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That was all he said but he spat it out like he couldn’t get the words out unless he expelled them from his throat.
Kira pushed her laptop towards Layla. Her eyes immediately dropped to the computer, and I watched them move over the screen.
“Where?” Theo asked, like he hadn’t noticed Kira and Layla leaning close, looking at KK’s screen. But the frown on Layla’s face had me concentrating on her as she continued to scan whatever Kira pushed in front of her.
“We’d found the man we were looking for, collected the evidence he had, cabled it back to Washington, and were waiting for it to be authenticated. The plan was to move as soon as we got approval. Dutch was the TL. He was briefing the team on the evac route. It was going to be a quick snatch and grab made to look like a kidnapping. We finished our brief when Ann came in looking distraught. No, she looked completely terrorized. Dutch went on alert, I went on high alert—I’d promised to protect her and she looked devastated. The story she told us was she’d gotten word a gang had rounded up teenage girls, kidnapped them, and were in the process of transporting them. Dutch and I loaded up and moved out. No questions asked. I trusted her. We get to the location she gave us, found five girls in a rundown warehouse but no guards. We loaded them up and were back on our way when we were stopped by Haitian police. We explained we worked for the US Government, blah, blah, blah. We’d received intel on a kidnapping, blah, blah, and we’d rescued the girls. The police officer spoke to one of the sobbing girls. She lied and said we’d taken them from their homes. That we’d kidnapped them. Dutch and I were hauled in and spent three days in custody until someone from the embassy came and got us.”
“Holy fuck,” Theo mumbled.
He got that right.
“What happened to your target?” Smith asked.
“Mission was halted while we were in custody. Maddon was pissed as fuck. When Dutch and I returned to the safehouse Ann was gone and so was our target.”
“She set you up.”
Even though my statement was just that, Zane still verified.
“She set us up. I spoke to Maddon, explained what had happened. He didn’t believe me or Dutch and since Ann had been pulled she wasn’t there to be questioned.”
Throughout Zane’s brief, Layla’s attention hadn’t moved from the screen. Her frown had deepened and the two lines between her brows were so pronounced they formed a perfect eleven.
“What are you two looking at?” I asked.
Layla didn’t glance up when she answered, “Nebraska went to live with Charlie Michaels after her mother was murdered when she was twelve. According to old medical records Kira found her mother’s name is Anna Bauer or at least that’s whose name in on the intake form. No father mentioned.”
Anna Bauer’s driver’s license photo flashed up on the screen.
Holy hell.
Nebraska was a younger version of her mother. She wore her hair longer and her nose was straighter but other than that, there was no denying Anna was her mother.
“That’s Ann Robinson and she was very much alive when I was with her in Sun City. She was very alive years later when I saw her in Germany and she winked at me as she left a bar I was entering with some of my teammates. And she was also as beautiful as ever when I saw her in D.C. about five years ago.”
Zane’s response was met with silence.
Until Kira broke it. “Do you think Nebraska knows her mother’s alive?”
“With all the bullshit fuckery that comes with the Agency…”
Zane let that hang and shrugged.
The shrug and vague answer was very un-Zane-like.
“What aren’t you saying?” I asked.
“A lot,” he admitted.
“Where do Charlie Michaels and Maddon Judd fit into this?” Smith joined.
“Maddon Judd is still active CIA,” Kira answered. “The reports Nebraska gave us are going to take some time to sort through. They go back twenty years. The file on Charlie Michaels isn’t as comprehensive.”
“Not surprising,” Theo mumbled.
“But,” Kira continued. “It looks like Charlie officially retired a little over four years ago, but he still freelances. The Raven project was a contract. His life as an art forger is his cover.”
“Not unusual,” Layla added.
