Shadow Rising (A Lacy Merrick Thriller Book 2)

by Robin Mahle

  By the time they reached McLean, Axell’s thoughts turned to Meeks and if his involvement had anything to do with the loss of Agent Colburn. He regretted ever pulling Colburn in, but what was done was done and his friend was gone. All he could do now was try to get him justice. And if it meant getting justice for Jay Merrick too, then all the better.

  “This is it.” Axell killed the lights and rolled to a stop just before the house. “Looks pretty quiet around here. Good news for us.” He pulled the keys from the ignition. “Get your shit. Let’s get this done.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  The knock on the door alarmed Will as he pushed up from the sofa and peeked out of the window. “Who the hell is that?”

  Aaron mumbled something in his sleep.

  The door opened and Will yanked his weapon from the table, aiming it at Axell’s head. “Axell? I almost blew your damn head off, man.”

  “Sorry. I have a key, but I thought it’d be worse if I just came in without knocking.”

  Lacy emerged from the hall in a t-shirt and shorts she’d been wearing for days now. “Trevor. What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

  He continued inside and headed straight for the workstation. “I’ve got Meeks under surveillance.” He began clicking on the keyboard and eventually images of the man’s house appeared.

  “Oh my God. When did you do this?”

  “Tonight.”

  “How?”

  “Don’t ask.” Axell continued to type. “We’re listening to him as well. I’ll know who he’s talking to and who comes to see him.” He turned to Lacy. “That’s why I couldn’t talk earlier. But I see that Caison turned up.”

  “Yeah. Late, but he had reason. We’re getting close now, Trevor. Will has turned up some things and so have we.”

  “Good. I’ve got all night. Let’s talk.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Lacy anticipated a response from Axell, one that was late in coming. It was as though he was considering all that they now knew and what they could do about it. “We have the proof on Delgado. He started getting money from Dalian shortly after the attack, after his transfer to Headquarters. I don’t know if they’re related, but if they needed someone on the inside, they found him. I think it’s time we inform Director Mobley.”

  “I agree we have enough to take Delgado down, and we will, but I need him. I need to know what part he’s playing with Meeks. We’ll find out soon and, when we do, we can move in on him.”

  “I am so sick of waiting!” Lacy threw her arms up. “How many more people have to die before we do something, Trevor? Will? Aaron’s risking his life every day to keep tabs on Sajwani and searching for Jian. My every move is being monitored by a man we now know is working with Dalian and by all accounts, the CIA. I mean, do you even hear what you’re saying right now?”

  “Lacy, if we move now, without knowing the full extent of the CIA’s involvement, I won’t be able to protect you—any of you. Not even myself. This changes things whether you want to believe it or not. For months, we’ve been working on untangling this web of deceit to find all those who were involved in the mall attack. Doing it for the victims, including your husband. But this is big, Lacy. We won’t win if we go up against my people. I have to understand Meeks’ part. Otherwise, we will lose this fight.”

  “So what do we do now?” Will asked. “What is our next move? Lacy’s right. This has to end. Too many people know. Too many people had a hand in what happened. We can’t stay here forever. Lacy can’t be away from her children forever. Axell, we need a plan. One that we can act on swiftly and decisively, because as I see it, we’re running out of time.”

  “I’ve been in situations like this before and the outcome is never what you think it will be.”

  “Trevor,” Lacy began, “I know how much Agent Colburn meant to you. It was my life he saved and I want to bring justice for him the same as I want to for my husband and all the others who were killed in the attack. But Delgado is after me. Sajwani is after all of us and God knows when they’ll find us this time. What do you need, Trevor? What do you need in order for us to bring this to an end?”

  “You want to act now?” Axell looked for consensus among those whom he’d been trying to protect. “Then we go after Delgado. Not tomorrow, not the next day—now. We get him now.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Getting a location on Delgado had been easy. Lacy had acquired his social security number, address, discovered he had a penchant for dropping bills at strip clubs, and could probably glean a fairly accurate bathroom schedule, given more time. The team moved quickly and were now waiting outside of his home.

  “We get in, we get the information, and we get out. Understood?” Axell said. “Hunter, I want you to stay here and listen in.” He handed him the headset. “If things start going tits up, I want you to call on Kelly. We know he’s got our backs. But if we can keep his hands clean for the time being, then it will serve us better for the long game.”

  “Lacy, you sure you want to go with them?” Aaron asked.

  “You’re damn right I do. He’s been watching me and I intend to find out why.”

  “Let’s just get this over with.” Will stepped out of the SUV. The residential street was quiet in the pre-dawn hour.

  Lacy and Axell moved quickly to join him. She turned back to Aaron and nodded. It was no secret he didn’t like what was about to happen, but there was no stopping her this time. She’d been chased for so long by too many people wanting to see harm come to her. It was time to turn the tables. No more running.

  Axell signaled them to follow as they quietly approached the front of the home. “There will probably be a security system, but I can bypass it quickly, and when I do, you two need to move in and clear the house.”

  “Clear it?” Lacy asked.

  “Make sure no one else is in there.”

  “He doesn’t have a wife or kids,” she replied.

  “Still, we need to be sure no one else is inside. If there is, then we’ll have to guarantee whoever it is doesn’t get in the way.”

  “Understood.” As much as she’d wanted this to happen—demanded that this happen, her fear was real. But she had to put it behind her because this man was the key to a lock they’d struggled to open themselves.

  21

  Blinded by the darkness, Lacy moved at a snail’s pace inside the two-story home of the man who had been paid to watch her every move and perhaps put an end to her, if given the chance.

  Axell was the first to ascend the stairs while she and Will cleared the house. He stopped and turned back toward them and simply nodded as if to indicate all was going to plan.

  Lacy had no idea if this was the way it was supposed to go or not and had to rely on the men who were trained in these activities. Will gestured for her to go left while he went right. He raised his gun, almost waving it before her until she finally understood what he was doing. He wanted her to have her gun ready. While still a novice on the subject of guns, knowing what was at stake gave her more confidence and she held it at the ready.

  She continued in the darkness, her eyes adjusting until she could see more than the hand in front of her face. The first floor was clear and the quiet was disrupted by Axell’s footfalls above her. She soon rejoined Will.

  He returned the acknowledgement that it seemed all clear. The question now was should they go upstairs, or wait for Axell at the bottom?

  A thump on the ceiling above diverted their attention. Will began to run up the stairs and she followed. Her heart pumped fast with fear of what they would find.

  “This way!” Will shouted as he approached a bedroom from where the sound came.

  Inside, Delgado was on the floor. Axell held the collar of his undershirt and had his gun pointed at the back of his head. Will flipped on the light and the momentary flash burned Lacy’s eyes.

  “Get up!” Axell yanked on the shirt. “Get the fuck up!” His gun pressed into Delgado’s back. “Caison, get over here. Hel
p me get him to the chair.”

  Will rushed to Delgado and grabbed him by the arm.

  “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.” Delgado peered at him. “And her? You might as well say goodbye now. She won’t be around for long.”

  “Shut up.” Will dragged him and tossed him into the chair, waiting for Axell to make the next move, but his stance was firm and unmoving. “How do you want to handle this?”

  Axell continued to aim his weapon at Delgado, appearing ready to wipe the smug expression clean off his face. “We know you’re taking money from the Dalian Company. We also know you’re working with someone in the CIA. Now what I want to know is—why.”

  Delgado shot a glance to Lacy. “I knew you were smarter than they thought you were. You should know that I never underestimated you, Merrick.”

  “Don’t you dare talk to her,” Will said. “Answer the fucking question.”

  “Did I hit a sore spot, Caison? Oh yeah, I know all about you too. The reason you transferred to Washington, leaving a promising career at Louisville. And for what? Her?” He leered at Lacy again. “She must be a hell of a lay. Guess she didn’t waste much time, did you, Mrs. Merrick?”

  With the back of his hand, Will cracked his fist against Delgado’s cheek, leaving a cut that began to spill blood.

  “That’s enough!” Axell said. “If you want to survive this, I suggest you answer the question.”

  “See, that’s where you’ve got it wrong, CIA Agent Trevor Axell. You’re under the mistaken impression that any of us are going to make it out of this alive. As I said, you have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

  “Enlighten me.”

  Delgado pressed his middle finger against the cut on his cheek and peered at the blood. “Assistant Director Meeks came to me after Lei Jian was released. He knew I was in bed with Dalian. I was supposed to tell him what they were planning.”

  “You’re lying,” Will began. “We know you own the weapon that killed Undersecretary Kendrick. The same weapon used in attempt to kill Lacy Merrick and me.”

  “Kendrick was going to be killed by Lei Jian’s men anyway. I went there to stop him from going public. He’d already written the letter.”

  “So you killed him when he refused?” Axell asked.

  “No. I was there to talk to him at Meeks’ insistence. We both knew Jian was trying to get rid of everyone involved in the attack, including all of you.”

  “Are you saying you didn’t kill Kendrick? It was your weapon,” Will added.

  “I did have a weapon on me. However, I left my gun in the car because I had no intention of using it; not that day anyway. But when I returned, the gun was gone and my window smashed. By the time I’d gotten back to Kendrick, he was dead, and I couldn’t be seen there, so I fled.”

  “Why have you been surveilling me, then?” Lacy moved forward, her hands trembling, but still she aimed her gun at him.

  “Because we knew you were a target too. When Jian was released, I reached out to Kendrick to warn him to keep his mouth shut and that we’d do what we could to protect him from any retaliation from Jian. It wasn’t until Ahsan Sajwani went after the Panama Bank president that the assistant director realized what was going to happen. We have assets who were able to get to the bottom of Marquez’s death. After Kendrick was snuffed out, we knew what Jian had planned and were trying to protect you and your colleagues.”

  “Why are you taking money from the Dalian Company, then? What are you to them?”

  He eyed her and it seemed he’d been rendered speechless for a moment.

  “Oh, you didn’t think we knew about that? You passing along all this information to them?”

  “Ever hear of a double agent, Mrs. Merrick? Well, that’s what I am. Actually, you could say I’m a triple agent. I work for the FBI and the CIA on domestic terrorist matters like the mall attack. We knew Dalian had a hand in it, thanks in part to what you discovered, but had nothing solid on them.”

  “Were you the one who broke into Turner’s house? Did you kill Agent Colburn?” Axell pressed his finger against the trigger.

  “No. I was later informed of the incident by my contact at Dalian. They sent someone to get the file at Turner’s home the night before but left because his family was there. The next day, they came back for it. He’d been talking to them; a connection I was trying to uncover, via my own in with Dalian. No one expected Merrick and Agent Colburn to be there. You see, you should’ve let the big boys handle this because now it’s a giant clusterfuck and it’s your fault.”

  “The hell it is! You knew Colburn was killed by those assholes and you did nothing?” Axell raised his gun to Delgado’s head.

  “Whoa, just hang on, Axell,” Will started. “You and Dalian knew what Jian wanted to do and were happy to let him do it, until the letter of resignation was discovered. Then, for whatever reason, the game changed. You and whoever you’re working with want to keep it a secret just like Turner did and the president.”

  “You think the president knows about this? You’re wrong. He was advised by the secretary of state, who was advised by Deputy Secretary Turner. The president did what he was told.”

  Delgado peered at Lacy once again. “It was my job to keep you on a short leash, which got a lot harder once your boyfriend over here arrived. But you’re wrong about one thing, Caison. We had no intention of letting Dalian’s people or Lei Jian come after you. Colburn was an accident. If I’d known he was there…”

  Lacy moved in and kicked Delgado in the gut. “You’re a piece of shit traitor. My husband is dead because of people like you. Spinning lies, telling half-truths, all in the name of national security.”

  He coughed a few times before returning his sights to Lacy. “You keep telling yourself that. The only reason you’re still alive is because I made it so.”

  “Okay, I’ve had enough of this shit,” Axell began. “You’re going to tell me where Sajwani is and you’re going to tell me who at Dalian Company killed Colburn. And then we’re going to see Meeks.”

  Will shot him a worried glance. “What if he’s lying?”

  “I’ve known Meeks a long time and I know he’s a man who loves this country and would do anything to protect it.”

  “If I knew where Sajwani was, don’t you think he’d be dead by now? Besides, I thought you guys were working on that. Isn’t that why you’ve got that second-rate hacker working for you at Langley?” Delgado smiled. “You’re not the only one with an ace up her sleeve, Merrick. We know about him too. You should know that, Axell. You’ve been at this game a long time.”

  “You’re right. I have.” He reached for Delgado and pulled him to his feet. “You’re coming with us.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  The sun had begun to rise when they returned to the safe house with Delgado in tow. The priority now was to ensure the man was telling the truth and the only way to do that was to see what intelligence had been gathered from Meeks’ home.

  “You bugged his house?” Delgado, in cuffs, remained seated on the couch. “You’ve got some marbles, I’ll give you that much. Is that how you found me?”

  “No. I found you,” Lacy said. “I’m one of those second-rate hackers too.” She looked to Aaron and revealed a smile imbued with conviction.

  “You, Merrick, were the only one we couldn’t get a read on. Sure, we knew about Nova Investments and what you found with regard to the money. That was excellent work, by the way. But when you returned to Headquarters, that was when we knew there could be problems. This could’ve all gone away if you’d just let it go. We would’ve taken care of Dalian and the MSS.”

  She glared at him. “Would that have happened before or after they attacked us again? Would you have told the American people the truth then?”

  “I can see you want nothing more than to put a bullet in my head right now, and I don’t blame you. But know this; we are on the same team, whether you want to believe it or not.”

  “Does Director Mob
ley know about your little deal with the CIA?” she asked.

  “No. No one does. That’s how this works.”

  Axell sat down at the workstation and began to retrieve the audio files captured while they were extracting Delgado.

  “Who authorized you to bug him?” Delgado asked. “There’s not a chance in hell you got the manpower and the equipment without someone’s okay.”

  Axell turned to him and back to the monitor.

  “Doesn’t matter. I’ll find out.”

  As the files played, Axell seemed to grow concerned that he would find nothing and that he would have to take this man’s word for it, but he couldn’t. Not yet. He’d felt as though Delgado had bested him and he didn’t care for that at all.

  The audio went static for a moment, as though too much sound suddenly filled the house. A gunshot rang out and a woman screamed. Axell jumped from the seat as he listened. “What the…?”

  Will leapt toward him. “What the hell was that?”

  Even Delgado’s face expressed shock.

  “Holy shit. It’s Meeks’ wife.” Another shot fired and the screaming stopped. Axell lunged toward Delgado. “Who was that? Who came after him?” He began to choke the man. “Who the fuck just killed Meeks?”

  “Axell!” Will tried to yank him off and turned to Aaron. “Help me over here!”

  The two finally managed to pull Axell off of Delgado after he nearly choked the life out of him.

  Delgado coughed and used his elbow to push himself back up. “It had to be Sajwani. It had to be. Somehow, Jian found out.”

  “Why? Why would he go after the assistant director?” Axell shouted.