Rising Hope by Edie James

41

“Whoever grabbedmy brother’s got a twenty minute head start,” Rollo said once they dragged themselves back upstairs to the nerve center of Knight Tactical.

Star, Angie, and Ethan were manning their computers, each intent on whatever scrap of evidence they were pursuing.

Mouth tight, big fists clenching and unclenching as he paced the floor, Rollo looked ready to start throwing punches. Sarah almost wished he would. It might break the tension.

Ethan swiveled his chair around to face them. “It was Enzo’s CO, Commander Paulson. Him and a Bureau field agent. According to the paperwork, they’re transferring Enzo to the FBI office in San Francisco for questioning.”

Austin groaned. “How much you wanna bet they don’t make it there?”

Rollo looked like he’d seen a ghost. “I can’t believe Paulson is in on this. Enzo thinks highly of the guy.” He turned to the cyber team. “Can we get visual confirmation of the transfer?”

Star nodded, her attention on her screen. “Absolutely. I’m contacting Chief Frazer right now.”

Sarah fingered the necklace in her pocket, hoping for Enzo’s sake, his CO wasn’t involved. It wouldn’t be hard for agents at Panetta and Halliburton’s levels to fake credentials—or Justice Department paperwork—maybe, at least Enzo’s world didn’t have to contain the kind of traitors she was used to living with.

Rollo spread his arms. “Let’s lift a prayer while we wait.”

Jack and Austin immediately flanked him. “Amen,” Jack said.

The rest of the team gathered in a tight circle and held hands. Sarah hesitated. She wanted to join in, but she didn’t want to offend any of them. She hadn’t exactly made her lack of religious faith a secret around Enzo, and she didn’t know what he’d told his brother.

Rollo inched away from Jack and waved her over between them.

She jumped at the chance. The two men clasped her hands, transmitting their warm strength straight to her very center.

The team bowed their heads. Rollo led them in a prayer, begging the Lord to keep his brother safe and asking for the strength and wisdom to bring the wicked to justice before more lives were lost.

The circle dissolved in a murmur of amens.

Hands tingling, heart soaring, Sarah couldn’t believe the energy surging through her. There was no sign. No thunderbolt from the heavens. No heavenly assurances. Just…peace.

Was this what faith brought? Not promises or easy answers, but hope.

Their quick expression of faith eased her mind, at least a little. Enzo would be praying. And the Lord would offer him the same solace.

She had it wrong. He wasn’t alone. Quite the contrary.

Tamra checked her phone and frowned. “I reached out to my sources at the Bureau, but none of them have access to the orders. I don’t see any way to find out who ordered that agent to accompany Paulson.”

“It could easily have been Panetta. Or the supervisor, Halliburton,” Angie mused. “Hard to imagine it would be someone outside the Bureau.”

Sarah had to agree.

“Which puts us back at square one,” Jack noted. “We can’t eliminate anyone as a suspect, especially this Halliburton guy.”

Sarah’s empty stomach clenched. She and Halliburton had clashed from the very start. He was the only man who’d ever driven her to violence. Breaking his nose had been a stupid, impulsive act, driven by the way he handled things in Miami. Still, she’d never thought the man was a criminal, simply too arrogant for his own good.

Maybe it was time she changed her opinion.

She fingered her phone. She’d forgotten about the message. She needed to tell the team.

Waggling her device, she caught the team’s attention. “I was going to share this, but then we found out they took Enzo…”

“It’s okay. Go on,” Emmie urged, her voice soft with unspoken support.

Sarah swallowed tears. She could count on one hand the times fellow agents had offered sympathy. Or assurances. But now was not the time to indulge. This was about saving Enzo.

She cleared her throat, and arranged her thoughts, wanting to cut straight to the chase. “There’s a fellow agent, an old partner of mine, I’ve stayed in touch with. He’s on the East Coast in a supervisory position. We share intel on the DEA occasionally and watch each others’ backs. His name’s Grayson Ames. I reached out to him when Wenmark disappeared. He created a private chat room for us years ago,” she added for the cyber-specialists’ benefit. “Yesterday he left me a message saying he’d been threatened by an unknown actor. All he knew was that it pertained to me and this mission. He said he was going underground. Today, I got another message in the same chat room, from Nels Halliburton.”

Various sounds of surprise erupted around the room.

Ethan and Star eyed each other.

“What?” Sarah urged one of them to speak.

Star gestured at Angie, the former FBI analyst.

Angie pursed her lips. “I found a couple interdepartmental memos buried in an old mission file. Grayson Ames is the person who recommended you for this assignment.”

Sarah’s hands trembled. Her heartbeat slowed, each beat slamming hollowly against her ribs. “Gray’s not my supervisor. We don’t even work in the same district. He was promoted to deputy admin for the Louisville district a couple years ago.”

Tamra tapped her pen on her open notebook. “I can only speak for the Bureau, but I can tell you it wouldn’t be completely strange for a former colleague to recommend the right person for an undercover mission.”

Sure. That made sense, but Sarah couldn’t help feeling sick to her stomach.

“So why didn’t he tell Sarah?” Austin cut straight to the point.

Exactly. Why the cryptic responses in their chat room? He could have told her from the beginning.

Sarah’s throat closed. She couldn’t breathe. If Gray hadn’t revealed his part in her recruitment, what else wasn’t he telling her? And how did Halliburton access their private chat room? And why? Was he warning her off, or baiting a trap?

“It’s okay.” Emmie put a hand atop hers. “We got this.”

But they didn’t. It seemed like every rock they turned over revealed yet another awful truth. Each fact only pointed to more danger for Enzo.

A dull ding interrupted her dark thoughts.

Star squinted at her screen. “We’ve got footage from the police department. It’s Enzo’s CO, for sure. But no Halliburton. Or Panetta.” She rolled her chair away from the screen so the others could see the footage.

They all looked at Sarah, but she shook her head. She didn’t recognize the broad younger man in the dark suit. Angie and Tamra moved closer, but they shook their heads, too.

“If he’s really an agent, I don’t recognize him,” Tamra said. “But the Bureau’s a big place and I’ve been gone a while now.”

Rollo stared at the figures heading down the hallway toward Enzo’s cell, his expression bleak. “How do we track these guys?”

“I don’t know,” Jack said.

Austin snapped his fingers. “They flew. Had to. No other way they could have gotten here so fast.”

Jack and Rollo grinned at each other. Tight, grim smiles that promised action.

Rollo clapped his hands. “Excellent.”

“There aren’t many places to land aircraft big enough to fly from MacKenzie Cove safely in these mountains,” Jack explained to her.

She still didn’t understand. “Even if they brought a helo, they’d have to land here.”

“Or land in Reno and grab a vehicle,” Jack added.

“Indeed,” Austin agreed. “Paulson could have called up a Coast Guard helo in a hot minute.”

“Easy to get permission to land at one of the private facilities ringing the commercial runways,” Jack added. He gestured at the three computer whizzes. “Can you bring up—”

“Already on it,” Star said over her shoulder. “Getting through the Guard’s firewall’s gonna take a sec.”

“Bingo. Commander Paulson filed a flight plan and everything. Destination, Reno.” Star swiveled around to face them, a grin on her pretty face. She tilted one of her large monitors toward them. “Be amazed.”

A coast guard helicopter was parked on the apron well down the tarmac from a small private plane operation.

Jack eyed the clock. “Assuming they drive straight back there, it’ll be ten or fifteen minutes before they show up.”

“Can we keep that helo on the ground?” Rollo asked.

Austin shook his head. “We don’t know anybody at the facility. Not likely.”

“That could endanger Enzo,” Tamra added. “If Paulson and the other agent suspect we’re messing with their plans…”

“Not good,” Rollo finished for her.

“They’re not going to go anywhere without the stash,” Sarah interjected.

“I don’t think we can be so sure,” Jack argued. “Whether Paulson’s involved or not, it’s not a bad move to get Enzo into lockdown. Securing him only increases their bargaining position.”

“If Paulson’s involved, there’s no way they’re taking him to the FBI office. Not before they get what they want,” Rollo observed. His voice was impassive, professional, but Sarah could feel the anguish coming off of him. The helplessness.

Not because she was so empathic. Because she was suffering through the same emotions.

She wanted to disagree, but the man was correct. They had to locate Enzo before the rogue agents realized he couldn’t deliver the goods.

Time for drastic measures. Time for her to put her own life on the line.

“I need to see the jewels again,” she announced. “I have a plan.”

It was every bit as crazy and desperate as Enzo’s. Probably more. She didn’t care. Not about the details or the damage to her future or the danger.