Page 76 of No More Spies

“Who the hell did you hear that from?” Kala asked. “But forthe record, yeah.”

Day Five

Finally they were using the sat phone for what it was meantto be used for. Intelligence. Cooper sat with Kala between his legs, lying backagainst his chest as her father’s voice could be heard coming from the satlink.

This was why he’d refused to bring a laptop along. Oh, he’dsaid it was because of the weight and delicacy of the thing, but he hadn’twanted visuals. If they’d had this meeting coming in on a screen, he wouldn’thave been able to get Kala to relax against him.

Just a couple of days and she was already so much moreaffectionate.

“Lou, what did you find out?” Big Tag asked over the line.

“I spent three days in the lab with the Swedish police, andthere’s zero question in my mind the bomb placed on Dr. Walsh’s car was made bythe same person who created both the Jakarta bombs and the London bombs from acouple of years ago,” Lou explained.

“But they aren’t the same as the ones Huisman used to blowup his own house?” Kala asked.

He ran his hands over her arms and wrapped one around her,just below her breasts. He didn’t want to think about that day. He dreamedabout it far too often. Lately he’d been the one with nightmares and Kala theone to soothe him.

She would smooth back his hair and kiss his forehead evenwhen she was half asleep.

“No,” Lou replied. “Those were much more rudimentary. And Iprobably shouldn’t use that word because they weren’t. I only mean bycomparison. It’s obvious Huisman has some arms dealer connections. The bombs heused in Toronto are what one would expect. This one is something else. A leapahead.”

“So we believe Zach is working with the mysteriousbombmaker,” Tristan asked. “I don’t want to believe it, but it would explainwhy he did what he did with The Jester.”

“You think he killed The Jester because he was going to outthe bombmaker?” Cooper asked. He didn’t want to believe it either, but theevidence was stacking up against his friend.

“What other reason can you think of?” TJ asked. “He knewTris had found The Jester and was going to bring him in for questioning. Zachgot there first. He hired the assassin to take the fall for him, but I wouldbet anything he did the deed himself.”

“Yeah, I don’t buy the whole the assassin got scared off andcame back thing. It was a sloppy story in the first place,” Kala said. “But Ialso don’t think we’re being very creative. There could be several reasons hedid it. He could be protecting someone.”

She was such an enigma. He would bet she would be the firstto go all paranoid about a team member who’d obviously betrayed them. But whenshe cared about a person, she had a lot of rope to give.

He hoped Zach didn’t use it to hang them all.

“Well, that’s why you’re in the middle of the wilderness.”Charlotte Taggart’s voice came over the line. “Any word on his aunt yet?”

“We’re talking to some rangers this afternoon,” Cooperreplied. “If we don’t find her in a day or two, I’m afraid we’re going to haveto get transport to another part of the park.”

Rocky Mountain National Park was four hundred and fifteensquare miles of wilderness. They’d searched from where Joyce had left her van,but now he had to consider she’d gotten some kind of transportation to anotherpart of the park.

“If you don’t find her soon, I’m pulling you,” Big Tag said.“The Canadians think they have a potential line on where Huisman’s hiding. Theyknow he’s left Canada. They have a private jet flying out a few hours after heblew up his house, and it seems to have flown directly for Russia.”

Nice. “Non-extradition treaty. Of course that’s where hewent. Does he still have millions of dollars?”

“Of course he does, babe,” Kala said, and he couldpractically see the expression on her face. It was her dumbass-said-what face.“He would have prepped for all of this. He’s an asshole but a prepared one. Iassure you the fucker has cash everywhere.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“What is he planning on doing in Russia?” TJ asked.

“Probably make it his base,” Kenzie replied. “We know he’sinterested in shaking up Southeast Asia. There are some soft targets that woulddisrupt western supply chains if they were hit. And we always have the threatof losing Taiwan and the supply of semiconductors. The Canadians arespecifically worried about that.”

“But not worried enough to send Ben Parker,” Tristanquipped.

Tris was an asshole. “I’m sure he was on an important op.”

Kala snorted. “Sure he was. It was super important that heavoid my sister. He’s still butt hurt because he thinks Coop has the hots forher.”

“For Ms. Magenta,” Kenzie corrected.