Page 118 of A Touch of Treachery
I huffed in annoyance and tossed the photo aside.It landed next to the brown envelope the invitation had arrived in.My eyes narrowed, and my head tilted to the side.Wait a second.Technically speaking, the invitation wasn’t theonlything Henrika had sent me—she’d mailed it in a larger envelope.
Curious, I picked up the manila envelope.The mailroom had already scanned it for toxins and the like before it had reached my desk, so I’d never given it to the Section techs for further analysis.I carefully examined the envelope, but just like the invitation, it was exactly what it appeared to be—a plain brown mailing envelope with no microdots, invisible ink, or other hidden secrets.
Next, I reached out with my synesthesia, but the envelope wasn’t hazardous or dangerous, so my magic didn’t paint it in any bright warning colors.The envelope wasn’t nearly as nice and fancy as the invitation was, and other than my name and the Section 47 address, the only other thing on it was the return address—
My eyes widened, and my gaze snapped over to the top left corner.Seashell Importswas printed on the envelope, along with a logo of an open clamshell with a pearl inside.A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me, and I remembered where else I’d seen the familiar symbol: drawn on the back of the photo of Henrika and her sick cousin Meg that had been in the penthouse library.
Henrika never did anything without a touch of treachery, and she hadn’t put the name and logo on the envelope by accident.It had to be a clue, although to whom or what, I couldn’t say—yet.
Excitement coursed through me.Desmond might like battling bad guys and stepping into the unknown, but deciphering clues and uncovering secrets was what I loved about being a spy.
I set the envelope aside, then dragged my laptop closer and typedSeashell Importsinto the main Section database.To my surprise, I got a hit right away.It was a shell company, no pun intended, that had been created roughly seventeen years ago—two yearsbeforethe Mexico mission.I frowned at the odd timing, but I kept digging.
Seashell Imports was the first of many such companies, all strung together like a daisy chain and all with offshore accounts, CEOs who didn’t exist, and everything else you would need to hide money, including where it came from, whom you were sending it to, and what they were doing with it.
Eventually, one of the outlying companies led back to Seashell Imports, completing the circle of corruption.A frustrated growl rumbled in my throat.Someonehad set up this elaborate paper trail, but who?Why?And why would Henrika point me in this direction?She wanted me to find something, although I still didn’t know what it was.
I thought your mysterious benefactor took care of all your problems.Niles Perran’s snide voice sounded in my mind.You took full advantage of your big break.
My eyes narrowed.The biomagical chemist had made those snide remarks when we were in Henrika’s library, and Niles and Henrika’s rivalry stretched back to graduate school.
Maybe I was looking at the wrong thing.Or, rather, at the wrongtime.
From my months of research, I knew all the universities Henrika had attended, and I went to one website after another, clicking through their news stories, pictures, and archives.
Thirty minutes later, I found what I was looking for.It wasn’t much, just a short article about grad students accepting medical research grants.Henrika’s name wasn’t mentioned in the news story, but Seashell Imports was among the companies that had doled out the money.
Iwas going to be the one to do it—to finally cure cancer, leukemia, dementia, and every other horrible disease that robs people of their loved ones.Henrika’s voice whispered through my mind.She’d been telling the truth about her intentions being good, at least when she’d started out.
I skimmed the article, but it was little more than a press release.The truly interesting—and damning—thing was the accompanying photo.The image was a bit grainy, but it was easy to recognize Henrika smiling wide and holding up an oversize check, proudly showing off her grant money, along with her mysterious benefactor.
General Jethro Percy.
The General was clutching the other end of the check and scowling at the camera as if he could melt the lens with the sheer force of his icy gaze.Below the photo, a caption read:Scientist receives grant money from Seashell Imports for cancer research project.
For several seconds, I just sat there in shock, staring at the screen with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.I did one double take, then two, then three, but the image never changed or wavered.I couldn’t believe this was right out in the open on the Internet for anyone to find.The story and photo weren’t even protected by a paywall.
My shock wore off, and my mind started whirring again.Armed with this new information, I went back to Seashell Imports and its daisy chain of other shell companies.It took me another thirty minutes, but I finally found the magic number I was looking for: three million dollars.
The same amount as the ransom demand for my father all those years ago.That money had never been recovered, and now I knew why.It had been deposited into one of Seashell Imports’ many accounts and then transferred into an account that belonged to Henrika.
General Percy had used my father’s ransom money to pay off Henrika Hyde.
As soon as I found the payment, more puzzle pieces clicked into place in my mind.I still didn’t know exactly who had done what and when, but I had a pretty good idea how things had played out in Mexico—and how they were still playing out to this day.
I sat on my yoga mat for a long time, stunned, simply stunned, by what I’d discovered.In some ways, I couldn’t quite believe it was real, but in other ways, it made perfect sense.
General Percy had ordered Desmond to eliminate Henrika because she was a threat, but not to Section 47, not really.No, Henrika was a threat to the General himself.Because if their past relationship ever came to light, it could spell the end of Percy’s career.
This information could changeeverythingat Section 47.
I never had any intention of killing Charlotte.Ms.Locke still has her part to play in this little drama.Henrika had said that in the clearing when she’d kidnapped Desmond, and now I knew exactly what she meant.
Henrika had hired Bryce because she knew the former cleaner would get under Desmond’s skin.She’d also used Bryce to steal the Section undercover agent list to lure Desmond and me to the resort, but she’d never wanted either one of us dead.Henrika had wanted to capture Desmond and experiment on him in hopes of improving her Redburn formula, but she’d had something much more clever and subtle in mind for me.
Henrika wanted to use me to destroy Jethro Percy.
She’d put the Seashell Imports name and logo on the envelope because she wanted me to investigate the company and discover who had set it up and why.When we’d met in her penthouse library after Casino Night, Henrika had dropped all those tantalizing little hints about the Mexico mission to keep me engaged and on the hook.Then, last night, she’d visited the diner to remind me that I hadn’t picked up on all the clues she’d dealt out like cards in a poker game.
