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Briana paid attention to the road signs as they drove to their destination. She was familiar with the Woodfield Mall area and was surprised when the vehicle drove into a parking garage beside a building that was on the ring road of the mall. She was even more surprised by the security gates and garage doors as they descended into the sub-basement parking level.
“Bring your backpack,” Roth told her. “We’ll stash it in my car while we meet with Shepherd.” He anticipated they’d be free to go after the meeting. He wanted to take her back to his apartment and have some more of that naked time together. Plus, there was a conversation that needed to happen.
Cooper had just sent a text to Shepherd advising him that they had parked. He read the reply. “While she meets with Shepherd,” he said. “You’re not invited to the beginning of the meeting.”
The elevator arrived, and they all stepped in. Cooper hit five and then the eight buttons. The doors closed. The elevator, though, stopped on floor two. Garcia waited alone and stepped in. His gaze fixed on Briana. “Did she sign the NDA?” he asked.
“Yep, got it here,” Madison said, holding up the file folder.
“That is fully enforceable,” he said to Briana.
Damn, this guy threw off a scary vibe. “I assumed it was when I signed it,” she said.
“This is Garcia,” Roth introduced.
“Hello,” she forced herself to say in a pleasant tone of voice.
He nodded. “You were brought in on a lot of our operation before you signed. It does apply to all you learned previously.”
“Yes, I assumed that as well,” she said.
The elevator stopped on five. “This is our floor,” Roth said to her. He stepped off the elevator, and she followed.
“Come up to my office after you drop her in the conference room with Shepherd,” Garcia told Roth. The three of them remained in the elevator and the doors closed.
“Who was that guy?” Briana whispered to Sebastian.
“Don’t let Garcia get to you. He usually doesn’t bite,” Roth said with a chuckle. He peeked in Shepherd’s office through the open door. It was empty. “The conference room is just down the hall.”
Briana felt anxious, walking down the hallway with Sebastian. And the fact that he wouldn’t be allowed to be in the meeting with his boss put her further on edge. The room he led her to was half-way down the hall. She peered into the room when Sebastian halted in front of the open door and saw the solitary man seated at the table. He was older, in his late forties or early fifties, she guessed by his appearance, the correct age to be a colonel.
“Hi, Shepherd,” Roth greeted him. He stepped into the room and motioned for her to follow. “Colonel Sam Shepherd, Briana Woods,” he introduced.
“Miss Woods,” Shepherd said, motioning to the chair opposite him at the conference room table.
Briana took the seat but sat at attention, poised on its very edge. She was no longer enlisted in the United States Army, and he wasn’t wearing a uniform as Sebastian had said they were a very relaxed unit, but this man was still a Colonel, a superior officer. She respected the rank. Sebastian personally respected him, and she trusted Sebastian, so she respected Colonel Shepherd as well.
“That’ll be all, Roth. I’ll notify you when our meeting is finished.”
He flashed Briana a supportive grin. “Thank you. Yes, Garcia asked me to report to his office after escorting her here.” He stepped back through the doorway into the hallway and closed the door.
“I’m told you signed the NDA.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “I would never have disclosed what I learned about your agency, with or without the NDA.”
“I’ve read your military file. You were a good MP, a good soldier,” Shepherd said. “Your superior officers all remarked that you were an asset to your unit.”
“I’d like to think so. I enjoyed my time serving and was proud to be an MP.”
“I also read your recruitment file when the CIA was pursuing you. I ran new background checks on you, and everything still holds. You still qualify for a high security clearance.”
Briana didn’t know what to say about that. She wondered what kind of access and security clearance he had to get these files on her.
“Why did you leave the Army?” he asked.
“If you read my CIA recruitment file, then you know I had a relationship with a man named John Rivera. He was a CIA agent. I knew that when I got involved with him. I was interested in a career with the CIA because of him and the picture he painted of what my life as an agent could be, the good I could do to help the United States. You already know about my friend and coworker Lisa O’Conner, who had been beaten up so badly by her husband that she was given a medical discharge. It was around the time I was making my decision to get out of the Army and go to work for the CIA that her ex-husband was released early from prison and had been granted visitation of their son. John agreed with me that Lisa and her son should disappear. He showed me the program that the CIA used to generate false identities and he pulled two for Lisa and her son. Shortly after that, John was killed in the line of duty in a foreign hellhole. His death was filmed by his captors, a horrible end to a good person. His body never made it home.”
“That explains why you didn’t go to work for the CIA. Why didn’t you stay in the Army at that point?”
