Page 18 of Storm and Tempest

“He’s over the whole thing, commanding the grand masters like he’s the Pope and they’re Cardinals.”

And Jax had thought the grand masters were the ones in charge. “Who is it? Who is the current Imperatoris?”

Zeyla said, “I doubt you’ll find someone alive who can tell you.”

“Like a grand master?” He could find one, surely. Question them.

The man with the senator in Colorado who’d captured Kenna had been one. He’d died around the same time, so Jax would have to look up him and all his known associates. “What about when one is replaced because they die? Does a son take over, or is there a vote?”

Zeyla shook her head again, looking upset.

Amara said, “Another would be installed, but there’s no way to know who it is. Each part ofDominatusoperates independently like a splinter terror cell. Instead of taking their orders and going out there to cause as much destruction as possible, it’s a piece of a larger puzzle. The grand plan.”

“But if we identify him, we can take them down from the top.” He glanced between the two women. “Right?”

“Or at least severely cripple the organization,” Zeyla said. “But if I knew how to find the Imperatoris, I’d have put a bullet in his head already.”

“We need to guarantee we can find Kenna, and we need to cripple theDominatusas much as we can. This is about more than killing one person.” He folded his arms across his chest, ignoring the burn in his shoulder.

Amara said, “That’s an impossible task. Which is why I brought you a case file much closer to home.” She lifted her chin. “Find that agent. Rooting out corruption in the FBI will go a long way to you getting your standing back within the Bureau.”

“I wasn’t aware I’d lost it.”

“Then you should open your eyes.” Amara turned and walked away, Zeyla beside her. They went to a black Nissan with some damage on the front right quarter panel. Like they’d been in a scrape of some sort with a red car that had transferred paint onto their vehicle.

Jax went back inside, returned to the table, and sat. “Anything in the file?”

“Anything we should know that they couldn’t tell all of us?” Ramon echoed.

Jax wasn’t going to get mad that the guy had an irritated tone. He just had to remind himself they had the same goal. Jax told them about the Imperatoris and the rest of it, hitting the highlights. “What do we know about this case, other than that someone in the FBI is working for Dominatus?”

Bruce shifted in his chair, wiping his scruffy face on a napkin that caught in the stubble on his chin. “The agent’s identity was scrubbed from the system.”

“I’ll pull the official report for the silo operation again,” Jax said. “See if anything sticks out.”

“This file is pretty thin.” Ramon waved it. “Doesn’t say who assigned the task to this agent and doesn’t say he disappeared.It’s just a personnel file for an agent who we can’t even prove exists.”

Jax didn’t like that. He looked at Maizie. “And someone thinks you put a worm in the computer network at my office.”

Maizie winced.

He couldn’t help wondering about what Amara had just said. That he was on thin ice with the federal agency he worked for. He’d thought he was doing all right, balancing it all. But giving up the fight to find Kenna just to get his career back on more solid footing didn’t sound like a great idea. In fact, it sounded like the last thing he wanted to do.

Maizie said, “I wasn’t the first to put a worm in the network. I can’t trace who did the existing one I found, but mine mirrors it, and everything they copy from the network is also sent to me. I also programmed it to tell me if they change or delete anything.”

“And?”

“It’s only been running since yesterday.”

Bruce said, “MeansDominatusfound it, and this is their way of shutting you down.”

Maizie frowned. “But their worm will be disabled at the same time.”

“Scorched earth.”

Even if that was true, Jax didn’t like the sound of it. “You’re walking a fine line between freedom and winding up in jail, Maze.”

Ramon said, “Can’t put her in jail if you can’t find her.”