Page 139 of One Minute Out

I nod. “You’re doing the right thing, Zack.”

FORTY-TWO

We’re still five hours from landing when Zack Hightower takes the airphone sitting on the table next to him and punches a couple of buttons. He places the call on the cabin overhead intercom, and then we all sit there silently for half a minute listening to it ring before we hear a click.

“Hanley.”

I let Zack start things off, which he does with, “Hey, Matt. ID check Whiskey, Yankee—”

“The package is with you?”

Hightower clears his throat. “Yes, sir. You’re broadcasting on the intercom.”

“The package is listening now?”

“Yes, sir. He wants to speak with you.”

“Violator,” Hanley says. His voice relays his annoyance, which is cute, because I’m fucking furious right now.

“I have some questions for you,” I say.

“Take me off the comms and we can talk.”

I shake my head at Zack. “Everybody around me is TS/SCI with all appropriate read-ins, and what I’m about to say is personal, it’s not classified in any way, shape, or form. You pull me off comms and you are telegraphing to these seven men and one woman that you’re afraid of them hearing our conversation. Is that what you want?”

Another pause; I can feel Hanley’s palpable sense of concern about what I will say.

“Go on, then.”

“You lied when you told me you didn’t know about the Consortium. You were the one who told Brewer where to task Ground Branch, which means you are well aware of their activities. You refused my request for resources in saving two dozen sex trafficking victims, and you sent men to pick me up to stop me from doing anything to the Consortium by myself.

“I’m no detective, but that all tells me you are somehow involved in this international sex trafficking ring, either directly or else you are helping to cover up their activities.”

“That’s ridiculous, Gentry. You know me.”

I say, “Then who’s pulling your strings?”

I can hear Matt sigh, which he does with regularity when talking with me. He asks, “What do you know?”

“Not a chance, Matt. Let’s hear you talk.”

Hanley next says, “Court, have I ever lied to you?”

This is rich, coming from him. “Have you ever lied to me? Fuck, Matt, you tried to kill me. Does that count?” I glance at Hightower next to me. “Both of you did.”

Hanley barks back instantly. “That was under orders!”

And Hightower raises a hand in the air. “Same. Get over it, dude. Move on.”

Hanley says, “I did not know about the Consortium. Not by name, anyhow. But when you called Brewer, I looked into it. We know about their operation, and we knew about the meeting tonight in Venice.”

“Who is the American who runs it?”

“He’s an asshole, apparently. But he’s also an asset.”

I understand. “He is providing you some sort of intelligence product, and in return you are protecting him. Is that it?”

“That’s it.”

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