Page 22 of Jonas (Silver Team #4)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Cash was the first to speak but everyone around the table nodded.

“The nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania.”

“There are two reactors, but yes. Reactor two went into a partial meltdown during refueling in nineteen-seventy-nine.”

“ The China Syndrome ,” Zane grunted. “Fun fact, the United States likes to condemn Russia for the Chernobyl coverup when we perpetrated the first nuclear near-disaster coverup. If it wasn’t for Rick Parks, more than likely we would’ve been wiped off the map.”

“What’s the China syndrome?” Nebraska asked.

“It’s a movie that came out a few months before the meltdown that turned out to be prolific,” Zane elucidated.

“The plot of the movie is a nuclear meltdown. It theorizes what would happen if the core melted through the containment structure and penetrated the earth all the way to China—not that, that couldn’t literally happen—but the premise of the meltdown can and did happen at Three Mile Island.

It scared the fuck out of everyone and for good reason.

The clusterfuck that was the cleanup was a disaster waiting to happen.

Money and corruption never go out of style. ”

“Are you saying China is targeting Three Mile Island?” Easton blew out his question like it pained him to do so.

“I’m telling you that everything is a diversion. The endgame isn’t taking out our power grid, our bridges, ports, or hacking the Pentagon—all of that is icing. It’s the disruption to keep us occupied while they carry out the real mission.”

After that lead in, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know what the real mission was and I was back to thinking we might be too late to stop whatever they had planned.

“And that is?” Theo snapped, sounding as if he’d lost patience.

“To kill POTUS, the VP, and the Speaker of the House. The Chinese want the senior ranking member of the Senate in the Oval Office.”

“I’m sorry, say fucking what again?” Zane snarled. “And they’re planning on doing this how exactly?”

“By using Three Mile Island. Reactor one went offline about six years ago, but the powerplant is owned by Union Power. The reactor is due to go back online in a few years. Union signed a twenty-year lease with a software company to power their data center, which is dedicated to AI programs. Right now, there’s testing being done.

One of those tests will be falsified to show a temperature spike.

That spike will be used to evacuate the president, the VP, and the Speaker.

At the same time the power plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming will look like it is nearing meltdown.

The bunker won’t be an option but Air Force One will be.

As soon as they’re on that plane they’re dead.

And by the way, Karen White’s husband is the vice president of operations at Union.

” Lore paused and glanced at me. “I saw you yesterday talking with Seth Hackett.”

“You saw me?”

Instead of answering me she asked her own question. “Anson Sutton, Lou Peterson, Karen White?”

“What about them?”

“All three are on the take. Kent Rapport, bless his whistleblower heart, tipped Anson off that the shit going on at Delcon hadn’t gone unnoticed. Anson’s answer to this was to hire you and work with Treasury to take out Bolin Chen and be kept in the loop about how much the government knew.”

“How do you know all of this?” Jonas asked the fifty-million-dollar question.

“A little birdy helped me.”

“Are you kidding me?” Nebraska seethed.

My attention shot to the woman standing next to the wall. Her face was a mask of fury, her hand holding her coffee was shaking—so much so Easton pulled it from her hand.

“Pigeon’s been helping you?” Zane inquired in a much less angry tone but still there were threads of annoyance I didn’t get.

“Yes, Anna and Charlie have been hard at work,” Lore confirmed.

“Who’s Anna and Charlie?”

“My parents,” Nebraska growled. “The ones who are supposed to be retired, keeping their noses clean.”

“They’re clean,” Lore shot back. “Who better than Maddon Judd’s best friend to help stop whatever plan he sold? But it was Pigeon who uncovered the nuclear strategy.”

“Do I want to know how she uncovered that or did she honeypot someone?”

Lore’s laugh filled the room. The sound was so startling in the ominous space I nearly jumped out of my seat.

“She spoke to Austin Wentworth and as far as I know she didn’t have to use her feminine wiles on him. Though I don’t believe he’ll be speaking to anyone else.”

It didn’t take a cryptanalyst to read between Lore’s coded lines.

“So she killed him,” Nebraska nonchalantly said, not asked.

Lore shrugged. “There might’ve been torture involved.”

“I always liked that woman,” Zane muttered.

“You didn’t like her all that much when she played you and landed you and Dutch in jail,” Nebraska reminded him.

“Time heals all wounds, Dove.”

Jeez, these people and their nicknames .

“I need a cheat sheet if you all are going to have multiple names,” I griped.

“I’ll print you out one, right after we figure out a way to convince POTUS that the intel he’s going to receive about multiple nuclear meltdowns are bogus and he needs to stay at the White House,” Kira told me.

“But we’ll start with the easy ones: Anna, Ann, Pigeon, and Pidge are all the same person.

Nebraska is Dove. Stella is Lore. Zane’s names change daily, feel free to make them up as you wish.

I’m Kira, KK, Kid Genius or Drifter Seven.

Layla is Ghost One but not to be confused with Zane’s brother, Lincoln, who is just Ghost. He still refuses to use Layla’s callsign because he’s a baby.

Garrett is Drifter One. Theo, Two. Easton, Three.

Your man Jonas is Four. Smith, Five. Cash is Six or he likes to call himself King, though none of us subscribe to that nickname. ”

When Kira was finished with the rundown, I was left blinking.

Lore didn’t blink, she smiled.

“Cash is King,” she snickered. “I like it.”

“Bet you’d like something else more,” he returned with a wink.

“Easy, big fella. I don’t play where I work.”

Cash’s head tipped to the side a fraction. “Do you work here?”

“I work everywhere.”

That sounded like the truth to me.

“Anything else you need to tell us?” Zane broke into the banter.

“Nope. That about covers it.”

“You sure? No intel on Liam Gagnon or John Wu?” he pushed.

“John Wu who?”

“The two men who kidnapped Derrika and Jonas yesterday.”

Lore’s gaze flew to me, then to Jonas, then back to me.

“You were kidnapped yesterday?”

“I thought you were watching me?” I reminded her.

“No. I was watching Seth Hackett. Which reminds me, I didn’t finish telling you about him. He’s being blackmailed. The idiot.”

This web was never-ending.

Jonas got there before I could. “Who’s blackmailing him?”

“Keith Mitchell. He was the guy in the suit who was in the black Mercedes yesterday. Seth had a little adult fun time with a stripper.” Lore wagged her eyebrows.

“In exchange for not telling his wife, Seth’s been tasked with looking the other way when those resumes come in with matching references.

They can’t chance another Kent situation. Now, why were you kidnapped?”

Jonas gave her a rundown on what we knew about John Wu and Liam Gagnon, which didn’t take long. He then went on to tell her about Daryl Barnes and Lou Peterson.

When Jonas was done, Lore looked perplexed.

“They might be turning on each other. Anson, Karen, and Lou all received payments. Ten million each.”

Ten million to sell out your country.

Greedy freaking bastards.

“I didn’t find any money,” Kira protested.

“Crypto.”

“What the fuck happened to good old-fashion paper money?” Zane sniped.

“I know it’ll be painful but follow me into the new world of digital currency,” Kira jibed.

Zane’s lips quirked.

I’d be a liar if I denied the man oozed sexuality when he smiled.

“Are you calling the White House, or am I?” Layla entered the conversation for the first time.

My mouth might’ve dropped open at the casual way she spoke about calling the President of the United States’ office.

“I’ll call. You go do whatever it is that pregnant women do to get rid of their morning sickness.”

Layla rolled her eyes.

“Your wife birthed two children.”

I felt like Layla’s reminder was unnecessary seeing as Zane had a hand in making those children.

“And?”

“Never mind.” Layla waved a hand in front of her. “I can’t keep up with you right now.”

For some reason, her comment changed everything about Zane Lewis. The teasing demeanor vanished, the slight tilt of his lips turned into a flat line. The spark in his eyes dimmed to concern.

“You’re going home,” he declared.

“Zane—”

“No lip, Layla. You need to be home, in your bed, not in a cabin with a window shaker that barely blows cool air. You need good food in your belly and you need rest.”

Layla glared at Zane.

To my surprise, Kevin didn’t jump on Zane’s declaration and scoop his woman up the way he looked like he wanted to do. He waited for his wife to make her own decision.

When she didn’t, Zane went on, “Nothing in this world is more important than you and that baby. Not one thing, Layla. I say this with respect; I hope like fuck the POTUS and the VP don’t get blown up out of the sky.

The Speaker is mostly a dick but I don’t want to see him dead, either.

But Layla, you and that baby come first. Right now your only concern is growing that human in your belly.

Let your husband take care of you and the rest of us will handle the Chinese. ”

I felt wet hit my eyes.

I blinked away the tears before they could fall but I couldn’t stop my hand from reaching out under the table and latching onto Jonas’s thigh. His hand immediately covered mine and gave it a squeeze.

Maybe my reaction was way out of line for multiple reasons. The first being I didn’t know Layla, but I was still over-the-moon happy she had the love and support from people who obviously cared deeply for her. Beyond that, any reservations I had about Zane disappeared.

Poof. Gone. Vanished.

What I wouldn’t give to have someone care about me more than saving the free world from a terrorist attack.

Weird but true.

I was still staring at Zane when his gaze suddenly zoomed over to me.

There was no use looking away, he’d caught me.

But moments later when his blue eyes turned dark I wished I had taken the opportunity to divert my attention.

He saw too much. I didn’t know how he knew or what exactly he knew, but he knew something.

I felt the air shift, a sizzle of awareness that had my fingers digging into Jonas’s thigh.

Zane must’ve sensed that, too, because his gaze shot to Jonas.

There was no relief that his concentration was no longer zeroed in on me, it was too late.

Jonas’s body went momentarily stiff before he blew out a breath and relaxed.

Whatever silent communication the two men were sharing eased Jonas but put me on edge.

“You good?”

Zane’s question jolted me out of my thoughts.

“Getting there.” Jonas nodded.

“Life’s too short. Get there faster.”

I waited for one of them to explain.

Neither did.

And just like it never happened, Zane went back to his conversation with Layla.

“I’ll ask Ivy to drop off the ginger tea that helped with her morning sickness.”

Layla acquiesced. Not verbally, but with a grateful smile.

“But she’s leaving Rose at the office. The last time you held her you wouldn’t give her back.”

Rose was Zane’s daughter.

It was cute the way he frowned at Layla when talking about her hoarding his baby.

“I was practicing,” Layla demurred.

“Practice with someone else’s kid.”

“Whatever.” Layla rolled her eyes. “If the world only knew that big, bad Viper King was really a soft teddy bear who doesn’t like to share baby cuddles, no one would be afraid of you.”

“Bullshit,” he spat. “There’s nothing in this world more dangerous than a man who loves his baby girl. This is not a touch her and die scenario. If someone’s gotten close enough to touch, I’ve failed. It’s a, look at her wrong and I’ll make a meat suit with your flesh scenario.”

I wasn’t sure if that was the most disturbing thing I’d ever heard or the sweetest.

“On that not-so-lovely visual, I think I’ll go empty the contents of my stomach before I head home.”

With that, Layla pushed back from the table and darted from the room.

Kevin finally spoke up.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime, brother,” Zane returned.

So his speech was just as much for Kevin’s peace of mind as it was for Layla’s health.

Yeah, I totally liked Zane Lewis and his brand of concern.