Page 21 of Raider Unleashed

Whatever was coming wasn’t going to be good.

“So, John was telling me how you got here and I have to say it was a pretty ballsy move getting on that flight. Some might call it insubordinate.” He let his gaze rest on her face.

She fought the urge to justify her actions. Instead, she just said, “Yes, sir.” He wasn’t here to yell at her, at least not yet. He didn’t fly out here in his pristine white shirt and light gray business suit with a white pinstripe to tell her she’d screwed up. He was here for something else. If she kept quiet, eventually he’d get around to telling her what that something was.

“John assures me you are one of his best agents.” He looked skeptical of John’s opinion of her. “I understand you lost your partner in the warehouse debacle. I am truly sorry. We’re still working on finding out how that guy got inside without us knowing.”

She merely nodded. His statement didn’t require a response.

“So, you came in without bringing in the leader, this guy named Denlo. Why is that?” Fielding narrowed his pale blue eyes at her. His dark blond hair was neat, and his skin looked sun-kissed. The perfect picture of an understanding, experienced ATF agent. He was just there to hear what she said, nothing more. That’s what the look said…but that’s not what he really meant. He wanted to know how she could’ve pulled the plug on the op at this stage.

“Sir, Denlo was starting to fall apart. He was getting more and more agitated. It was only a matter of time before he killedsomeone.” And she sure as hell hadn’t wanted to be the person on the receiving end of all his crazy. Her or Raider.

“I see,” Fielding said. But clearly, by the look of his pursed lips, he didn’t. “You felt you were in danger.”

“Yes.” And she had. Moreover, and more importantly, she thought Raider might be in danger because if anyone was going to challenge Denlo it would be her ex-husband and the idea that he might get hurt on her watch was just untenable. She wouldn’t survive it. She owed Marta but she wouldn’t sacrifice Raider for her deceased colleague.

Fielding spared a glance at her boss and then redirected his focus to her. He leaned back in the chair and said, “What if I were to tell you that we know that Denlo is actually pretty low on the totem pole? That he’s merely answering to someone else…the man who killed your partner probably, but even that guy answers to someone else. That this whole op is much bigger than you thought?”

She blinked. Snake wasn’t the top guy? That was an interesting thought. “How much bigger?”

Fielding’s lips curved up at the corners. “A lot. We think you and Agent Grant stumbled onto the tip of the iceberg. A group has been shipping guns in and out of the US for some time now. Fueling an assortment of terrorist groups with weapons from our own military.” He sneered in disgust. “We have a gang problem in the military and they’re stealing equipment and selling it to our enemies. What you and Agent Grant came across was the tip of that. We’ve been working it from another angle for months now. Our other operation has ferreted out that there’s a small group at the top running the whole show and that your op is just one arm of it.” He paused to let that sink in.

Piper cocked her head. What he was saying made sense. They’d suspected there was something bigger going on because the size of the deals made by the criminals they were followingwere way too big for what they should be. Snake being part of a much larger operation made sense.

“So do you know who the top people are?”

“Not yet. But we do know that the reason Denlo wants you to break into the bank isn’t about money. Apparently, someone kept a record of all the deals. The person in question is dead but the record is still out there in the form of a USB drive. Rumor has it that the drive is at the bank that Denlo wants you to break into. That’s why he’s desperate. If anyone but the inside people find that information, the whole operation comes crashing down.”

A cautionary shiver crept along Piper’s nerves. The info was all too vague. “And how do you know all this if you don’t know who’s at the top of the food chain? Do you know who created the list?”

“We have our sources.” Piper must have had a misbelieving look on her face because Fielding relented. “We have a man on the inside. We do know the identity of who kept track and created the list. But that lead turned into a dead end when his body washed up in San Diego a couple of months ago. The thing is, he’d just finished traveling to all kinds of places when he popped up and there’s been a mad search ever since to locate the thumb drive. We now believe that that documentation is inside that bank. Or at least that’s what Denlo and whoever his immediate boss believes. We also have reason to believe the drive contains a list of names. A holy grail of who is breaking the law by allowing these gangs to sell American technology and weaponry. Our understanding is that we will find some high-ranking officials on the list as well as law enforcement and politicians.”

Piper’s stomach rolled. A list like that would be a gold mine for the ATF, but the number of people that would want it buried would be huge as well. Anyone who’d actually seen the list was in a very dangerous position.

Including her now. He’d all but just hung a target on her back. “Why are you telling me all this,” she asked, doing a piss-poor job of keeping dread from her voice.

“Because”—he nodded at John—“we want you to go back in. We need you to break into the bank like Denlo wants. We need that thumb drive and you’re going to get it for us.”

Piper’s heart stopped, then thumped harshly to restart. They wanted her to go back. They were willing to risk her life to get this thumb drive. She’d gotten out because she’d felt the situation had been unsafe, and now they wanted her embedded with a crazy man again. Not a care in the world for her safety, or Raider’s. Fielding had all but said this thumb drive was more important than her life.Shit.

“I’m not sure how I can make that work,” she said finally. Even though she accepted that she had no real options, here, she tried to buy time to decide how much of a death wish she really had.

“You and the others would have to go back,” Fielding said. He implied that it would be easy but what in the hell could they tell Denlo, and how would she convince the others to join the party?

“You make it sound easy, but I don’t think it’s that simple. Why would he trust any of us now?”

Fielding nodded. “I know it might seem daunting, but I think we’ve devised a plan that might work. You’re going to tell Denlo you got spooked but now you’re good and you just want to get the job done.”

She snorted. It was an asinine plan that didn’t have a hope in hell of working. They’d need a better story than that. She glanced at John expecting him to share his thought process but his face was impassive and…what the hell?...he was nodding slightly. Was he for real? No way would that stupid ass plan work. Plus, she’d need the whole team.

“How are we going to get Wells and Baker to do what they’re told?” It seemed an obvious issue, but she thought she’d better bring it up since they seemed to have very limited understanding of how this would work in the real world.

John cleared his throat. “Our guys are telling them if they don’t cooperate then they’ll spend the rest of their lives at a black site and talking to no one but the CIA.”

She frowned. “What? Why would they believe that?”

Fielding leaned forward. “Because we can tie the guns to terrorism, and they are being told that the money in the bank is proceeds from the sale of said guns and they are now an accessory after the fact.”

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