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“Probably. Seth, this is Zane Murphy. He’s in charge of communications and technology at Fortress.”
So this was Murphy. Seth shook his hand. “Seth Dixon.”
“Good to meet you, Detective. Please, have a seat. The boss will arrive shortly. He’s in a meeting with Lt. Burnett and an FBI agent.”
Noah and Seth grimaced.
The communications head chuckled. “We’re not fond of the feds, either.”
Seconds later, the door to the conference room opened. Seth’s lieutenant strode in, followed by a man dressed in a black suit and shoes, white shirt, and blue tie. The fed.
Bringing up the rear was a muscular man with blond hair and blue eyes. “Take a seat, everyone.” He held out his hand to Seth. “You must be Seth Dixon. Welcome to Fortress Security.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Maddox shifted his attention to Noah. “Noah Mann, welcome to Fortress. I’m Brent Maddox.”
“Good to meet you, sir.” Noah dropped into a seat beside Seth. “We appreciate you allowing us to meet on your turf.”
“No problem.” Fortress Security’s CEO took a seat at the head of the table. “For those who haven’t met them, this is Lt. Charles Burnett of the Ardmore Police Department and Special Agent in Charge Oliver Walters.” Maddox introduced Teagan and her teammates to the LT and the FBI agent. “Under normal circumstances, I’d leave to attend to other things. This time, I won’t.”
Teagan and her teammates exchanged glances.
Seth frowned. What was going on here? Whatever it was, Teagan’s team was as clueless as Seth and his partner.
“Lt. Burnett, start us off.”
The LT gave a shortened version of events on the running trail the day before, ending with, “Pico’s reference to The Brotherhood is where the feds come into the picture. Walters?”
The agent glanced at Zane, who tapped a few keys on his laptop. Seconds later, a picture of a compound deep in the woods flashed onto the screen. “This is Haven, the compound where The Brotherhood lives and trains. It’s in the woods of East Tennessee. We’ve been watching this group for months, trying to get an undercover agent in place, but the leaders of this militia are paranoid and they don’t trust easily.”
Walters signaled to Zane. The picture on the screen changed to side-by-side shots of two men, both bearded and muscular, with matching hard expressions. “These are the co-leaders of The Brotherhood, Leon Peters and Boyd Richardson. Peters is a former colonel in the Army discharged for multiple charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and insubordination.”
Seth scowled. “He should have been charged and tossed in prison.”
“If he’d fought the charges, he would have been. Apparently, Peters had a lot of friends in high places and knew dirt on those people. The upper ranks decided the safer course of action was to boot him out of the military.”
Noah whistled.
“Boyd Richardson was also in the Army and is a former detective with the Miami-Dade police. Several reprimands were in his file for brutality. Although suspected of taking kickbacks, no one could pin evidence on him. When his lieutenant demoted him because of yet another brutality charge, Richardson resigned. He disappeared for several months, then reappearedin Tennessee when he joined The Brotherhood. Richardson moved up the ranks quickly to become co-leader of the group.”
“What does this have to do with Artemis, Seth, and Noah?” Iona asked the agent.
Burnett said, “Dixon’s confidential informant was positive one of the three men he’d overheard talking was a cop. Since he didn’t recognize the man, we do not know if he was local, state or federal.”
“What do you need from us?”
“Undercover operatives.”
Teagan’s eyebrows rose. “All of us? You’re talking about seven people, Lt. Burnett. If Peters and Richardson accepted all of us, which I doubt, we’d attract attention with this many people applying for membership in the militia.”
“Not all of your team, Teagan,” Maddox said. “Two members of Artemis, plus the detectives.”
Seth and Noah exchanged glances. His partner gave a slight nod. All right then. “We’re in,” Seth said.
“Risky, though,” Noah added. “After all, we’re law enforcement. No way Peters and Richardson won’t check us out six ways to Sunday. Not only that, we still have the dirty cop in the mix.”
“We have a couple of options, which we’ll discuss in a minute. Teagan, I’d like to send you in undercover with Seth as an established couple. You already have chemistry with the detective. If you’re uncomfortable with it, I can choose someone else on your team to partner with Seth.”