Page 12 of Storm and Tempest
“Boss.”
He turned to Special Agent Herron, and she motioned across the grass.
The groundskeeper came over with a couple of agents, not looking so happy about finding a hole in the ground where thereshould be a grave. “Well, now,” he said, scratching his chin. “That’s not good, is it?”
Jax said, “Do you have any kind of surveillance system in the grounds of the cemetery?”
He scratched his jaw. “Usually, sure. But these folks came over last night and told me we were having a whole system upgrade. Knocked the whole thing out for a while and couldn’t get it back up. So it’s currently down.”
“What folks?”
“Older guy, Hispanic guy, and a blonde. Thick ponytail sticking out the back of her ball cap. She was good at what she did. All those ones and zeros racing across the screen.”
Jax’s stomach clenched. The agents here would realize that was Maizie. “If some of our techs could take a look at your system, we would appreciate it if you give us access. Just in case the footage is recoverable.” He wandered off, heading for his car.
If there had been something to find, Kenna’s team would have found it. After all, they were the ones who had beaten him here to do exactly what Jax had intended this morning. Bruce, Ramon, and Maizie. None of them had told him what they were doing, or what they’d discovered if they had found something.
Jax stopped by his car and fired off a text, asking them what they did with Buzard’s body. Then he climbed in, ignoring the stares of his agents. If his boss wanted a meeting, then Jax wasn’t going to make him wait any longer.
He drove to the office, thinking how Kenna would always want to stop for coffee. He’d stopped making a pot in the morning when it was only him who drank it. Then Maizie had shown up at the house because Stairns was in to California so he could be a bodyguard for Jax’s sister and her family. Just in case they were targets.
He didn’t know whose idea it was that he have her company, but it was better than her being in Colorado by herself.
Jax wanted to know why Maizie let the others talk her into bringing down the surveillance system so they could steal Buzard’s body.
His phone chimed in his pocket as he walked past Maizie’s lab, but it was the verse of the day from his Bible app. Something about giving the Lord the first fruits.
He didn’t see Maizie at her desk, so he sent her a text.
Are you at work?
The bubbles that indicated she was typing popped up, then disappeared.
He got irritated waiting for her to reply and went to find his boss. The Assistant Director in Charge was directly above Jax and reported to the Director of the FBI. If he was here, then there was a serious problem.
Jax knocked. “Sir?”
“Come in.”
Jax could tell the guy seldom used this office. There were no personal items on the desk, except for a steaming cup of coffee and a half-eaten donut on a paper towel. The top of the sideboard was empty, with one drawer slightly open. And a painting that was fit for a low-budget hotel room hung on the wall. He’d had seen better artwork at the big box store.
At least Jax’s office looked the part.
Assistant Director in Charge Hadley slid his suit jacket on the back of his chair so the lapels were on either side of his head. “Take a seat, Oliver.”
“Everything okay, sir?”
“The director and I met with the president recently, and he filled me in on some things. Experiences you had in the United Kingdom that might have had a more lasting effect on you than anyone realized.” Before Jax could ask what that was supposedto mean, his boss said, “Have you met with the department psychologist since your wife left you?”
“She went missing. Sir, she was kidnapped by a dangerous group.” He explained how Ramon had been stunned and the men who took Kenna from the area outside the silo, right after her debrief by Special Agent Herron, had been agents of a dark organization. “I’ve only started to scratch the surface of what happened. I need a lot more resources if I’m going to get to the bottom of what’s going on.”
Kenna’s team were hot on the trail, working the case.
Jax was here, relegated to being reprimanded by his boss while they did the job he wanted to be doing right now.
But no, being a fed had saved his life so many times. Doing his job was what would get her back, not running off chasing random leads with no backup.
“Right.” ADIC Hadley linked his fingers together on the top of the desk. “Everything the president told me was quite sensational, but really only speaks to the delusion he’s under about shaking things up. Clearing the swamp, or whatever he ran on. I mean, does he really think there’s some kind of grand conspiracy going on in the whole world? The man should just worry about this country. The one he’s supposed to be the president of. Everyone on the planet isn’t under his jurisdiction, no matter what people might think. Other countries will take care of their own business.”
