Page 99 of Steinbeck
“Mariposa.”
“Yes.The world’s largest stockpile of obsidian.Thankfully we were able to divert their shipment?—”
“The operation Declan was on.”
“Yes.He’s been working with our organization for a while.Axiom wasn’t exactly bait, but it became clear that’s what they wanted.”He drew in a breath.“And we’re starting to wonder if you might have been part of their game plan.”
She frowned.“I...what?”
“You were right.Luis is missing.And so are Mystique and Shep.And we dug into the connection between your Captain Teresa and Luis.They were together before you extracted him out of Krakow.And...we think Teresa worked for the KGB.”
“So, the entire mission was...what?A fake?”
“He did give away troop movements, but perhaps that crime served as his cover.”
“And all this time...”
“He’s been playing the Swans.”
She looked away, shook her head.
“The man at the center of all this, however, is not Tomas, or Luis...It’s a man named Alan Martin.He’s ex-CIA, and he masterminded, well, everything, we believe.”
He picked up the cell phone.“And today this phone proved it.We found calls from Tomas to a cell here in the city, and Coco was able to ping it to a specific location.She ran facial recognition from the cameras in the area against any known Bratva contacts and...there he was.Talking to Tomas on a bench in the middle of Hudson Yards.Eating ice cream.”
She stared at Logan.“So, this Alan Martin is behind...what, exactly?I talked with Nim.She said the program is intact.”
“I know.Declan called me.But Nim thinks there might be a back door, which means somehow it can still be hacked.”
“And Declan is still worried.”
“He’s going to ask the convention center to go offline during his demonstration.”
“Right.No Internet, no hacking.”She sighed.“Okay then, how can I help?”
He frowned, shook his head.“You’re done, Phoenix.We’ll take it from here.”
She blinked at him.“What?No, this is a Swan operation.”
“And you did your job.You secured Axiom.We got the virus?—”
“Are you even sure it works?”
“Declan was there the entire time.He has the virus parked in his cloud server, even if Luis tainted the other one.We have Alan’s phone and are tracking his GPS.”
Are tracking...“Wait.Is Stein still here?”
“No.He and Colt and Tate left about a half hour ago.”He got up.“Thanks again, Phoenix.You’ve been a big help.I guess you’ll be needing a flight somewhere?”
Oh.“Um.”
“You live in Lisbon?”
She nodded.So...dismissed, then.
She walked out into the kitchen, stood in the quiet.
Stein had left.
