Page 100 of Crossover

“Maybe something’s wrong,” I said. “This is taking too long.”

What if this was a ploy to separate us?

“The evidence is rock solid,” Barry assured.

“Yeah, well…” I had no idea how the CIA would handle?—

The door swung open, and three men entered. The first, a tall, lanky man with thinning hair—Cleveland Trace, the head of the CIA—along with two of his associates. All three wore business suits and had mastered the art of absolutely no emotion in their body language or facial expressions.

Unless you count authority as emotion. They commanded the room, seemingly sucking the air right out of it, as if to hold it hostage until they got the answers they’d come here for.

“Mr. Lockwood,” Cleveland said.

“Grayson,” I corrected.

Cleveland’s eyebrows shot up in recognition as he said, “Barry Mansfield. Didn’t realize you were going to be here today. You’re quite the legend.”

Cleveland set a black folder on the table in front of him as he and his associates pulled out the leather chairs and held their ties as they sat down.

“I enjoyed my career at the CIA,” Barry said humbly.

Cleveland’s gaze swept to Seth. “How is the Nightshade mission coming along?”

His tone was hard to read. Somewhere betweendon’t you have better things to be doing right nowandwhy isn’t Vosch dead already.

“Slower than we’d prefer,” Seth said. “But moving in the right direction.”

“Yes.” Cleveland snapped his eyes to me. “Much slower, I’d say.”

Great.Either he hadn’t read all the information we provided—which outlined Daniel’s role in why Vosch’s elimination failed—or he didn’t believe it.

I prayed it was the former.

“So,” Cleveland sighed, “it seems we have quite the mess on our hands.”

“I would say so,” I agreed.

“These are some pretty serious allegations you’re making. Daniel Murphy has worked for the CIA for more than two decades. He’s never had a single complaint against him in all that time,” Cleveland argued. “He’s taken out more criminals than any CIA operative in history. Yet we’re to believe he’s corrupt?”

“I wish it wasn’t true,” I said. “As you know, he was more than just my handler to me. He was my mentor and someone I considered a personal friend.”

“Don’t you think it would’ve been appropriate to invite him here to face his accusers?”

“I think the CIA deserves time to study the evidence before they confront him with the facts. Because that’s what these are, sir—facts. It’s all outlined there.” I nodded to his folder, which I assumed had everything we submitted to them. Prompting this emergency meeting.

Over the next hour, we went over every piece of information we had about Daniel and his crimes. Including the unsanctioned assassination of Ivy’s father, luring her to that parking garage in an attempt to silence her, ambushing Ivy and my brothers at his mansion, kidnapping Ivy, among everything else. We went through all of our documentation, piece by piece, including our proof that every fragment of the supposed evidence against Ivy was manufactured.

When we were finally done, Cleveland’s poker face finally crumbled.

“Respectfully, Grayson, I hope you’re wrong. Because if this is true, this will be one of the biggest breaches the CIA has ever faced, and it will have happened on my watch.”

“Sir, Daniel needs to be picked upwhileyour team verifies the evidence we provided. Right now, my family, Ivy, and Ivy’s mother are all in danger. Even if he knows the evidencehas already been turned over to the CIA, we will all become witnesses at his trial.”

Cleveland’s lips pursed.

Eventually, he took a big breath, looked at his watch, and said, “Give me twenty-four hours to validate this. I’ll be in touch.”

“Is there any way to validate the evidence faster?”

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