Page 52 of Raven's Claw
Jordan sighed.“Whatever else you need to say, just spit it out.”
Becca folded her hands on her desk.“You’re not the first agent who uncovered the existence of Sandman.There were two others.Both met with untimely accidents.”
Jordan glanced at Cannon.“Was one of them Cannon’s friend?”
“Dwayne Goodman.Code name, Hopper.This was after you left.Rook cut back on the number of missions.My guess is, he couldn’t find anyone to fill your shoes.But he sent Hopper on half a dozen before one of Rook’s cyber guys got careless and left a bit of a breadcrumb for Hopper to follow.He’d been a communication specialist and…”
“The other?”
Becca’s jaw clenched impossibly tighter, some of the color draining from her face.“He was a year before you.”
Jordan waited, but Becca just kept staring, until everything shifted into place.“Raider.”
“I’m sorry.I think that’s why he sent you all those coded messages?—”
“All?I only got one regarding his safehouse.How to access it.A subtle hint that if I ever had to bail, I should head here, to Raven’s Cliff.That I might find some sort of salvation.”
“Raider sent you over a dozen, but I imagine Rook intercepted the rest.As for Raven’s Cliff… Turns out, Raider, Thomas Cross back then, knew Atticus Parker.Ran missions for him before shifting over to Scythe.”
“Is that why Rook targeted Atticus?It wasn’t because of my connection to Foster’s team but because of my uncle?”She fisted her hands, wanting to punch them through the nearest wall.“Did Atticus know about me, all along?Did he… Was he the reason I got the job at the café without intense background checks?How I was able to rent that cabin with little more than a simple form?Did I put him in Rook’s crosshairs the second I set foot in town?Jesus.”
“Jordan.”Mac’s voice echoed through the room, and Jordan had to fight not to cringe.To look the other woman in the eyes when all she could think was how she’d ruined everything.
Mac held her head high.“It doesn’t matter why Rook took my father.All that matters is that we get him back and take Rook down.All things considered, you’re our best shot at that.”
Jordan stared at Mac then slowly made her way through the rest of Kash’s buddies, finally ending with Kash.She didn’t deserve the unyielding faith staring back at her, but she’d take her wins where she could find them.
“Becca?If I give you some parameters, can you search the area, say an hour or two in any direction?Maybe we can narrow down a handful of locations Rook might be hiding in.Get a jumpstart on some kind of strategy because I know him, and he’s not going to give us any time to adapt once he calls.”
Becca beamed.“Girlfriend, I can do you one better.I can list all the areas in order of probability based on everything you give me.More is better here, and…”
An alarm sounded throughout the room.Not a siren, like Jordan would expect if there was a fire or an inbound missile.This was just a few pings, then silence.
Becca inhaled.“Whoa.What the…”
She tapped more keys, windows and folders flying across the screen.Too fast for Jordan to make out any of the words.Becca seemed to follow everything.Clicked her way until she had blueprints of the building superimposed on the monitor.“I’m not sure what’s going on, but someone just pinged a tracking device inside the room.”
Bodie shook his head.“No way.Not a chance Rook’s men infiltrated my office without setting off something.I might not be at your level when it comes to hacking, but I know how to secure my own damn building.”
Becca frowned, her fingers still racing over the keyboard.“It’s odd.It’s more of a homing beacon.Very low range, no more than a few hundred feet.”More typing.“There’s some sort of code embedded in the transmission.Give me a minute, and I can probably source it…”
She froze, gaze locked on her screen before lifting to look at them.She swept the gathering of people, lingering on Jordan.“I’m sorry, but it’s you.”
Jordan frowned, studying Kash’s team before coughing.“Me?”When Becca just stared at her, she shook her head.“It can’t be me.These aren’t even my clothes, and I haven’t been close enough to any of Rook’s men for one of them to have slipped a tracker on me.It must be something else.”She held up the cell.“The phone?”
“Not to sound vain, but I’m pretty damn good at what I do, and this isn’t coming from a cell.The signal would be stronger, and the coding would be different.I honestly don’t know what this is.I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“I think I’d know if Rook implanted…”
The answer hit her.Took her breath away.Left her standing there, mouth gaped open, lungs refusing to inflate.She turned to look at Kash, but he’d obviously already arrived at the same conclusion.
He raked his fingers through his hair, tousling strands across his face.“Shit.Your implant.”
“I had a private doctor inject that.I never trusted anyone remotely associated with Scythe unless I was dying.”
Kash took a breath — grabbed her hands.“And were you ever close to dying since you had your last one replaced?”
“I…” Everything locked down tight.Her throat, her lungs, her damn heart.Frozen.Just like Becca had been a few moments earlier.
