Page 48 of Edge of Honor

“Fuck,” Weber muttered.

“That’s one way to phrase it,” Fields replied.

“What do you want?”

“Just a little cooperation. You give us what we need and the video goes away. We’ll call your PO and tell him it was all just a misunderstanding. We had the wrong guy. But if you don’t cooperate, you’re going to go back inside for a long, long time.”

Weber didn’t like having his balls busted, especially by some Black bitch FBI agent, but she wasn’t giving him any room to breathe. “You people are like fucking jackals. You know that? I don’t even recognize this country anymore.”

“Is that a yes? Are you going to cooperate?”

He took a long pause before replying, “Fine. Fuck it. I’ll cooperate.”

When Fields glanced over at Carolan, he gave her a subtle nod. She’d done a good job, so far. Now it was time to see if Weber could help take their investigation to the next level.

Scrolling through her phone, she pulled up a photo of the sword-and-tree tattoo they had taken in the morgue that morning.

“Ever seen this before?” she asked, holding out the phone with her left hand.

Weber squinted at the image and then leaned over his desk to get a better look. Fields extended the phone even closer toward him and noticed him stiffen.He recognizes it all right.

“Take your time,” she said, continuing to watch him, studying how he reacted.

Crossing his arms, he leaned back, slowly.

“Don’t recognize it,” he stated.

He was lying.

“That’s funny,” Fields replied. “I get the feeling you do recognize it. And I shouldn’t have to tell you the shitstorm that’ll happen if I figure out you’re lying to me.”

Weber’s eyes bore into hers. Particle beams of pure, unadulterated hate. The tension in the office, which wasn’t good to begin with, was now off the charts.

“Mind if I smoke?” he asked.

“I’d prefer if you didn’t.”

“It’s just my vape,” he replied, tilting to his right and sliding open one of the desk drawers.

As he did, the sleeve of his T-shirt rode up on his left arm and there, on the inside of his biceps, she saw it. Weber had the exact same tattoo.

Dropping her phone, Fields pulled her Glock and barely had time to yell, “Gun!”

Weber was leveling a stainless-steel .357 and about to fire when Fields shot him twice in the chest and once in the head.

The felon’s head snapped back as the bullet entered and then splattered bone, blood, and pieces of brain on the wall behind him.

He was dead before Carolan could even have drawn his weapon.

CHAPTER 23

MCLEAN, VIRGINIA

Harvath’s plan had, admittedly, been ad hoc from the jump. Taking a protectee and squirreling them away somewhere and keeping them safe was one thing. Taking a protectee and keeping them safe while attempting to lure in unknown bad actors was something completely different.

Having Haney and McGee get to the Ambassador’s house first was a key part of his plan. They had done their sweep of the grounds as well as the interior of the home flawlessly. Harvath’s job had been more complicated.

He not only needed to pop Rogers back onto the radar, he also needed to get him all the way home without anything happening to him.