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“Let me get this straight.” Ryan Sullivan worked through the board.

“You and Montana spend six weeks searching for Hurek but find nothing. You leave. The next day Montana has a meeting with this guy, Bjorn Anders, and requests a background check on this woman. Day after that, Anders is found dead, Kurt for some reason miraculously misses getting on that plane and instead sneaks off to meet this same woman.” He glanced at another image of Rowena Smith that the Brits had released in their missing person appeal.

“I’d probably skip out on a flight if she called me up too, but Kurt probably wasn’t hoping to get into her pants. ”

Meghan Donnelly crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

Daisy pulled a face. “Ew.”

“Your dad has sex, kid. Deal with it. How do you think you got here?” Ryan compressed his lips, mulling over the information. “What about his cell phone data? Or hers?”

Jordan shook his head. “We can’t see anything from either of them. Looks like either their messages were blocked, or they were scrubbed after the fact.”

“Montana’s phone is supposed to be secure. It’s supposed to be encrypted,” Aaron protested.

“Which is why the FBI has now shifted to communication systems outside of Gilder’s Interstellar Company range of influence.”

“Only confirmed sighting was in Mozambique?” Aaron studied the board intently.

Jordan nodded. “Farmer caught him cleaning out an infected wound. She gave them shelter for the night and treated him with some pig antibiotics, which she said seemed to help.” He walked over to the map. “They were taken by armed gunmen here, Beira, a coastal city.”

Aaron shook his head. “He could be anywhere by now.”

“No sightings reported in Beira itself. Can’t rule out he’s being held there, but there’s been no ransom demand and no bodies have been found.

We’ve set up a database where analysts at SIOC tracked all the ships that have been within a twenty-nautical-mile radius of the port since the kidnapping.

It’s a considerable number of vessels, but this way we know where they all are and where they stopped along the way.

Analysts are deep-diving the ownership of each vessel. ”

Ryan shook his head. “If Gilder or Hurek paid some gang to grab Montana, why not just kill him there and then?”

Jordan shot a look at Daisy who looked shellshocked by the deluge of data. “One of the main reasons I haven’t said anything, aside from being ordered not to, was the fact that although we recently figured out he didn’t die in that air crash, the chances of him being alive are slim at best.”

“Any hope is better than none at all,” Cas DeMarco muttered.

“One thing I didn’t put on the wall yet.

” Jordan booted up his laptop. “This morning one of Kurt’s neighbors contacted HRT.

He’s a former Marine. Kurt had mailed him a phone.

The phone, and the SIM he’d sent to Daisy, both belonged to Bjorn Anders.

Techs are examining them for evidence but check this out.

” He pulled the image up on his screen of a dead Bjorn Anders tied to a chair.

Passed it around. The guys knew better than to show Daisy.

“This image was sent to Kurt’s cell phone from Anders’ cell around the time Kurt is seen taking a phone call before boarding.

It was later deleted, but the techs were able to resurrect it. ”

“Whoever was behind this wiped Kurt’s and Rowena Smith’s phones, but they didn’t realize they had Anders’ phone.” Aaron nodded thoughtfully.

“Did Smith kill Anders and lure Kurt off the plane for some reason?” Livingstone speculated.

“That was my first thought until I spoke with her family and friends. It doesn’t track.

What tracks more is she was searching for her father and believed Anders was either the sperm donor or he could tell her who was.

She was following Anders, not Kurt, around Zimbabwe.

From the witness statement, Kurt and Rowena appeared to be working closely together, and she helped him bathe, and they slept in the same bed. ”

“Sly dog,” Ryan chuckled.

Meghan Donnelly narrowed her eyes at him, laser beams of disapproval.

Jordan continued. “Both Kurt and Rowena Smith’s DNA is on Anders’ phone and the SIM.

Kurt’s prints and DNA were found on both envelopes.

Also, Anders’ call history shows one of his last calls was to Leo Spartan.

” He pointed to the photograph of the four men again.

“And Gilder was staying with him at the time.”

“Who’s this?” Nash pointed out a picture of Ellen Mires and the crashed truck.

Jordan’s mouth went dry. “Virginia State Police trooper who acted as my escort after someone tried to run me off the road as soon as I got back. Only problem was it turned out she was probably the one who bugged this place and tried to run me off the road.” Jordan needed to be honest but felt like a damned fool. “She initiated a sexual relationship.”

“And you didn’t turn her down.” Meghan Donnelly’s expression was unimpressed.

Jordan shook his head and caught Daisy’s gaze and felt his cheeks burn. “I did not.”

“Another sly dog.” Ryan’s grin covered his face.

“She died in a second attempt to run me off the road after I told her I didn’t want to see her anymore.”

Ryan sobered. “What was she after? What did she think you knew?”

“As best as we can figure, they believe Kurt told me something in our final conversation that would lead to the FBI uncovering this group.” He pointed to the photo of the four men.

Grady blew out a long breath. “Montana could still be alive.”

Jordan stared down at the floorboards that needed staining. Nodded.

“If Gilder’s involved, this is big.” Aaron looked worried.

“Fucking A.”

“That sonofabitch.”

Most of the guys had violence in their eyes.

“Can we prove the bomb was aimed at Montana specifically?” asked Aaron.

“We only have circumstantial evidence but…” Jordan pointed to another grainy surveillance image.

“Leo Spartan’s head of security, Edmund Sabelo, paid a late-night visit to the airport the night before the crash with a piece of luggage that he didn’t have with hi m when he left.

It suggests Bjorn Anders told Kurt something that the group didn’t want him passing on—at any cost.”

They all absorbed that for a moment. They were going to have to reach out to someone in the Zimbabwean government soon and hope Gilder’s financial investments in the country didn’t hold more sway than the US’s political clout when it came to rooting out the possible criminal actions of their UN ambassador.

“What do we do now?” asked Aaron.

“Analysts and TacOps are tracking Gilder’s whereabouts and trying to get eyes on him.

DOJ is arranging sealed warrants to raid all Interstellar facilities and operations in the US.

They’ll be passing on any relevant information to Five Eyes and NATO members, but if we move before we know where Kurt is, we risk never finding him.

But they can’t hold back much longer, not with National Security at stake. ”

“Where is Gilder now?” Ryan Sullivan asked quietly.

“We were able to get eyes on him at Savage’s wedding yesterday, after which he flew to his private island in the Caribbean.”

“Can we get any info on it?” Aaron arched a brow. “Perhaps some architectural drawings?”

Jordan knew what Aaron was thinking. Build a mock-up. Start practicing takedowns.

“I’ll see what the analysts can dig up without setting off any alarms.” He raised his hand.

“Here’s the thing. The most important take away.

You can’t talk about this outside this room, not even on base until TacOps checks your phone.

” He showed them the magic key fob. “This device blocks any electronic eavesdropping attempts, but I don’t know if TacOps can give us more of the suckers.

We have to continue to act as if we believe Montana is dead.

It’s business as usual until you are cleared and even then, you have to assume Gilder could have ears anywhere—like your girlfriends’ phone or in your apartment. ”

“I want to rip the motherfucker limb from limb,” Ford Cadell growled.

Jordan nodded. “Me too, but we’re better than that. We’ll get this guy, and we’ll put him in a cage to suffer for the rest of his miserable life. But we don’t go vigilante. Montana wouldn’t approve.”

“What about Hurek?” Aaron asked.

“We’re digging into all of their history to see if that gives us a clue as to the present.”

“Hurek could be sitting on that island sunbathing for all we know.”

“Eyes in the sky are taking passes overhead. Gilder’s not the only one with satellites.

If we take Gilder, I’m betting he’ll give us Hurek, but that doesn’t mean we find Montana.

We’ll find Hurek eventually. In the meantime, we get ready and prepare for the op of a lifetime.

And we’re going to need a protection detail for Miss Daisy here because that’s what her father would want.

” He pressed his lips together. “She got away from Blue Team, but I think she’ll find Gold Team a little harder to fox.

She can stay here and come into the compound with me during the day. ”

She sat up, spine like a ramrod. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

“Nope.”

“I’ll volunteer.” Demarco stood.

Ryan shook his head and placed his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “You get to spend at least one night with De- lilah without a maniac on your tail. I’ll volunteer as long as I get the couch.”

“There’s a spare room. TacOps have the perimeter wired, so we’ll get plenty of warning, and we’re not expecting an attack, not now they know the FBI is on to them.”

Jordan swung his hopeful gaze to Donnelly because it was a lot of testosterone they were trying to foist on Daisy. He doubted she’d want him anywhere near her.

Meghan laughed quietly. “I’m in. I’m pretty sure that means Daisy and I are bunking together.”

Jordan grimaced. Looked like he was on the couch. Again. But the relief he felt at finally being able to tell his teammates what he knew was immense and worth any price .

Grady sent him an understanding look. Shane Livingstone clapped him on the back. “Good work.”

Emotions crowded inside him, all fighting to be free. He pushed them back down as he felt Daisy Montana’s eyes, so like her father’s, locked onto his face.

Those eyes didn’t look as if they’d forgive him any time soon, and he honestly couldn’t blame her.

“I’ve got a question.” Aaron held up his hand for quiet. “Who’s gonna tell Novak?”