Page 13 of Code Name: Reaper (K19 Allied Intelligence Team Two #5)
“It sounds to me like no one wanted you to find her.”
I agreed. “On the other hand, what I also didn’t understand was why Vera didn’t either fire me or insist I give up the search.”
“Exactly. A high-ranking NSA agent was missing for months, and yet you were the only one officially looking for her? Something doesn’t add up.” She tapped her lower lip. “Actually, it does.”
“How so?” I wondered out loud.
“You’re good, Amaryllis, which means the agency wanted to distract you, send you on a hunt that wouldn’t lead anywhere. Who were your primary assets? Were they NSA sources or your own?”
“A combination of both. And Beacon, who I believed was an NSA asset until a few days ago.”
“How did you discover otherwise?”
“An anonymous source sent me a highly classified document on Minerva Protocol.”
“Anonymous?”
“Initially, yes, but I’m sure Beacon was responsible, given the role I discovered she plays within the organization.”
“Why do you think she waited so long to read you in?” I hadn’t answered yet when Wren spoke again. “Jekyll’s death.”
“That’s what I thought too. Moreover, did Mercury’s disappearance trigger his return and Prism’s escalation with Romanov?” I thought about having the same conversation with Reaper and wondered if he and Blackjack were making any progress.
She leaned forward and rested her arms on the table. “We need to address this brick wall you’ve come up against with Vera.”
“And?”
She motioned for me to sit beside her, then pulled up the secure NSA site. Each search she did—for Suzanne Henning, Lyra Carrington, and Mercury—yielded no results.
“I’d like to intervene, if you wouldn’t mind,” Wren offered.
“I’d appreciate it if you would.”
“Good.” She reached for her cell and put the call on speaker.
“I’ve been expecting you to reach out,” Vera answered.
“I’m here with Amaryllis, looking for information about?—”
“As I said, I’ve been anticipating hearing from you, but I’m afraid I cannot help. My hands are tied.”
Wren’s brow furrowed. “How do we untie them?”
“You’re slipping. How do you think?”
“Senate Intelligence?” I suggested.
“Well done, Amaryllis. And before you say anything else, I am unable to make the request on your behalf, given our agency is not officially conducting this investigation.”
“Understood.” Wren ended the call after thanking her, then standing. “We need Nemesis on this one.”
“I’ll see if she’s available,” I offered, already on my way out the door. When I found her with Reaper and Blackjack, I smiled inwardly, hating that I’d missed seeing him in the short amount of time we were apart.
“Taking a break?” Reaper asked.
“Um, no, but I do need to speak with Nemesis when it’s convenient.”
She glanced up at me. “Now’s good. What can I help with?”
The way the coalition operated would take some getting used to.
At the NSA, investigative intel was shared with other team members on a need-to-know basis only.
I appreciated the transparency here, even though I still found it jarring from time to time.
After I reiterated the conversation Wren and I had had with Vera, Nemesis said she’d make the necessary calls and let us know what she discovered.
When she stood to leave, Reaper did too. “Got a minute?”
“Wren’s probably waiting.”
“This won’t take long, and it’s intel you should know.”
“Okay.” I followed him down the hallway, past the library, and into a solarium. “I did a little digging on Mercury’s tenure at the service academy,” he began after closing the door. “I didn’t say anything in front of Nem since my source insisted on total anonymity.”
“What did you find out?”
“Mercury requested the assignment. In fact, fought hard for it. Apparently, it required long-term deep cover placement. Something significant enough to explain why she needed to use the Henning identity for as long as she did.”
“Did your source know why?”
“Negative, but I found something else.”
My stomach clenched. “What?”
“I think Jekyll and Mercury’s association began years before the photo you have indicates.”
“Years?”
“When they were teenagers.”
My mouth gaped. “What makes you say that?”
He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, then pulled out his phone and swiped the screen.
When he held it out for me and saw the two were dressed in caps and gowns, I gasped. “They went to high school together?”
“At Bethel-Rhodes Academy.”
The private school was less than ten miles from the home I grew up in. “I don’t understand,” I said more to myself than to him.
“Maybe one or both of them had some connection to your family,” Reaper said quietly.
There was a knock at the door, then it opened and Wren stepped inside. “Sorry, but Nemesis has something for us.”
“Right.” I turned to Reaper, and we both stood. “Thanks. Um, talk more later?”
“In the meantime, I’ll see what else I can find.”
He left, and I followed Wren to the library, grateful she didn’t ask what Reaper was referring to. I needed more time to process the information prior to discussing it with anyone but him.
When we walked in and Nemesis raised her head, I wondered if she already knew what he’d discovered or if what I was about to learn far surpassed it.
“Have a seat.” She motioned for us to sit on either side of her.
“Apologies for not putting this into a brief. I wanted to review it with the two of you first.” A Department of Defense logo appeared on the screen.
Beneath it read, “Operation Avalon,” and below that was the seal for SAP—Special Access Program—which indicated the highest level of classified intelligence.
She scrolled through the documents, reading as she went. “According to these files, thirteen years ago, a mission began, involving suspected systematic defense contract fraud. Military leadership, Pentagon officials, and defense contractors were implicated.”
She continued to highlight entries. “The suspected scheme involved government officials taking bribes to award defense contracts to specific companies at inflated prices, with the companies providing kickbacks to the corrupt officials.”
Wren leaned forward. “Who was the lead on the investigation?”
Nemesis’ gaze darted between Wren’s and mine. “Eleanor Aldrich.”
I rubbed my temples. Every new thing I learned revealed additional layers of deception and complexity, rather than clues to Mercury’s whereabouts. I wasn’t sure I was emotionally prepared for another fundamental shift in my understanding of the woman who had shaped my entire adult life.
Wren studied me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry. A bit tired, but please, go on.”
Nemesis scrolled further. “According to these reports, Aldrich was Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA when she discovered evidence of the suspected fraud. She tried to pursue it through her chain of command, but when the then-director shut her down, she went higher up.”
“Who was the director at the time?” I asked.
“Jesus,” Wren muttered, pulling something up on her tablet. “It was Ed Fisk, who was later arrested as one of the main conspirators in Operation Argead. We need to talk to Irish.”
“Let’s get through the rest of this brief first.” Nemesis motioned to the screen.
I read what was on the next page. “Aldrich was undercover at USAFA?”
“Deep cover, in fact, which meant even Fisk didn’t know where she was. At least, not in the beginning.” Nemesis continued reading. “Less than a year later, she was reported missing and presumed dead.”
“This was only a few months before Mercury went undercover as Suzanne Henning,” I added. I thought about Reaper’s source saying her assignment also required long-term deep cover placement. Since he hadn’t wanted to say anything in front of Nemesis then, I didn’t feel comfortable doing it now.
“While this doesn’t say why or how the NSA got involved, I suspect Vera knows,” Wren said. “Maybe now that we’ve been read in, she’ll be willing to tell us the rest of the story.”
“There’s more detail here.” Nemesis scrolled through additional sections. “Prism’s CIA investigation and Mercury’s NSA assignment were overseen by former Deputy Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Hal Edmonds.”
“His position would have been one of a handful with clearance high enough to facilitate that kind of inter-agency handoff,” Wren added. “He’d be crucial for understanding how Mercury got the assignment and what the investigation parameters were. Is he still around?”
Nemesis scrolled to the final page. “There’s nothing more about him, but I agree you should check. The only other thing in the report is that, concurrent with when Mercury left the academy, the investigation was suspended without resolution.”
“That’s when she returned to the NSA. She arranged a summer internship for me there between my junior and senior years.”
Nemesis turned toward me. “How are you handling all of this? With Mercury, I mean.”
I thought about how to respond. “No differently than I have each time a new revelation about her comes to light.” I wanted to say another lie, but refrained.
Wren reached over and squeezed my hand. “You need to get some rest before we try to work through much more.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re not,” said Nemesis. “And while you don’t report to me, I’m still ordering you to call it a day.” She winked and stood. “Wren, you too. We’ve accomplished more than I thought we would in a short amount of time.”
Her dismissal meant I’d have to find Reaper and find out where we—or where I—were staying tonight.
As tired as I was, curling up on the sofa I’d seen earlier in the solarium would suffice.
Maybe I’d do that instead. The other thing I didn’t have the energy for was another argument that he and I couldn’t seem to avoid.