Page 31 of Operation: Valiant Angel

Wilson doubted it. There was no way SecDef and the federal authorities would let Kumar pass any classified info to Percy. That was why Percy’s elimination didn’t seem to be imperative based solely on the need to protect data.

“No sensitive info was transmitted,” Shepherd confirmed. “Percy’s elimination was based on other criteria.”

Wilson nodded. It was as though Shepherd had read his thoughts. At the end of the day, it had just been another job. He didn’t particularly care why the decision had been made to take Percy out rather than arrest him. He had confidence in the chain of command that had made the decision. The day he stopped having that faith would be the day he’d walk away from the job.

The remainder of the debrief was textbook. The video chat was shut down and each person on the team would complete their mission report on the flight back to O’Hare. Not a bad outcome.On the ground for less than ten hours and the case was wrapped up.

They arrived back at HQ just after sunset. After they stowed their gear, the other members of the team left to go home. The CIA Case had been pushed back. They would deploy on it the following afternoon. Wilson opted to again sleep on his office couch. First, he went to the fifth-floor kitchen to raid the leftovers in the fridge. Angel always kept food on hand at the office. He found several cartons of Chinese food and a tray with sandwiches from a local deli. He heaped a serving of the Chinese onto a paper plate and placed it in the microwave.

Joe Lassiter entered the kitchen. “Hi, how’d it go?” he asked casually as he entered.

Wilson knew Lassiter never asked anything without a motive. “Good. You read the mission report, I assume.”

Lassiter pulled the tray of deli sandwiches from the refrigerator and pulled two of the servings onto a paper plate. “You know I did. I’m not up here on an official capacity regarding your mission. I’m waiting for several members of Echo Team to get back. They’re running one of the Briana Woods’ rescue missions with her. Shepherd needs to come up with a label for those cases other than a Briana Woods’ mission.”

“I thought she was to be in the office for a few weeks for training,” Wilson said.

“This one came into the contact form of hers and was hot, immediate threat of death. Shepherd green-lighted it. It was local, the Chicago area. It was a good first case to have under the Shepherd Security umbrella.”

“Who was staffed on it?” Wilson asked.

“Woods, Saxton, BT, and Bubbles,” Lassiter replied.

“Was it successful?” Wilson asked.

“It was,” Lassiter said, without explaining what successful meant.

Wilson didn’t press him. His microwave dinged its completion of reheating his meal. He pulled it out and planned to bring it up to his office to eat.

“Sit, keep me company,” Joe said.

“Sure,” Wilson agreed, already regretting that he hadn’t just grabbed a sandwich and left the room before Lassiter arrived.

Lassiter sat across from him. “You’ve had an active few weeks. I’m glad you got in the St. Thomas trip in between these last two missions.” He chuckled. “It had to feel like the old days, two unplanned missions back-to-back.”

Wilson chuckled with him. It was forced, and he was sure Lassiter knew it. “It’s comfortable territory. It was easy to fall into the routine of the PGP Installs, but this feels like home.”

Lassiter took a big bite of his sandwich. “That’s good to hear,” he said after he’d chewed and swallowed. “You’re flexible. Shepherd appreciates that. He’s operating in new territory too, you know, making allowances for the men with families and staffing cases based on it.”

Wilson hadn’t considered that. Yeah, when had he ever known Shepherd to make assignments based on a team member wanting to attend a medical appointment with their wife like he had with Sloan? “Luckily, he has multiple team members with similar skill-sets. Though this last mission proved that the job overrules personnel requests when needed.”

“And it always will,” Lassiter agreed. “I know it’s been said before, but right now is such a time of flux within theorganization. You have no conflicts with the modifications made for the men with families, do you?”

Ah, so that was what this was about, Wilson realized. “You’ve asked me before, and my answer is still the same. No issues whatsoever. They’re still putting in their time, be it in Ops or running other missions. It’s not in my job description to keep track of everyone’s assignments and evaluate the fairness of them. It all pays the same and I trust Shepherd. Besides, missions like the last two are what I signed up for.”

“Good enough,” Lassiter said. “If that ever changes, I expect you to initiate a conversation with me about it.”

“You know I will,” Wilson agreed.

When Wilson settled in to try to get some sleep, his thoughts drifted to Rae and his last conversation with her. Not tired enough to sleep yet, he tapped out a text message to her. “Hi, how’s it going?”

Her reply was immediate. “Good. I should be sleeping, but I’m wide awake.”

“Me too,” he said. “I just got back from a job, and I leave tomorrow morning on another one.”

“Do you like all the traveling?” she asked.

“I don’t mind it,” he answered. “You have to go where the job is.”

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