Page 98 of Call Sign: King
When Ryder hesitated, Axel prodded, “Okay... Just spit it out.”
“We have visitors coming to The Ranch on Wednesday.”
“Prospective clients or agents?”
“Neither.” Ryder paused before dropping the bomb. “Mossad.”
“Excuse me? Did you say Mossad? As is in the secret Israeli counterintelligence agency?”
“The same.”
“And what the hell would make you do something as stupid as that? Last time I checked, we don’t even invite any of our own alphabet soup agencies to The Ranch.”
Wrath wasn’t wrong. It was a huge risk, but one they needed to take.
“I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high… at least not yet. But last year, one of Torch’s contacts in Europe kept talking about this secret Israeli group doing undercover work. They supposedly specialized in locating hard to find people.”
The first flash of understanding crossed Axel’s weathered face just before he countered, “I’ve already talked to Mossad agents. Over three years ago, right after we went over there to help out on that mission in Syria.”
“I know that, but this is a special unit. At first, when Torch poked around last year, we thought it was a false lead, but Santa Clause helped me track them down. They’re real.”
Ryder paused, letting Axel catch up with what he was saying. When Wrath stayed silent, he added, “Honestly, I don’t know exactly what their approach is. All I know is they have a high success rate and since we’ve hit dead end after dead end, I made the decision that it’s time to bring in fresh eyes. Eyes that have the kind of network and skills we might not have tapped into yet.”
Ryder could see Axel’s internal struggling unfolding right in front of his eyes. His friend wanted desperately to hope, but he’d had his hopes crushed so many times in the past, it had to be hard for him to try again.
“Having them come does come with a lot of risk.”
“No shit. I’m not crazy about them knowing where our command center is.”
“Not that kind of risk. They don’t take every case. I think that’s how they keep their success rate so high. They only take the cases they think they can solve.”
He watched Axel putting the puzzle pieces together of the picture Ryder was painting.
“So… they’ll come, I’ll lay my cards on the table and we’ll find out if I’ve just been pissing in the wind the last seven years.”
“Not exactly, but close enough. It’s not too late to call them off, if you don’t want to take that risk.”
“What? No way!” Axel’s adamant objection told the real story of how he felt about Ryder’s plan. “Don’t cancel. Please.”
Smiling a sad smile, Ryder reassured him. “I won’t. But I did want you to be able to make the final go/no-go call since you have the most to gain… and to lose.”
Tears filled Axel’s eyes, something Ryder hadn’t seen in a long time. “Do you really think there is a chance she’s still alive?”
Returning the favor his friend had done for him just days before, he answered with as much conviction as he could muster. “Absolutely. Never give up hope. We’ve tried plan A, B, and C.”
“And D, E, and F,” Axel added, looking as exhausted as any man in his position deserved to look.
“Now we move on to the next plan. This one is called CCS — the Cold Case Squad.”
“Who is called the Cold Case Squad?” Doc’s voice came from just inside the room.
He really should learn to lock the door.
Gretchen must have noticed Axel’s change in demeanor because she rushed to Axel, reaching out to grab onto his forearms with both hands. “Are you okay? Has something happened?” she pressed.
“Ryder made contact with a new special ops unit.” Axel finally answered Doc, a spark of excitement in his voice Ryder hadn’t heard for a very long time.
Gretchen had started vibrating up and down on the balls of her feet, letting Axel’s excitement infect her as well.
