Page 64 of The Ghost Assassin

“Okay, now you’re being irritating,” I snap. “First it was for sure one of the top five assassins on that list you gave me. Now, it’s someone new. This is guessing and it does us no good.”

“Open minds breed open ideas,” he counters.

“Whatever the fuck that means. I liked ‘horror movie’ Jack better than ‘motivational speaker’ Jack. Either you have something solid, or you don’t.”

“That’s the point,” he says. “I do. Apparently, some user on the dark web was asking for an assassin willing to hit government targets. There were no takers. I looked back and found the thread. Screen name DoubleM was asking for a taker.”

“When?” I ask.

“April of 2020,” he supplies.

Ellis grabs a file and hands it to me. “Look for that date.”

He snatches up another himself and three files in, we have nothing. I point at file four. “Check that one.”

“I told you. Clyde’s dead.”

“Someone loved him. When you love someone, you kill for them, right?”

“I’m not sure that’s how you show love.”

“I guess some of us love harder. Check the file.”

He snatches it up and scans the contents, going stone still a minute into his review. “He died in April of 2020.” He glances at me. “And the company—Blackhawk Security—is a contract military operation.”

“Are you fucking serious?” I snap. “How are you director of Homeland Security? Why isn’t this on the top of your list?”

“They were technology-based. This wasn’t a bunch of guys going out and killing people. And the company shut down. He had no partner. He has a son in the private sector and a daughter in the Army, but she’s well decorated and—you know—she’s—”

“A woman,” I supply. “Now you had to go and make me think you’re a dick I can’t work for.”

Tic Tac clears his throat. “Houston, I think we have a problem. Clyde’s daughter is a trained sniper, and the son is a VP at a firearms company. I’m a data guy, but that seems problematic. Maybe they couldn’t hire an assassin, so they just decided to do the dirty work themselves?”

“There was a movie like that,” Jack says. “Hmmm. I can’t remember the name. But I think—”

“Unless that movie helps in some way, Jack,” I snap, “we don’t care.”

Ellis and I look at each other, an unspoken “oh, fuck” between us. “And I would have known that if I hadn’t set the damn file aside,” Ellis bites out before he eyes Tic Tac. “Where do they live and where are they now? And can you ping their phones for location?”

“I’m working on it,” Tic Tac says.

“Pardon me, Director Ellis,” Jack says, oh, so politely, “but there was more to Clyde Walker’s Blackhawk operation than technology. Per the dark web, he owned a ranch in Maryland where he trained his staff. There’s a big thread there talking about him training killers, and speculation about jobs they did for the government.”

Killers like Ghost, I think. “How does the dark web know this, and you don’t, Director Ellis?”

“I was lied to,” he says. “And so was everyone else on the committee, which makes me question Marie’s personal interest in the company.”

“I can look into that,” Tic Tac offers, “but right now, Mark and Elsa’s phones are pinging at the Maryland ranch.”

Ellis grabs his phone. “I’ll get a team out there.”

“No,” I say. “If Marie had a personal interest in Blackhawk, so might others. We need to get them to talk and to search the place first. And you should stay here. If the siblings are killing off everyone that voted out Blackhawk, you’re a target.”

Ellis’s jaw sets stubbornly. “I assure you, Agent, I can handle myself. You did good work. I’m going to handle it from here.” He stands. “These files need to come with me.”

I push to my feet. “This is a mistake.”

“Then it’s my mistake to make. Thank you for the hard work. I’ll contact you after the raid.”

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