Page 51 of Operation: Silent Angel
Yvette leaned her head against Mac. “I’ll assume Cooper notified Shepherd of Ruiz’s demise.”
“Yes, he was going to as soon as he was in his seat. I expect Shepherd won’t be any happier about this development than I am.”
“What do you suppose they’ll do with his body?” she asked.
Mac sighed. “If it were me, I’d place him on the Delphi Princess with the others. That’d send a strong message. But they’ll probably just let the vultures and coyotes take care of scattering his remains out where he died.”
Yvette reached up and turned off the lights above them. Then she snuggled in against him and instantly drifted off into a deep sleep.
November
The flight to Miami took just over two hours. It was uneventful. The Shepherd Security plane waited near the hangar the DEA plane taxied right up to. The problem was, the Shepherd Security plane had a max passenger load of ten, and that was utilizing two jump seats in the in-cabin cargo area. As soon as they deplaned, Cooper was on the phone to Shepherd.
Shepherd had already made arrangements to turn the two women over to two DEA agents on the ground in Miami. They were there in the hangar, waiting. After assuring the women that they’d be perfectly safe and the deal they were offered was still in effect, they left the ladies with the two men who were ready to transport them to a safe-house. There, they’d debrief and give whatever intel they could.
Mac and the Shepherd Security Team boarded the agency Lear after stowing most of their bags in the under-cabin cargo hold. Mother and Roth volunteered to take the less comfortable jumpseats. Garcia and Lambchop took seats in the front, by the computer equipment. Facing them in two side-by-side standard seats, sat Cooper and Madison. Farthest back in side-by-side seats, Yvette led Mac to sit with her. The seats reclined almost all the way. She planned to return to sleep as soon as the plane took off. And Laura Lee and Briana took the side-by-side seats facing them.
This would be a much more comfortable flight for all of them except for Mother and Roth. The Lear sat on the tarmac for over an hour, waiting its turn to take off from the busy military airfield, which was holding some sort of training exercises. The flight was just over three hours. Everyone slept. They landed in the wee hours at Chicago Executive Airport, where several Shepherd Security SUVs waited for them.
The roads back to the Shepherd Security Building were just coming to life with the early morning pre-rush hour traffic. It was several hours until sunrise.
“We secure the weapons and then everyone is dismissed,” Cooper said. “Shepherd has set the debrief for eleven forty-five hours. Go home and get some sleep.”
The caravan of cars leaving the parking garage beside HQ, occurred just five minutes later. Yvette borrowed one of the Shepherd Security vehicles as her car was parked in the long-term lot at O’Hare. She’d retrieve it later that day. She parked in her garage, and then she and Mac went straight to bed. Even though she was still tired and comfortably tucked in Mac’s arms, she had a hard time falling asleep.
When Yvette woke up the next morning, she took in the incredible sensation of being held in Mac’s strong arms and the feeling of his warm body pressed against hers, knowing it could be the last time she’d wake up this way for some time. She kissed his lips, waking him. She allowed her hands to softly stroke over him. He responded, and they made love, a tender and emotional exchange of kisses and caresses culminating in a passionate joining that connected them on a deeper level. Yvette felt it, as they lay with limbs tangled after, something was very different between them.
Mac was in no hurry to pull himself from Yvette’s bed. He was in no hurry for the day to play out as he’d most likely be planning his departure. And leaving Yvette was the last thing he wanted. But he had to check in with his Interpol contact and see where he stood.
Would all the intel they’d obtained be enough to save him from being burned with Interpol? Did he really care if it was the case? Ruiz was stopped, and his entire network was going to be shut down. There were other gigs he could take on if he weren’t completely burned in the intelligence community. Again, he had to wonder if that was even what he wanted. For the first time in his adult life, he was unsure.
They showered and stopped at Starbucks to grab a coffee and a breakfast pastry on the way to the office. Yvette put the Shepherd Security vehicle in park in the underground parking lot right at eleven thirty-five.
“You know Shepherd better than I. What do you think the tone of this debrief is going to be? Surely, he knows Dyer killing Ruiz isn’t on us,” Mac said before they got out of the car.
“Ruiz's death will be merely a blip during this debrief,” Yvette said. “I’m sure the status of all the intel we obtained from him and the dissemination of that intel to various agencies to shut down every aspect of the network will be a main focus.”
“I hope every last branch of that network is permanently compromised. That is the only outcome that will make this worth it.”
Yvette nodded. He didn’t say it, but she was sure the ‘this’ he referred to was his being burned with Interpol. “I need to make arrangements to get my car from O’Hare. If you think you’ll be leaving within the next twenty-four hours, we could get a lift from someone here at the office to drop you at the terminal and me at my car,” she bravely said.
“We’ll see how it plays out based on the debrief. Shepherd may already have word of my fate, and if that’s the case, there’s no hurry for me to get to O’Hare.”
She noticed the edge his voice had to it. Was it wrong of her to secretly hope that would be the case? “Okay,” she agreed. “We’d better head up to Shepherd’s office.”
They took the elevator to the fifth floor. Shepherd’s door was closed, so they continued down the hallway to Angel’s desk.
“Welcome back,” Angel greeted them with a smile.
“Thanks,” Yvette said. “I have to say, it feels weird to be back in the office after being out in the field.”
“That sounds like you prefer the field?”
“Not at all,” Yvette insisted. “I like it here at HQ very much. It just feels weird, that’s all. I’m sure it will feel normal again after my first shift in Ops.”
Angel smiled. “I hear the resort was beautiful. Briana and Roth are already talking about when they can go back for a real vacation. They stopped by half an hour ago when they got into the office. They’re in with Shepherd now. He’s fast-tracking the next DVR Mission.”
“DVR?” Mac asked.
