want to strike. Both the FBI and CIA had people on the take for Orlando, but there were still good people he could work with. He had to get across the ocean first, and quietly. Or else it was Donna who would pay the price.

  Saturday. Tegel, Germany.

  “Make sure everyone is properly covered.” Orlando surveyed the crew responsible for moving the merchandise. This morning had been a disaster. “We don’t want another accident, understand?”

  At least there wouldn’t be much of a body to dispose of. The gas, in concentrated form, was more than lethal.

  “Carry on.”

  He took a step back and watched the six-man team load into the van.

  The problem with experimental weapons was that they didn’t always behave as they should. He’d built the holding facility to specifications and the men monitoring it had done everything according to the instructions Orlando had stolen. The problem must be with the chemical makeup of the weapon. It wasn’t quite stable. As long as it was contained in the same crates he’d stolen them in, they shouldn’t leak gas. But with one corner cracked...

  The plan had to be altered.

  Money wasn’t as important as seeing this through.

  He hadn’t undertaken an expensive heist just for the money. His margin of profit was narrow, no matter what happened. This was about revenge, plain and simple.

  Either he could offer to assist and call it the white glove service, or he could give up all pretense and do what he wanted.

  Orlando’s phone vibrated in his hand.

  He glanced at the name.

  Robert.

  Again.

  “What is it?”

  “I want to talk to my wife,” Robert said.

  “She’s indisposed right now.”

  “I want to see her.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “I’ve done everything you asked, now let me talk to my wife!”

  The man’s broken voice sparked a memory.

  Orlando had been so certain that everything would work out. His allies would pull Elda out of this dangerous situation and they’d be sipping wine together at her apartment the next day.

  “Do you hear me?” Robert shouted.

  Her death, losing her in what must have been a horrible, terrifying way, it’d crushed him. Orlando had wrecked the room, flinging books off shelves, breaking the delicate glass sculptures. His sister was the only family that mattered, and she’d been stolen from him. And his allies, the people who’d called him a friend, they could have stopped it. But they hadn’t.

  Robert would have been an ally then. Someone who benefitted from Orlando’s knowledge.

  “I can hear you. A deaf person could hear you. No, you will not get to see or speak with your wife until I’m ready for you to. You will keep doing as I say, or I will start to cut off her fingers. Every time you call me, every time you bother me, it’ll be her paying for it. You never told be about Tanya, and I never took my due from that omission. I could now, if you like?”

  “No.”

  “Are we clear, then?”

  “How do I know she’s still alive?” Robert sobbed, the sounds muted but there.

  “You don’t.”

  Orlando hung up the phone and peered across the distance to where the truck hauling the merchandise sat in a pull out awaiting its new team.

  “It’s going to work out, Elda. I swear it is.” One way or another, he’d see it through.

  Tanya was a threat to him. That was the thing he couldn’t control. He’d allowed her to become an extension of himself. There were too many times he’d trusted her enough to allow her to remain close to him.

  She knew too much.

  The hit might not be enough. The Aegis team he’d hoped would bring her to him was highly skilled and now rogue. They would be a major roadblock to anyone wanting to get at Tanya.

  Orlando hit the speed dial on his phone and pressed it to his ear.

  “Yes, sir?” Edwin said.

  “How are you making out with the project?” he asked.

  “We’ve filled in some holes, pulled some strings. It’s not a complete picture, but we’ve begun to identify where reality ends and the cover story begins.”

  “What do you have? Tell me.”

  “She graduated with her undergrad like she said. Looking at her transcript, she also took a number of criminal justice courses. Up until her graduation, as far as we can tell, it’s all her. The difference is after school. A source can place her at the CIA at least once, on camera. She never attended the Academy, but she was trained, we know that much. We’ve put her photograph out with several contacts to try to figure out who she works for, who trained her.”

  “It won’t be the Americans or the British, we’d have found out about her before now. It has to be an organization we don’t have an inside source with.”

  “I was going to suggest Israel.”

  “Mossad would make a thorn in my side.” Orlando rolled that idea around. Of all his allies, his Israel contacts had been the most distant and least likely to trust him. When it came to intel, they were the best in the world. “In order of priority, Mossad, South Korea, America and the UK. Got it? Someone will want to bring Tanya in, and when they do, I want them killed. Understand?”

  This wasn’t just about plugging the leak, he was sending a message.

  12.

  Saturday. London, England.

  Tanya paced the room. No matter how much Isaac reassured her that they were safe, she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was breathing down her neck. If not Orlando, then someone taking orders from him.

  Orlando had hired a team to kidnap her because he wanted to stop her. He’d put out a bounty on her head to kill her or keep her trapped until he could do the job himself. She wasn’t safe, not really, and Isaac was playing with her life if he thought they were.

  How did she begin to explain the twisted psyche of a man like Orlando to someone as normal as Isaac?

  The bedroom door opened and Isaac stepped in, balancing a tray with two plates on its silver surface.

  “Hungry?” he asked.

  “Should we check and see if it’s poisoned?” She was only half joking.

  “Head of security is monitoring everything for us at the moment, so I think we’re fine.”

  His smile was too bright. She narrowed her gaze and studied him.

  He’d left half an hour ago to see about lunch. Why had it taken him that long to call in the food? Why had he waited on it?

  “What happened?” she asked.

  He sighed and his shoulders drooped.

  “Isaac?”

  He scrubbed a hand across his jaw, his gaze on the carpet.

  She gently shut the door, her stomach all knotted up.

  Had they found out something about her? Quade? Orlando? The weapon? What?

  “None of that,” Isaac said, answering the question she hadn’t realized she’d asked out
loud. “Sit, please?”

  Tanya crossed to the bed and perched on the edge, clasping her hands in her lap.

  “Our contact was able to locate Rob,” Isaac said.

  “Is he okay?” Her worst fear was that Orlando got to Quade, then Rob.

  “He’s fine.”

  “I...don’t understand.” She didn’t want to.

  Isaac leaned against the dresser across from her, his expression grim.

  “Rob is on holiday with his wife and her family. They left early this afternoon, two tickets to Bath. He’s fine. Which leads me to believe one of two things.” Isaac stared at her. “You are lying and Rob isn’t your point of contact. Or someone got to Rob and he isn’t on your side anymore.”

  “I’m not lying.” Tanya pushed to her feet. How could he say that?

  “I don’t think you are. Stuff isn’t adding up. How did Orlando find out about Quade?”

  “I don’t know. Orlando just got up in the middle of dinner and started one of his... He rambles. It’s kind of strange. Like he’s talking to someone who isn’t there. You can’t ask him about it or he goes into a rage. Then he turned around and shot Quade at the dinner table.”

  “Did you have any kind of regular communication with Rob?”

  “Quade did. Once a week, he and Rob had a phone call.” Tanya swallowed. “Quade was getting nervous, fidgeting with his napkin, because dinner was running long. It was his night to call Rob.”

  “If Rob didn’t hear from Quade, what was the process?”

  “He’d wait and try again.”

  “How many calls has Rob missed from Quade?”

  “Two,” Tanya whispered.

  “What if Orlando got to Rob? What if Rob’s the one who set Quade and you up? But then why would Orlando not kill you outright?”

  Oh no...

  “Because Rob never knew it was me, remember?”

  “Shit. Right. You said that.” Isaac blinked at her, his thoughts whirling. “So, Rob knew there was a second person in Orlando’s organization, but not who?”

  “Yes.”

  “Someone in this joint task force expected Orlando might figure out he had a mole and take care of the problem.”

  “Oh, shit.” She paced the room, too worked up to even pretend to eat.

  “This does support the theory that Orlando is a traitor,” Isaac said.

  “Is that still really up for debate? Brett told me as much.”

  “And you chose to talk to Agent Jones alone, so I can’t take your word on it. Even without his input, we’re all convinced Orlando is a problem, but evidence...”

  “He put a bounty on me. How is that not evidence?”

  “We don’t technically know that it was him. What we have is circumstantial.”

  “Who are we convincing here?”

  “Tanya. We’re in this together. Okay?” Isaac grabbed her hand and stared into her eyes. “The best thing to do is to convince someone we can trust at the CIA, NSA or FBI, someone who can act on this information. Like I said before, we aren’t mercenaries. We fit an empty space where people can’t be helped, but we also can’t ignore what the right thing to do is.”

  “What the hell are we doing here then? Why aren’t I...I don’t know. Going to someone who will do something?” Maybe even turn herself in. That could yield results faster.

  The suite phone began to ring, not just in their room but in others as well. She ignored the clamoring noise and focused on her thoughts.

  Where would she go? Who was likely to be able to vet her fastest?

  Isaac stood up and stopped in her path, grasping her by the shoulders.

  “These things take time.”

  “We don’t have time. Don’t you get that? If Rob sold us out, if he’s on Orlando’s side, then the last two years have been wasted.” Everything she’d worked for, all the security they’d established, ruined.

  The bedroom door opened and Felix stared at them, his eyes wide.

  What now?

  “Guys, you need to come out here.” He thumbed over his shoulder.

  Tanya glanced at Isaac.

  “Come on.” He placed a hand at her lower back and propelled her forward.

  She followed, dreading yet more bad news.

  Why had she thought she could do this? Why had anyone thought she was up to it?

  Kyle glanced at them, his face twisted into a disgruntled grimace.

  “We’re all here now, go ahead.” Kyle leaned over the room phone, the speaker button flashing.

  “Good. My name is Reuben and I am with The Patrol. Tanya, I trust you are there?” The man on the other end of the phone paused.

  Kyle shook his head.

  “Sorry, she’s not with us anymore,” he said.

  “You’re lying. That’s not a very good way to develop a relationship. We would like to continue our partnership with Ms. Graham, as we’d agreed with her before your interference. Send her out, and we will be out of your hair.”

  “No one is going anywhere,” Kyle replied.

  “On that front, you are correct. We have the hotel surrounded. Any attempt to leave will be stopped. Don’t make us come in there.”

  Kyle glanced up and around the room.

  “If you could get to us, you wouldn’t have called.” Isaac took a step closer to the receiver. “That means you’re stuck outside, wondering who is really in here, how many of us there are, if your target is even here. You’ve got nothing.”

  Kyle gestured at the windows.

  Felix leapt up, vaulted the sofa and pulled the thicker curtains across the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  “Are you willing to bet her life on that? We know where you are. Do you know where we are?”

  The line went dead.

  “Shit. Okay.” Kyle cut the call off. “Adam, get with the head of security again. We probably need to report this to the police, get a uniform presence outside to scare them off.”

  Tanya sat on the sofa.

  The Patrol were just the first.

  Orlando had plenty of enemies here. It was why she’d picked it as the least hospitable location. But it also made her a shiny target.

  “Sit.” Isaac nudged Tanya into the closest chair. She leaned forward, cradling her head in her hands.

  Shane muttered something and pushed up from the table, pacing away from them. Everyone else remained where they were. The only sound in the suite was Adam’s succinct conversation on the phone.

  “New game plan.” Isaac straightened, keeping one hand on her shoulder. “We hold down the fort until Abigail and Luke get here. Those guys can’t come busting into this hotel without some serious manpower, and anything they might hope to get from Tanya won’t equal the costs. An attack like that brings too much attention from the authorities. That’s why they want to bargain.”

  “You’re right.” Kyle nodded. “Abigail and Luke will give us a leg up on them. When they get here we can plan an exit strategy. Until then, keep the windows covered and out of sight. With any luck, the local cops will scare these guys away and we won’t have to worry about them.”

  Tanya wasn’t so certain. She bit her lip to keep from saying as much. If The Patrol was there, who else was coming? Others would see the reward. People that didn’t already know her worth. They could be heading into a gauntlet of enemies the moment they left the building.

  She could always go on her own.

  Isaac glanced at her, their gazes snagging.

  Was this worth risking his life?

  She smiled and straightened, doing her best to hold it all in, just as she had every day she’d lived under Orlando’s roof.

  This job had appealed to her because she wanted to make the world safer. Eliminating Orlando as a threat saved many lives. Was the prospect of finishing that op worth losing these people? She could lose them and not stop Orlando. Could she live with herself if that was what happened?

  Sunday. London, England.

  Isaac kept his eyes glued on the front doors of
the hotel lobby. He could just make out the car posted outside from this spot.

  The guys inside had the dome light on and were eating a late-night meal, which made it ridiculously easy to confirm that their plan was working.

  “How’s the front?” Kyle asked through the headset.

  “Clear,” he replied.

  They went through their other points of entry, ringing off a confirmation that none of The Patrol had any clue their team was about to make a move.

  “We’re coming in,” a woman’s voice said.

  “Copy that, I see you,” Felix responded.

  “How you liking this new gig, Felix?” a second, male voice said.

  “It’s been an interesting transition,” Felix replied.

  Nice and diplomatic.

  Isaac couldn’t fault Felix for fitting into his new gig well, or the circumstances that created the vacancy. The way Isaac saw it, Shane had let himself get distracted. It was a common thing these days, since he and his girlfriend shacked up together, but no one had asked Isaac’s opinion on the matter.

  “They’re watching you. Just keep it easy, no rush,” Felix said.

  Isaac held his breath for a moment.

  Anything could go wrong in an instant and they could lose more people.

  “We’re in,” the man said.

  “Good,” Kyle said. “Everyone upstairs. I know it’s early, but we’ve got multiple problems to handle.”

  Isaac turned and ambled for the elevator. Felix was already there. The other three were stationed up higher where they had a bird’s eye view of the street.

  “I would have thought you’d be halfway upstairs by now.” Felix’s voice was no longer in stereo, which meant he must have killed his mic.

  Isaac tapped his comm. and frowned at Felix.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Isaac jabbed the button for the elevator again.

  “Nothing, really.” Felix shrugged and stepped into the elevator as the doors slid open.

  Isaac glanced over his shoulder. The night desk was noticeably absent, leaving just the two of them in the lobby. A person had to be buzzed in or use a key card to enter the hotel at this hour, and after that another set of security measures kept a random person from coming up the elevator or stairs on a whim. In about five minutes, the regular security staff would again take up post in the lobby.