Page 123 of The Wild Charge

“Yeah. I doubt he even slept.” He fired off a text, and Ratchet was coming into the office in less than a minute, carrying his open laptop.

“Okay, so, you won’t believe what I found,” he said as he dropped down in the chair next to Maddox. “No such thing as a coincidence, though, huh? Jansen used to be partnered up with Agent–”

“Gray!” Maggie bolted upright, nearly sloshing coffee, as the knowledge struck her. “He was Agent Gray’s partner. Right?”

Ratchet sent her an owlish look. “Whoa. How did you know that?”

“Back when he was being a pain in the ass, we dug up that old article.”

Still stunned, Ratchet turned his laptop around so she could see the screen. “This one?”

“That’s it.”

It had stuck out at the time because it was the only bit of intel they’d been able to gather. Ratchet hadn’t wanted to risk hacking – or even attempting to hack – federal servers, and the exploits of federal agents weren’t publicized the way they often were for local officers. He’d run an algorithm that yielded mostly junk, but which, finally, informed them that, as a young man, pre-fed Gray had worked as a beat cop, one who’d gotten into a rather high-profile shootout with a nasty street gang in Pennsylvania. Maggie scanned the article, familiar details popping out at her. Four officers had died that day, but Gray and his partner – yep, Patrick Jansen, with a photo and everything – had known about a rear entrance to the building and managed to make it inside without suffering injury. Despite SWAT’s arrival on the scene, Gray and Jansen had marched the perps out themselves, hailed as courageous heroes.

“How did you remember that?” Ghost asked.

She tapped at her temple. “Steel trap. Also, something about it always stank.”

“What was the gang?” Ghost asked.

Ratchet turned the computer back around so he could read it. “Red 10. They’re no longer in operation. That raid took the leadership off the board and they just kinda dissolved after that. Remaining members hooked up with other gangs, or wound up in prison for other offences.”

“And they weren’t just trafficking dugs, were they?” Maggie said.

“No.” He shook his head. “Girls, too.”

Maddox had gone wide-eyed and a little pale. “Can I see that?”

Ratchet passed him the laptop. His brows scaled his forehead as he read.

“What I wondered about then,” Maggie said, “is the way the two of them, in their police blues, and with nothing but their sidearms, managed to breach the perimeter and get inside the building when SWAT couldn’t.”

“They let them come in,” Ghost said, expression wry. “Because they were on the take, and the gang trusted them.”

Ratchet said, “Dude. Shit, yeah, that tracks.”

“He had it out for us from the start,” Ghost said. “And, based on that article, I thought maybe he just hated outlaws.”

“With no other context, you could even argue some sort of PTSD response,” Maggie said.

“Yeah. But I’m betting he and Jansen were already getting tied up with Abacus back then. They were compromised before they ever joined the Bureau.”

“And how many others are the same way?” Maggie asked. “How many young, impressionable cops or Quantico students did they get their hooks into?”

Maddox lifted his head, and turned to each of them in turn; all eyes were trained on him, now. “Don’t look at me. How would I know?”

“Well,” Ghost said, dryly, “seeing as how you’re the only one of us who’s actually ever worn a badge, I’d say you know better than we do.”

Maddox scowled, and returned his gaze to the laptop. “Trust me. All of this is new to me.”

“Corruption in general? Or on this scale.”

“Both.” And he sounded devastated.

~*~

Mercy hated that it sometimes took crises to remind them of the important things, and the ways in which they’d let their life lapse into “good enough” territory. He and Ava still kissed goodbye every morning, and goodnight before bed. They squeezed in sex where they could, as difficult as that could be with three children under ten.

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