Page 161 of Deadfall

“Rune. Explain.”

“Alright—well—wait, where’s Seven?”

Griffin’s lips thinned and he shook his head. A devastating look flickered across Rune’s face and Kyllion looked even more angry if that was possible.

“Damn—I was hoping his tracker just failed,” he murmured.

He glanced over at North. “Okay. I—I suppose I’ll start at the beginning then. But first—” He tapped away on the tablet in quick, urgent movements.

“West?” Rune turned to a man in glasses with a laptop who had slipped into the seat next to him. West gave Rune the nod, and an image appeared on the glass wall.

“What the fuck,” I breathed.

It was a picture of Lev.

“Emersyn, do you know this person?” Rune asked.

I felt every single person’s attention, but I had eyes only for the photo on the screen. At times I’d wondered what had happened to Lev after I’d been captured. After the failed op that had killed everyone—after I’d killed Riggs. The past tightened its hold around me, and I dug my fingers into Fang’s fur. He whined and rested his head on my thigh. Griffin put a hand on my shoulder.

“That was my tech ops,” I said. “His name is Lev.”

Rune nodded and exchanged another look of confirmation with Griffin. I could feel the anger radiating from him, his hand hot and heavy on my shoulder. I looked up and sure enough, rage glittered in his eyes.

“We know this man as Lincoln,” Rune said. “And for the last three years, he’s been feeding information of our movements to Mahoney, hindering our ability to find Emersyn.”

“Where is he now?” My father asked.

“We’re assuming he went back to Mahoney. Once Griffin and Seven went undercover, I spent time attempting to figure out our mole problem. I set a few traps and that paid off. We were about to move on the island for exfil when I caught Lincoln relaying encrypted messages to someone. I brought Kyllion, and the rest of the team up to speed, but before we were able to confront Lincoln, he ran.”

My father frowned at the photo, then turned to me.

“Tell me more about his position on your team,” my father said.

I could tell he desperately wanted to know the details about all of that because when I’d said tech ops, the surprise on his face had been obvious.

“Three years ago, when I was taken—the safe house was compromised—that must have been when they found him. If he was dirty before that, I wasn’t aware.”

But, he had been loyal to Riggs. I couldn’t ignore that. I didn’t want to think about how deep his sabotage might run, and if he was misleading my path to Octavius even before that op.

“What was the connection with Mahoney?” Nyx asked.

“There was none,” I said. “At least that I knew of. The team was formed to go after Octavius. I’d heard Mahoney’s name, but I didn’t meet him until the island.”

“We recently discovered Mahoney has ties to Octavius and Basilion,” Griffin said. “He was going to use Emersyn. First, to gain favor with the brothers, and second, to use her to leverage you to go after Albatron who they have a rivalry with.”

“The brothers are fighting?” Nyx asked.

Griffin nodded confirmation, but my father continued to stare at me. His eyes sharpened dangerously, and I watched his fist tighten on top of the table.

“You went after Octavius?” He repeated.

I nodded. He wanted to ask why. I saw it in his eyes. But, I also saw the apprehension there.

“We spent years dismantling his organizations in an attempt to get to him.”

It was all I could offer in a room full of people. Silence descended on the room. Nyx shifted beside my father and when I glanced at him, I saw he battled to keep a smile off his face. Atlas elbowed him hard, obviously none of this was funny. Nyx turned to him, and the grin broke through.

“What? Like father, like daughter,” he whispered loudly. “I can’t be the only one thinking it.”