Page 11 of A Touch of Treachery (Section 47 #3)
“Is that right?” Percy repeated, his tone louder and sharper than before.
“Yes, sir,” Gia admitted in a low, reluctant voice.
“Today’s mission is just the latest in a string of failures.
Starting with the night when not one but two moles were discovered here.
Moles who had been feeding information to Henrika Hyde for who knows how long.
” General Percy shook his head. “Maestro isn’t doing a very good job of overseeing the D.C.
station. It’s been one disaster after another over the last few months. ”
Evelyn’s face remained calm, but the tip of her pen dug into her notepad hard enough to rip the top piece of paper. Joan also noticed the motion, and her gaze lingered on the other woman.
“Then again, I suppose it’s easy to get away with failing when no one holds you accountable,” Percy continued.
“Sir, you know the identities of station chiefs are often classified, even kept from you and the other members of the board of directors, for security reasons,” Gia said.
The General sliced his hand through the air.
“Bah! An antiquated, useless tactic. As if I and the other board members couldn’t find out such information if we really wanted to.
It’s long past time for Section chiefs like Maestro to step out into the light and face the consequences of their actions. ”
As the head of the board of directors, Jethro Percy was one of the few public faces of Section 47, and he often liaised with mortal authorities and smoothed things over so that regular paramortals could stay under the radar and spies like us could keep operating in the shadows.
Legacy families also chipped in to help cover Section’s budget, with the Percy family being one of the organization’s main benefactors.
“But really, Maestro and their secret identity isn’t the problem. We are talking about yet another failure because of one person: Charlotte Locke.” Percy stabbed his finger at me. “Because she thought this mission was a good use of Section time, resources, and manpower.”
I bristled. I’d been expecting the personal attack, especially given the General’s obvious, immediate dislike of me, but I hadn’t thought he would be quite so blunt. Percy was looking for someone to blame, though, and that someone was going to be me.
“Charlotte is the best analyst at Section,” Desmond said, anger seeping into his voice. “She knows more about Henrika Hyde than anyone, and she was right about today’s mission. Henrika did try to steal the Grunglass Necklace.”
“Yes, Henrika just didn’t do it in person, which means she is still free and plotting against Section,” Percy replied, his cold voice a sharp contrast to his son’s hot tone.
“That alone would have made today’s mission a failure, but now it’s been compounded by the fact that Bryce Finkley breached our servers.
Henrika is probably reviewing Section secrets at this very moment. ”
A tense silence fell over the conference room. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. Henrika had seen through my trap, and even worse, she’d turned it around and beaten me at my own spy game.
Desmond opened his mouth to keep defending me, but I touched his arm under the table out of sight of the others. Desmond hissed out a breath, and some of the tension trickled out of his body. Arguing with the General wouldn’t do him or me any good.
“As of this moment, I will be spearheading the efforts to find Henrika and make sure she pays for her many crimes against Section 47,” General Percy said, his voice booming out like thunder.
He looked at me, his pale blue eyes even frostier than before. “Ms. Locke will no longer have an active role in any missions regarding Henrika and her associates.”
His words slapped me across the face, but all I could do was sit there and take the brutal blow.
General Percy regarded me in stony silence. My heart dropped with every long, slow second, but I met his gaze with a steady one of my own and resisted the urge to wipe my cold, clammy palms on my legs.
“Ms. Locke will return to her previous duties as an analyst on level three,” Percy said. “She will forward any information related to the Hyde investigation to Ms. Samson, who will be Desmond’s liaison going forward.”
Being banished to level three was a clear, harsh demotion, like I was a broken, defective doll being stuffed back into a box and returned to the store.
Frustration pounded through me at losing access to all the Section intelligence regarding Henrika, much of which I had painstakingly gathered myself, but I held my tongue.
General Percy might use my arguing as an excuse to fire me outright.
Everyone stared at me. No one spoke, although Joan winced the faintest bit, as if she didn’t like this new development any more than I did.
Curious. She should have been thrilled to be Desmond’s liaison, especially since she had wanted the plum job all along.
Given her relationship with Graham Walker, Joan had just as many reasons to want Henrika captured—or killed—as Desmond and I did.
Being demoted was a bitter pill to swallow, but at least Joan would watch Desmond’s back.
“Do you understand your new assignment, Ms. Locke?” Percy asked in that same booming voice.
“Yes, sir,” I replied, careful to keep my tone calm and neutral.
My father had been one of the best cleaners Section ever had, and he had lost almost all his battles with the General. I might not be as deadly as the infamous Jack Locke, but I knew better than to repeat his mistakes.
Jethro Percy was not the kind of person you took on unless you were absolutely certain you could succeed. I would sacrifice this battle—and a large chunk of my pride—if it meant winning a long-term war, even if I still wasn’t exactly sure why the General had me in his crosshairs.
Percy must have thought I’d been sufficiently cowed because he snapped his fingers at Diego. “I want to know the second you figure out what Bryce Finkley accessed in our system. Then we can determine how to best mitigate the damage from this disastrous mission. That is all. Dismissed.”
Desmond, Evelyn, Gia, Diego, and Joan looked at me.
Even General Percy stared at me, and his two bodyguards drifted forward, as if they thought I might throw myself along the length of the conference table and try to choke the life out of their boss with my bare hands.
As difficult as it was, I squashed the tempting urge.
I couldn’t outbrawn Percy, much less his bodyguards, so I would have to outthink them, even though my mind felt like it was mired in quicksand right now.
Several seconds ticked by. When it became apparent that I wasn’t going to make a scene, the others pushed their chairs back from the table and gathered up their things.
I should have done the same, but I was frozen in place, as though a transmuter had turned the blood in my veins to ice and then glued my ass to my chair for good measure.
Beside me, Desmond got to his feet. He skimmed his fingers along my jacket sleeve, only touching the fabric and not my skin, but the small show of support cracked through the ice that encased my body.
I pushed my own chair back and slowly stood up. With every motion, more of that ice cracked away, replaced by hot, pounding fury.
General Percy wanted to demote me? Fine. I would return to level three like a good little analyst, put my head down, and get to work. But one way or another, I was going to find Henrika Hyde, and then she was going to pay for everything she’d done to me, and especially to Desmond.
No one was getting in the way of my mission, not even General Jethro Percy.