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I nodded. “I’ll follow up with him directly.”
Verity, Macht, and I left the penthouse and went to the room I’d been assigned, which was adjoined to Verity’s.
“I’ll start a brief,” said Verity, pulling her laptop out of her bag.
“Copy that,” I said before turning to Macht. “There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
“Yes, sir?”
“As you’re aware, Schön was temporarily assigned to the Swiss task force of the UN Coalition Against Human Trafficking. She has now transitioned to a different team. Would you be interested in joining the coalition?”
His eyes widened. “I would, sir.”
“Happy to hear it. I’m anticipating we’ll be returning to the command center once our work here is finished. Would you be able to make that trip with us?”
“The life of an intelligence agent is one of a nomad,” he said, shaking my outstretched hand. “I appreciate the opportunity, sir.”
“That’ll be all for now.”
“I’ll return to the penthouse to see what I can assist with.”
“You made a good call, asking him to join your unit,” said Verity. “I would’ve made the suggestion.”
Part of me wondered if I should’ve mentioned it to her ahead of speaking with Macht.
“Verity, I, um…”
She looked up at me and grinned. “Your task force, Zeppelin. Not mine.”
“How did you know what I was going to say?”
The grin turned into a smirk. “Hmm. Do you, by any chance, know what I’m thinking right now?”
I took a step closer. “It’s a tossup between how much of a wanker you think I am and how badly you want to kiss me.”
She closed the distance between us, leaned up, and right before she planted her lips on mine, said, “Both.”
I would’ve deepened the chaste peck she gave me, but we were interrupted by Verity receiving a call from Nemesis.
“Hello, Nem,” she answered. “Zeppelin is here with me. Okay to put the call on speaker?”
“Of course. Hello, Zep.”
“Have you had a chance to review the brief?” Verity asked.
“Yes, and I wanted to let you know we’ve managed to get our hands on the hotel’s security footage. There’s a fifteen-minute gap where the camera malfunctioned, aka was disabled. That is likely when the murder took place.”
“Roger that,” she responded.
“Did Decker have any success looking into Godwin’s mobile calls?” I asked.
“Both burner phones, but he’s still working on finding the other caller’s location at the very least. In the meantime, what’s your theory?”
I listened as Verity explained her thoughts about who owned the three other accounts Godwin managed at BJB.
“The ‘Ndrangheta? Interesting.”
I raised my hand slightly, and Verity nodded for me to go ahead.