Page 16 of Sinner's Salvation

They chuckled and moved off to speak in another tight huddle across the room.

Shit, it was official. None of them had ever wanted something from a powerful, determined, angry woman before. One with as much to lose as she did.

This was not going to end well.

Evan moved away so he could watch Anna and Brian while he listened in on the conversation behind him with the earpiece he had in his left ear. The device he’d planted on Ledger was connected to the earpiece, his encrypted phone, and a high security cloud storage bank. New audio files were created and uploaded every five minutes.

They were whispering softly enough that he couldn’t hear everything they said, but he could hear enough.

Time sensitive.

Absolutely confidential.

What if...

...no, paper or electronic trail.

Ledger’s voice grew louder. “Keep the FBI, CIA, and NSA out of this. If they get involved, we’ll lose control of the subject.”

“Under whose oversight is this operation running?” lefty asked.

“Mine,” Ledger said.

“What about Army Intelligence?” Righty asked. “He’s going to report all this to his chain of command.”

“He’s not going to report this to anyone,” Ledger said, in a dark tone.

It took a few seconds before lefty cleared his throat. “Are you sure that’s the best course of action? Army Intelligence doesn’t react well to the loss of their officers.”

“Once he’s gotten all the information he can out of that creature, he’s going to die heroically defending the base from a terrorist attack.”

“Ah, you thought about the circumstances then, before you brought him in?”

“I plan two steps ahead,” Ledger said, arrogance coloring his tone.

Well, this put the situation in a new light.The bastard planned on killing him.

Evan ran down his mental list of contingency plans and settled on the one most likely to succeed. It hinged on Anna Breznik and Brian Stettler trusting him to some degree though. He didn’t have much time to convince either of them that he was on their side.

He also needed to alert his chain of command of Ledger’s plans. He seemed to think his position at Homeland Security could cover any action, no matter how criminal.

Arrogant prick.

The only problem was, he might be right. Proving to those in higher positions that you had an asset like Anna might be enough to justify kidnapping and murder. And Ledger’s brother was the Secretary of Homeland Security.

“Gunn,” Ledger said, coming to join him in front of the security screens. “What’s the next step?”

“I show up with some food and water.” He turned to Ledger slightly. “They’re going to need to use a bathroom. I could take them, one at a time. It will give me a chance to talk to each of them individually.”

“How would we keep control of the...woman?” His pause and the flash of disgust across his face made it clear he didn’t think of Anna as a woman or a human being at all.

“The baby agent.” Evan had to work to keep his body language and tone neutral. “As long as we control him—in the short-term—we control her.”

“I see.” Ledger chewed on his bottom lip. “We could use that to get blood samples and other tests done on her.”

“Start small and painless, maybe a few x-rays or a CT scan.”

“If she’s cooperative, we can start there.” Ledger’s voice insinuated that if she wasn’t, they’d start with the invasive tests first. There was a cruel twist to the man’s lips that told Evan that Ledger wouldn’t hesitate to torture Anna to get what he wanted.

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