Page 57 of The Team

Jay raised one eyebrow, which was silent Jay-speak forand you fucking believed him?

Jay went back to the phone. “Then nothing. Three days ago he sent a message. Said he was okay. No reply. Then all these, asking her to please reply.”

Rhett could see all the undelivered texts.

“This last one,” Jay whispered. “Please,” Jay winced. “Butterfly? I don’t know. Rhett, I’m not sure.”

“Butterfly? What the hell?”

Jay shook his head. “Term of endearment?” He winced. “I’m not sure. Could be a pet name? Could be a code word.”

What the fuck?

Jay closed that app and tried opening other pages. He checked the history, he checked the cache, the memory. He hadn’t used it for anything other than to text this one person.

He also hadn’t wiped anything, deleted any messages, hidden anything.

It didn’t make much sense to Rhett.

If Yin really were trying to hide something, he’d have at least deleted something.

“There’s nothing else,” Jay said, handing the phone back to him. “Nothing.”

“Not that we can see, anyway,” Rhett said, sliding the phone into his pocket. He needed someone with better know-how to look at it. “I’ll be back. Try and get somesleep,” Rhett said. He gave Jay’s thigh a gentle squeeze before standing up.

He made his way to the back of the plane, not making eye contact with anyone. Sid watched him. Echo too. Azrael had her eyes closed, but Rhett doubted she was asleep.

Chen was hissing something angrily to Yin. His eyes narrowed, his finger pointed... until he saw Rhett. Then he stopped. But he never faked a smile or even tried to pretend he wasn’t mad.

Rhett had only ever seen the big guy smile, so seeing him pissed off was new.

Yin, on the other hand, was stoic. His face gave nothing away except sadness.

It was all so fucking weird.

Rhett would get to the bottom of it though. One way or another.

He found Director King sitting at the back in the only seat with a large fold-down tray that served as a desk. He had his laptop out. “Ouston,” he said. “Shouldn’t you be trying to sleep?”

Rhett almost laughed. “I could say the same for you.” He looked at King’s laptop. “Any news on Kowalski and Myles?”

“Not yet. I’ll expect an update when we land in Bosnia.”

“I need to make contact with Yunho,” Rhett said. “Before we land. Off the record. Bypass HQ. I know all comms on these planes are registered and recorded, and this needs to be on the DL.”

King paused, his eyes intent, serious, but finally he nodded, understanding what Rhett was saying.

He didn’t trust anyone at HQ.

Not their handlers, not the council.

No one.

“Okay. Do you know something?”

“I might.”

“But you’re not prepared to say.”