Page 75 of Defender

The Trumpolds had no idea that the people they’d be targeting happened to be closest friends with two members of Omega Sector.

Damien spent the next few minutes encouraging Trumpold, reminding the man that he was doing the right thing.Thejustthing.That the mission he was undertaking was a righteous one.

That the mission would also serve Damien’s purposes—picking apart yet another piece of Omega—was beside the point.

This time the plan wouldn’t fail.This time Damien would ensure Omega Sector knew his pain.Knew the agony of grief.

They’d won once, but they wouldn’t again.Damien would make sure they understood pain.

* * *

THENEXTMORNINGwhen Ashton arrived at Omega HQ, Jon and Brandon, along with some of the likable nerds from the forensics lab, had rebuilt the entire “wall of crazy” in one of the conference rooms.

They’d been at it all night and were obviously way pleased with themselves for the exact replica they’d created.

Ashton and Lillian arrived at the conference room at the same time.Ashton shook his head as he entered.“Jon, you’re getting married in two weeks.Does the lovely Sherry know you’re spending your nights doing such kinky stuff?”

“And with Brandon,” Lillian continued, “who if I’m not mistaken has his own lovely fiancée at home waiting for him.”

“Our women,” Jon responded, “I’ll have you know, were very understanding and supportive of our need to get this project situated absolutely perfectly.”

Lillian turned to Ashton.“We’re going to need to talk to them about enabling.”

“Yes, sadly.”

Ashton and Lillian sat down at the table to study the wall as Brandon and Jon gave their thanks to the three lab techs who were leaving.

“Can you guys really make sense of any of this?”Ashton asked.

Jon shook his head.“Not yet, but we will.We’ve already gotten rid of some of the string.It had obviously only been added for confusion.”

Ashton and Lillian tried to help, while at the same time stay out of the way, as Brandon and Jon bounced theories off each other for the next few hours.They isolated and narrowed down concepts and patterns—connecting parts on the wall with their own string.The two men identified patterns Ashton couldn’t recognize even when they were pointed out to him.

“Both Summer and Curtis Harper stated how this Damien character told them that Omega Sector needed to suffer.To know the agony he’d known.That Omega needed to be forced to know what it was like to lose a loved one,” Jon said.

“So it’s someone who we’ve ‘hurt’ in some way,” Brandon said.He sat down in one of the conference room chairs.“You know, we’ve been working on the assumption that this secondary guy—since he was willing to kill both Harper and Summer—gave them a false name.What if he didn’t?”

“Damien Freihof,” Jon muttered, shaking his head.He sat down, also.Quiet.

This wasn’t good.Ashton looked over at Lillian.She just shrugged.“Who the hell is Damien Freihof?”

“We put him in jail five years ago when he tried to blow up a bank full of people,” Jon said.

Lillian scoffed.“There’s no way he’s doing this from jail.”

“He escaped last year.”Brandon rubbed his neck, studying the board again.“He’s definitely smart enough for this.”He threw his hand out toward the board.“And to manipulate Harper into wanting to kill Ashton.”

“Has there been any contact with him since he escaped from prison?”Ashton asked.

“Freihof was the guy who took Andrea last year and nearly killed both her and Brandon,” Jon explained.

Brandon’s voice was icy, his eyes closed, remembering.“He hung explosives around her neck right in front of me.”

Ashton flinched.The thought of finding explosives around the neck of the woman you love, as Brandon had, was enough to bring out the hardness in anyone.

“Freihof almost killed Andrea and me both,” Brandon continued.“He was injured by his own explosives, but he got away.”

“Looks like he might be back,” Lillian muttered.“With a definite vendetta to fill.”

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