Page 30 of No More Spies

“Hey, guys. Sorry I didn’t get out here earlier. I’m afraidI’ve been working on figuring out exactly how fucked we are when it comes toCaptain Reed.” Drake took a seat opposite Big Tag and Charlotte. “Taylor isstill in DC. She’s working the Dark Web, trying to figure out where he’s goneand what connections we missed.”

“Yeah, I’d like to know, too,” Big Tag said before lookingover to Kala. His brows rose when he seemed to realize she’d forgone her usualplace beside Lou. “Did you kill the doctor? Because I don’t think Phoebe isgoing to be cool with our normal body disposal methods. She in your trunk,daughter?”

Drake groaned. “Please tell me we didn’t screw with Dr.Gallagher. She’s new, and the director thinks she’s the shit. She was a topprofiler with the FBI and recently took the job with us.”

“I didn’t kill the doctor,” Kala said with a long eye roll.“She’s okay. I told her what she wanted to know and then set up another sessionwith her. See, I can take one for the team.”

It was his turn to stare at her, shocked. “You have asession with her?”

She turned slightly. “It’s not my first time with a shrink.Besides, I get the feeling she needs to spend time with me or she won’t give usthe sterling review we so richly deserve.” She turned back to Drake. “Is thisyet another ploy to break the team up? Since the Zach plan obviously didn’twork?”

Kenzie pointed her sister’s way. “What she said.”

“Zach didn’t want to break up the team,” Tris insisted.“There’s something more going on here.”

“I agree with Tris,” Lou said quietly, her gaze seeminglyfocused inward, like she was seeing something she couldn’t forget. “He didn’twant to leave us. I saw him that day. He saved me and Aidan. He didn’t have to.It would have been easy for him to walk right by, but he didn’t. He told me hehad to go back to hell. Said he should have known he always belonged there.”

Drake’s tone went low, sympathetic. “I know Zach was good tothe team, but he wasn’t who we thought he was.”

“He’s exactly who we thought he was, but apparently with acouple of extra layers,” Big Tag said. “Look, I’m with Lou and Tris on thisone. I’m a fairly good judge of character and nothing set me off with Zach.There’s something we’re missing. He’s definitely not working for Huisman.”

“We can’t know that,” Drake replied.

Cooper was kind of team Zach. “It doesn’t make sense.Huisman was planning on torturing him for information. It’s obvious Zach has aconnection to someone Huisman is looking for.”

“The bombmaker,” Kala concluded. “He knows who the bombmakeris, and he has all along. If he works for anyone, it’s that dude. I don’t knowwhy. Maybe he’s a childhood friend and there’s some weird loyalty to him.”

“Have we considered Zach himself could be the bombmaker?” TJasked.

Tasha laughed. Not a little giggle, a mad guffaw. Lousnorted along.

“Guys, don’t be mean,” Kenzie admonished. “Zach is notdumb.”

Kala smiled broadly. “He’s not, but you have to admit, thedude isn’t like an engineer or anything. He’s not even all that great withcomputers.” She sobered, seeming to think of something. “Unless he’spretending. Playing dumb is always a good cover, but it’s hard when you work soclosely with someone. I’ve read Tristan’s report. We know he’s the one whokilled The Jester and set him up to be found by Tris.”

The Jester was an international arms dealer with fingers inall kinds of weaponized pies. It had been The Jester Huisman was looking forwhen he’d kidnapped and tortured Kala and Carys Taggart.

“My question is how did Huisman know.” Tris sat back,playing with the pen in his hand, cycling it back and forth around his fingers.“About Zach. It was Zach he was serious about. I think I was nothing more thana fun diversion for him. Oh, he wanted to know if I knew anything, but it wasZach he was planning on spending real time with.”

Drake opened the folder in front of him. “Let me see if Ihave everything straight in my head. Sorry. I know you’ve gone over this ahundred times. So what we know now is that Huisman is interested in the man whobuilt several bombs used in attacks in Jakarta we’ve connected to the Disruptshadow groups that we now believe are run by Dr. Emmanuel Huisman.”

“And London,” Tasha added. “A few years ago there was anattempted assassination on British royal family members. The bombs didn’t workthe way they were supposed to, but according to the experts there weresignatures on the bombs that connect them to the weapons used in the Jakartaattacks. Lou could explain it better.”

Lou sat up straighter. “It’s actually very interesting…”

Charlotte held up a hand. “Sweetie, I know you could spendan hour explaining, but I trust you. Can we all agree if Lou believes they weremade by the same person, we believe her?”

“Yes,” they all said at roughly the same time. And heartilybecause Lou would talk for an hour, and he would understand very little becauseshe mostly spoke science.

Lou huffed. “Fine. But you know one day I’m going to giveincredibly important information and you all are going to be sleeping ordoodling and you’ll miss it. To put it in simple terms, it’s like art in a way.The London bombs were part of his early works. They show promise, but he hadn’tfigured out how to smooth over the rough edges. Move on to Jakarta and you seehe’s maturing. The detonators have a beautiful and terrifying simplicity. Thematerials he’s using… Well, it’s obvious he’s moving into small nuclear arms.I’d love to see something he’s recently worked on. I think these bombs could beused to deliver biological weapons as well. I can extrapolate where he’s goingfrom the materials he’s using, but getting my hands on it, being able toreverse engineer it would tell me so much.”

“We have two different definitions of the word simple, Lou,”Big Tag said. “And I haven’t been able to ID any other bombs. I’ve been talkingto intelligence agencies around the world, but we haven’t found anything likethe signature we found on the Jakarta bombs. Of course if we did, it wouldlikely mean Huisman had, too. The fucker seems to always be one step ahead.”

“Because he’s been planning things for decades,” Kenziepointed out. “He knows who we are because he’s been following us since longbefore we joined the Agency and had our pasts erased. Stop kicking yourself,Dad. You couldn’t have foreseen this.”

“He couldn’t have foreseen that some asshole from his pastwould come back to haunt us?” Kala’s brows rose in a near perfect imitation ofthe very father she was talking about.

“Come on,” Tasha argued. “How could he know?”

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