Irished (The Invincibles Book 7)

by Heather Slade

  “I want my apartment swept.”

  I hadn’t heard that her apartment or even the building had been compromised. “Do you think that’s necessary?”

  “Yes. It’s necessary,” said Lynx, evidently no longer mute. “She also needs a keypad entry installed.”

  “We’ll take care of both,” said Decker, motioning to Grinder and Edge.

  Emme walked toward the door. “If you don’t need me for anything else right now…”

  “I’ll walk you over,” Lynx offered.

  When they both left, I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d worked with Emme—Dr. Charles—for several months and recognized the signs when she was getting agitated. Had we been alone, I might’ve been able to diffuse her increasing ire. As it was, she probably felt as though we were ganging up on her.

  “Come with me,” said Decker, motioning for me to follow him to one of the bedrooms he’d set up as his office. “You wanna tell me what the fuck is really going on?” he asked after shutting the door behind us.

  I walked over to the window and looked outside. “We need to bring Cope in on this.”

  Decker studied me.

  “I can make contact or you can, but this isn’t a conversation I can have without him present.”

  Deck nodded. “It sounds like Lynx is back. Hang on,” he said, going out to the other room.

  “He’s gone again,” he said when he returned a couple of minutes later, closed the door like he had earlier, and pulled out his phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Calling Cope.”

  “We can’t discuss this over the phone.”

  Decker raised a brow, and I stopped talking. If anyone could guarantee the conversation we were about to have wouldn’t be overheard either outside the walls of this room or over a phone line, it was him.

  11

  Irish

  Cambridge, Massachusetts

  August of the Preceding Year

  I couldn’t say why Cope and I trusted Decker with a yearslong mission that only he and I knew about, but we did. Maybe we’d both just reached the point when we knew we couldn’t go it alone any longer.

  I reiterated most of what had happened in the last seven years in terms of my tracking the inexplicable deaths of agents, primarily in Hong Kong and China, but also elsewhere around the world.

  The fact that he continued making notes on a second computer should’ve alarmed me. Oddly, it didn’t.

  “Tell me more about the number of deaths and the span of time.”

  “I haven’t tabulated in the same way I did in the past since I arrived in Boston.”

  “Understood.”

  A few minutes later, Decker turned his laptop around so both Cope and I could see the screen. What he showed me made my eyes bug out. In just a few minutes, he’d compiled the same data I had, including the deaths and where they’d taken place. Sadly, the total number was nearing the hundred mark.

  Decker sat back in his chair and remained silent for several minutes.

  “There’s another thing you need to be aware of,” said Cope.

  Decker sighed. “Go ahead.”

  “Shortly after first meeting with Irish and Dr. Charles, Dr. Benjamin contacted McTiernan directly to suggest that Irish was a mole. Somehow, Fisk got wind of it. Since, the director has been snooping around in a way that’s making me uncomfortable.”

  “Are you saying the director of the CIA is snooping around personally?” Decker asked, looking from me to Cope.

  “Affirmative.”

  “In that case, we need to find something before he does.”

  “Meaning?” I asked.

  “Proof that you are, in fact, the mole.”

  “Then what?”

  “We start by creating enough evidence that will result in your carefully planned arrest, by which we accomplish two things. First, we make arrangements for you to be incarcerated where we can protect you. Second, the easiest way to get a mole to dig in deeper is to make him or her believe someone has taken the fall for them.”

  Before Decker could continue, his cell rang. “Excuse me.” He left the room, but returned seconds later. “Gentlemen, our job just got a hell of a lot easier.”

  “In what way?” asked Cope.

  “I’ve enlisted the help of Buster Stevens. The next step will be to arrange a meeting between him, Matrix, and Lynx. Of course, we’ll need to make sure Matrix believes the whole thing was his idea.”

  Cope’s blank expression mirrored mine.

  “Matrix is Dr. Charles’ father, and I’m sure you know who Buster is.”

  “US Ambassador to China.”

  “Wait,” said Cope. “Matrix is Emme’s father?”

  Decker either didn’t feel the need to respond or he hadn’t heard Cope’s question. “The next step is to plant the evidence and lead either the doctor or her father to it.”

  “What happens after that?” I asked.

  “You’re arrested.”

  “Back up a little bit. You said Lynx is meeting with the ambassador. What’s the agenda for that meeting?” asked Cope.

  “They’ll make arrangements for Buster to help facilitate Dr. Benjamin and Saint’s release. In the meantime, I’ll work on planting evidence.”

  “You’ve confirmed they’re being detained?” I asked.

  Decker raised a brow but, like before, didn’t respond. “There’s something else I need to make you aware of.”

  “Okay.”

  “We have reason to believe Lynx and our Dr. Charles may have history.”

  “They do. He admitted it to me. He also said she was involved with Saint.”

  “I don’t think so. However, I do believe there may be an advantage to him thinking you’re interested as well.”

  “I’ve already said as much.”

  “What about Dr. Charles? Does she believe you have an interest in more than a professional relationship with her?”

  “I don’t believe so.”

  “Again, it may work in our favor if she did.”

  Decker got an alert on his phone. “Speaking of Dr. Charles, it appears she’s leaving. Warrick, go and see if you can find out where she’s headed.”

  “Going somewhere?” I asked, eyeing Emme’s suitcase near the door.

  “To see my parents.”

  “When will you be back?”

  “I’m not sure, Paxon.”

  “Can I give you a lift?”

  “No, um, Lynx’s driver is taking me.”

  “Huh. Okay, well, can I walk you downstairs?”

  She thanked me and walked into the waiting elevator; I followed. Once inside, I set the bag down that I’d been carrying for her. I wanted to warn her about my suspicions that Lynx was a mole, but that was part of a mission she knew nothing about—and never could. Instead, I went with Decker’s suggestion.

  “Emme…I…um…just want you to know…Lynx told me about you and Saint.”

  “Yes, well…” she stammered.

  I cleared my throat and took a step closer. “I realize this might be coming out of left field for you, but to be honest, once this mission was over, I planned to ask you out myself.”

  Evidently, my proclamation left her speechless. Something I hadn’t seen very often.

  “Uh, that’s very nice…” she said as we exited the elevator.

  I handed Emme’s bag to the driver and put my hand on her arm. “Wait. I want you to know that when this guy’s boss leaves your heart in pieces”—I pointed to the driver—“there’s someone who cares enough to help you put it back together.”

  She got in the car without another word, and they sped off.

  “Any luck?” Deck asked when I returned to the apartment’s bedroom.

  “She’s headed down the Cape to her parents’ place. I was also able to suggest that if things don’t work out with Lynx, I’d be waiting in the wings.”

  “Excellent on both fronts. As for her visiting her parents, the longer she stays there, the
better for us. Excuse me for a moment,” he said, standing and leaving the room.

  “How are you feeling about this?” Cope asked after the door closed.

  “Not sure.”

  “Understood.”

  “Do you trust Ashford?”

  “Kind of late to ask, Irish.”

  “I mean moving forward.”

  “I’d rather you not be arrested. However, with Decker’s involvement, we have access to support we haven’t had to this point.”

  “Backup?” I asked.

  “Exactly. Decker said he’d make arrangements for you to be held in a place where we can keep you safe. That means he intends to have people on the inside.”

  After ending the video conference, I heard Decker’s raised voice in the hallway. “Lynx, are you aware Dr. Charles is on her way out of town?” There were a few seconds of silence. “Where are you now?” he asked as I eased the door open.

  Decker ended the call and set the phone down. “He’s on his way back here.”

  A few minutes later, when we heard the code being entered into the keypad, Decker motioned for me to go into the bedroom. “Ready to do this?” he asked.

  “Affirmative.”

  A few seconds later, he came in with Lynx.

  “No one knew Dr. Charles was leaving?” Deck asked me.

  I pointed at Lynx. “His driver took her.”

  “Took her where?” Lynx asked.

  “To visit her parents.”

  “You didn’t know about this?” Decker asked him.

  “Of course I didn’t.” Lynx pulled out his phone and placed a call.

  “He’s your driver; how did you not know?” I asked.

  “Tell me what he looked like.”

  “The driver?”

  After I’d described him, Lynx placed another call. “I need transport arranged from Boston to Cape Cod.” He ended the call.

  “What’s your plan?” Deck asked.

  “I’d like to wring her neck before we return.”

  “You might not want to bring Emerson back right away.”

  Bingo. That was the setup Deck, Cope, and I had discussed. In order to have enough time to plant evidence suggesting I was the mole—or double agent—we needed her to stay away from MIT for several days, at least.

  “Why not?”

  I watched Decker hand Lynx an envelope, the contents of which I’d already read.

  “What’s this?”

  “Background on Emerson’s father.”

  I was sure Decker shared my hope that learning about Matrix would distract Lynx from asking any more questions about why Emme needed to be kept away from her office.

  “Thanks for this,” Lynx said after reading through it.

  “I’ll brief you on what else we know as we know it.”

  “My transport is waiting,” he said, walking into the main room to say goodbye to the three other men in the apartment, all of whom were on their laptops.

  After Lynx said goodbye to Rile, Grinder, and Edge, he walked toward the front door. I followed.

  “I hardly need an escort,” he snapped as I continued to follow him to the elevator.

  “I’m going with you.”

  “You’re doing nothing of the kind.”

  “This is the CIA’s mission as much as it is yours.”

  “The CIA’s initial mission was to convert Dr. Charles into an asset in the same way MI6 intended to. Given that the mission was aborted upon the disappearance of one of our assets along with one of our agents, you are no longer needed.” The elevator door closed between us.

  “How’d it go?” asked Deck when I came back into the bedroom.

  I looked over my shoulder to make sure Edge wasn’t paying attention. “As planned.”

  Decker and I spent the next two days in my office at MIT, pulling reports designed to make it look as though I was stockpiling information.

  Mid-afternoon on the second day, my cell rang with a call from Emme. Decker motioned for me to take it. I put the call on speaker.

  “Paxon, I’d like to make arrangements to return to Boston.”

  Decker shook his head.

  “You can’t,” I said.

  “What do you mean I can’t?”

  “What did Lynx tell you about the brush pass?”

  “Paxon, I am in no mood for games. If there’s something I need to know, just…fucking…tell me!”

  “Okay, you don’t have to yell. Saint’s message contained a warning.”

  “What…was…the…warning?”

  “Essentially, it said to keep you safe.”

  “That isn’t a warning.”

  “Look, you need to talk to Lynx. If you don’t want to talk to him, talk to your dad.”

  “My dad? What the hell does my dad have to do with this?” she shouted. “Are you going to answer me?” she said when I didn’t respond.

  “I can’t. Talk to Lynx.” I ended the call when Decker indicated I should.

  “Good work,” he said. “The next step is to make Lynx believe we’re running surveillance on you.”

  I continued going to my office at MIT for several more days, each time tailed by either Edge, Grinder, or Rile.

  “I want you to stick around here today,” Decker said, showing up at my apartment as I was getting ready to leave for Cambridge.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Matrix is in the city, and I’ve asked him to get Lynx and Dr. Charles back here.”

  “This is it, then.” The plan was that once Emme returned from the Cape, Decker would set the stage for her to stumble on the evidence suggesting I was selling secrets to the Chinese.

  “I’m also hearing chatter coming out of Beijing.”

  “What kind of chatter?”

  “My sources say an announcement is going to be made today regarding Saint and Dr. Benjamin.”

  “Do you think they’re alive?”

  “I haven’t heard otherwise.” He took a small earpiece out of his laptop bag and handed it to me.

  “What’s this?”

  “Ears.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He sighed in the same way he often did when I asked a question about something he thought I should already know or understand. “I’ll signal you when we’re ready to set up the arrest. In the meantime, you’ll be able to follow along.”

  I listened over the course of the next few hours as several things happened.

  First, Decker sent me a message saying he’d been successful in replacing the reports Emme had taken with her to the Cape with the ones that held the code that would “prove” I was the mole. With that done, all that was left was furthering the setup of my arrest with Lynx, Emme, and her father.

  “We have reason to believe Paxon Warrick has been gathering intelligence that he is selling to the Chinese,” I heard him say a few minutes later through the earpiece.

  “He’s a double agent?” Emme asked.

  “We believe so,” Decker answered.

  “Lynx said this involves me somehow.”

  “We need to be certain,” a voice that sounded like her father said. “In order for that to happen, we need you to return to your office.”

  “To feed him specific information?” she asked.

  This was news to me, and I didn’t like it. There was no reason Emme needed to be anywhere near MIT when my arrest took place.

  “That’s right,” said the voice I assumed was her father. “Emme, you should know Lynx is not in favor of this.”

  “Why not?”

  “In order for this to work, the two of you will need to be alone,” I heard Lynx’s voice for the first time.

  “We worked alone for weeks.”

  The next thing I heard were several alerts going off on cell phones, including my own.

  I walked over and turned on the television when I heard Decker say there was a press conference taking place.

  The ticker on the bottom of the screen said, “Breaking News/Special Repor
t,” and the headline at the top of the screen read, “Two Americans and two Brits arrested in China, sentenced to death on drug-trafficking charges.” There, on the dais to the side of the podium where a Chinese official stood, were Dr. Adam Benjamin and Niven St. Thomas. Next to them stood two other men—both I recognized as CIA agents I’d worked with on past missions.

  I continued to listen as Decker made arrangements for a team to immediately mobilize to Beijing. He would not be part of that team as originally planned since he was needed here to facilitate my arrest.

  Lynx, Rile, Grinder, and Edge were set to be dispatched to China along with Buster Stevens. The ambassador would be accompanying them under the auspice of further negotiation, rather than the planned extraction. Buster’s job would be to insist he and the UK ambassador meet with the prisoners to confirm their health and well-being before making the deal to meet the Chinese demands. By the end of that meeting, the Invincibles team would have the prisoners’ extraction set up and ready to execute.

  I’d seen missions like this happen dozens of times. I just prayed that whoever the real mole was, wasn’t privy to the details of the op and that the agents involved all made it out alive.

  I was making myself dinner when I received another text from Decker, alerting me of a meeting he was about to have with Emme and her father.

  “Decker, do you want to fill Emme in on what you’ve uncovered?” I heard Matrix say.

  “As you know, US intelligence—the CIA specifically—has suffered major setbacks in China. The agency has been convinced there was a mole feeding information to Chinese intelligence officers,” Deck told her.

  “And you suspect Paxon?”

  “More than suspect, Emme,” said her father.

  “While it wasn’t his original mission, Saint was also investigating Irish, based on information he was given by Dr. Benjamin.”

  “Dr. Benjamin? You think he left proof. That’s why Paxon has been at MIT even though I haven’t. It’s also why he didn’t want me to return last week.”

  Having to listen to the sadness in her voice was the hardest part of this plan. I wanted to take the earpiece out, but I knew I couldn’t. If she and her dad didn’t find the evidence on their own tonight, I’d be forced to lead her to it at MIT tomorrow.