Page 124 of Crossover

My brothers exchanged a look.

“I’m not following,” Bryson said.

I began pacing, faster and faster as a plan took shape in my mind.

“The threat to his family was to keep Daniel compliant,” I said. “But once Daniel was dead, Vosch had nothing to gain by killing them. If anything, it might risk him or someone on his payroll getting caught.”

“Daniel’s family is probably under CIA protection right now.”

“There’s been no attempts on their life. Not one.”

“It doesn’t mean there won’t be.”

It was a fair point. But the more I thought about it, the more my instincts screamed that I was on to something. Rather than spending his time seeking revenge against Daniel by targeting his family, Vosch spent his time tracking down a new operative. Vosch was an opportunist. He had plans and needed help with those plans, and that’s what he really cared about.

More than revenge against a dead man.

And with that, my new plan had taken shape.

68

GRAYSON

“What do you think?” I pressed.

Cleveland Trace sat back in his seat, folding his hands over his lap. This was my second time talking to the CIA director, and like last time, his stoic facial expressions made it virtually impossible to read him.

“We have an active operation in place already,” he said tightly.

“But after multiple attempts, no one has been able to carry it out,” I reasoned.

“Without Daniel’s help, Vosch won’t always be a step ahead,” he reasoned.

“We don’t know that,” I countered. “While he approached me to be his operative, there’s no telling if he has others on his payroll already.”

Cleveland’s jaw tensed. For as skilled as he was at hiding his emotions, there were still telltale signs of the stress he must be under from the fallout of Daniel’s breach. I wondered if his job was in jeopardy, how badly his ego had been damaged, and most importantly, what he might be willing to do to end the very criminal who had started it all.

Candidly, my only hope was if he’d abandon the current slow, potentially futile plan of taking Vosch down in favor of mine.

“Do you think it will work?” I probed.

“Hard to say,” he hedged, glaring. “I thought the other attempts would succeed. Yet here we are.”

“I’m the one that didn’t take the shot,” I said. “Let me do this for my family and for my country. All I ask for in return is protection for my loved ones.”

“There’s no guarantee that even with CIA protection, your loved ones will be safe.”

“But I can guarantee they are unsafe so long as Vosch is walking the earth.”

Cleveland stared at me silently. The truth was, I was going to do this with or without his help, but without it would be far more dangerous for me and, more importantly, my family.

The silence that stretched between us felt like a leaky poison, thickening the oxygen, given me no indication which way this was going to go.

But finally, Cleveland sighed and said, “The captain will need to be one of ours, and we’ll need at least three flight plans.”

My shoulders sank in relief.

“One of them will be registered. The official decoy that Vosch would follow, if it came to that. The second decoy, if you will, will have armed fighter jets on the ready, to assist with the first. The third will be the actual route. Once they land, they will need to immediately board a small aircraft to a classified location.”

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