Page 19 of The Team (The Milvus Files #3)

ELEVEN

TEHRAN MEHRABAD AIR BASE

Rhett led the team into the hangar that was now their rendezvous point, and Jay was only too happy to follow. He’d also had a quiet fiver with Sid and Echo in favour of Rhett walking up to King and punching him in the face.

Much to Jay’s disappointment, Rhett didn’t.

King was on the phone, and although it seemed an intense conversation, he was clearly relieved to see the Milvus teams. Azrael was already there, along with Velasco. She sat on one chair, her feet on another, crossed at the ankles, and she smirked as she chewed on a toothpick.

Seeing King was busy on the phone, Rhett went up to her and they bumped fists. “Nice work back there.”

“Thanks,” she said. Others might have thought she was smug, but she wasn’t really. She was just damn good at her job.

“Any word on Kowalski and Myles?” Jay asked .

Her eyes tightened. “Not good, apparently. I think that’s what he’s finding out.” Then she nodded to King. “He’s on the phone to your friends; has been for a long time.”

Jay deduced it was Yunho. At least he hoped it was.

He wasn’t sure what the fuck had happened at HQ or what the hell was going on behind the red tape, but something wasn’t right.

King came over and held out the phone to Rhett. “For you.”

Rhett gave a nod and took the phone, walking over to the far end of the hangar.

“Is it Yunho?” Jay asked.

“It was,” King said. “Mr Garin wanted a word with Ouston.”

Jay couldn’t help but smile a little. Having Asher Garin and Jay’s favourite cranky tank in their corner was so much fun. It was almost like having two guardian angels, even if they were on the other side of the world. No one would dare fuck with Rhett or Jay knowing they were friends with them.

And having Yunho as their own private intel was an ace up their sleeve.

It had saved their lives, Jay was sure of it.

“Any word on Kowalski and Myles?” Jay asked King.

King’s expression mirrored Azrael’s. “It’s not good. No one has the treatment, and Ouston shot Askarov, so finding one isn’t likely.”

Jay put his hand up. “Captain Ouston was justified in his actions. Askarov was a threat to all of us and to the mission. I saw Kowalski and Myles firsthand, and I can tell you now, their likelihood of survival is minimal, at best. What Askarov did to them was barbaric, and if they survive—and that’s a really big fucking if—they won’t ever be the same. ”

King put his hands up. “I’m not saying Ouston wasn’t justified. I’ve seen the medical reports... I know what you saw.”

He knew what I saw?

The truth was, Jay was surprised to hear Kowalski and Myles were still alive.

The skin blisters, the swelling, the short raspy breaths—and that was what he could see.

They looked as if they’d been thrown into a vat of hot oil, but Jay had no doubt the internal injuries to lungs, oesophagus, mouth and sinuses, and brain were far worse than the exterior.

Kowalski was the worst of the two, and Jay had to wonder if any attempts to keep him alive were even humane at this point.

Jay sneered at King. “You don’t know what I saw.

You saw pictures, probably. What I saw was two of our teammates, two of our brothers, being eaten alive by some fucking chemical cocktail.

Myles tried to speak to me, but he wasn’t capable.

I think he was asking me to kill him, and I’m telling you it’d have been fucking merciful.

What that fucker did to them was worse than death, and you know what?

He’s lucky Rhett shot him in the fucking head because I’d have made him suffer.

I’d have done to him exactly what he did to them and cheered as he screamed when his skin melted off his body.

You wanna talk about medical reports and what I saw, put that in your fucking report?—”

Rhett was there then, kinda pulling Jay back a bit but putting himself between Jay and King. He handed him back his phone. “Tell us what you know,” Rhett said to him. “All of it.”

King gave Jay a pointed look, let out a sigh and conceded a nod. He then looked at the two Milvus teams who were watching him, waiting, and seemed to steel himself.

“I am hesitant to admit this, and as much as I wish it were otherwise, I believe what Captain Ouston here said earlier is true. Milvus is compromised. Someone on the council, someone in head office, I don’t know who, wanted us to fail.

And not just fail,” he said, nostrils flared.

“They wanted us dead. The Iranian base we were at was targeted by Russian drone attacks and long-range missiles. We had evacuated all personnel only because Ouston’s informant had forewarned us, so there was no loss of personnel or property.

It is believed the attack was to take out both Milvus teams,” he paused, looking at the faces in front of him.

“And myself. That’s why they put me on the ground with you.

To get rid of us all in one fell swoop.”

Murmurs broke out between the teams.

Jay had trusted Rhett when he’d said Milvus was compromised before they’d taken out Askarov and Gordian, but it made him feel ill to hear it confirmed.

After all, the intel had come from Yunho, and Garin and Harrigan, and Jay trusted them with his life. Hell, he trusted them with Rhett’s life, and that was all he needed to know. If they said it was true, then it was fucking gospel.

“What do we do now?” Giardello asked. “Where do we go?”

King’s brow narrowed. “We go back to London.”

“What?” Giardello asked. “When you say they wanted us dead and now we’re expected to just go back into the lion’s den?—”

King put his hand up. “They don’t know we know. To them, on paper, the mission was a success. Askarov and Gordian were removed, our agents extracted, and the threat of biowarfare was neutralised.”

“But they know they didn’t give us the information,” Sid countered.

“Let them admit that,” Rhett said, now joining the conversation. Jay could tell by the set of Rhett’s jaw, the thunderous storm in his grey eyes that he was beyond pissed. “I want them to say that shit to my face.”

King almost winced, raising his hand for calm. “We need to be smart about this. We need evidence. Hard evidence. Undeniable proof before we say or do anything.”

Rhett’s nostrils flared.

King relented. “And then we rain down an unholy shitstorm.”

Rhett seemed somewhat mollified by that.

King took a deep breath and exhaled loudly.

“For full transparency, the cannisters of the bioagent were secured by MI6.” He put his hand to his chest. “I called them. I have many trusted contacts within MI6, and I made that judgement call. I will take full responsibility for that when the council wants to know why.”

The truth was, he’d made the right call. Jay knew that. Hell, everyone here knew that. With the Russians and Americans in a race to get to it first, and with someone on the Milvus council desperate for it, there was no other choice .

Unless they’d prefer it handed directly over to the Iranian government...

They were, after all, still in Tehran.

“When do we leave?” Jay asked.

King checked his watch. “Fourteen hundred.” That meant they had about thirty minutes. “Pack it all up, and let’s get out of here.”

Rhett stepped closer to Jay. He still had an edge of anger to him—steely eyes and a hard set of his jaw that Jay would normally find a huge turn on, but not right now.

Something was wrong.

“What did Asher say?” Jay whispered when no one was paying any attention.

Rhett’s gaze went to his. “He thinks we have a mole on the team,” he murmured so only Jay could hear.

Jay couldn’t believe it. “This team?”

“Ouston,” King barked. “Giardello. With me.”

Fuck.

Rhett growled and stalked off after King, Giardello falling in quickly behind him as they walked out, while Jay stared at the door they’d passed through.

Everyone was busy with their gear, with the instruction to be ready to bug out.

But Jay couldn’t move. He was stunned.

A mole.

The threat wasn’t just inside Milvus. It was inside the Milvus team.

No way.

No fucking way.

Jay looked around at his team. His family. Not his blood family, but his sworn family. Azrael confidently repacking her artillery, her long blonde ponytail swinging with every movement. Echo closing up his laptop hardcases, flicking latches. Sid shoving surveillance gear into cases, and Yin...

Yin checking his phone.

What the fuck?

No one was supposed to have a phone.

He quickly slid the phone into his pocket and Chen stepped in to block Jay’s view. He was packing gear and Yin hurried to catch up.

But Jay had seen what he’d seen.

We have a mole . . .

Jay heard the door and Rhett’s familiar footfalls on the wooden floor, and he turned as Rhett came to stand beside him, picking up Jay’s bag. “Thought you’d be done by now,” Rhett said, his mood no better than it was before. Obviously, whatever King had told him hadn’t been good.

And Jay was about to add to it.

“We need to talk,” Jay whispered. He looked around again, seeing no one paying them any attention. “Yin’s got a mobile phone on him. I saw him check it.”

Rhett’s nostrils flared, his gaze flicking across to the two newest members of his team, and Jay could see that this news didn’t come as a surprise.

“What did King say?”

“Same thing Asher said,” he murmured. Then his eyes darted to Giardello who was also now watching Yin and Chen. “He’s looking into them. And Zihao.”

Them being Yin and Chen, and Zihao, their Chinese military handler.

Fuck.

Jay turned his back to the room to shield his voice and moved closer to Rhett. “I saw what I saw. Phone, vest pocket, right side.”

Rhett turned around to face the same way as Jay.

He leaned in, his voice barely a murmur.

“Asher said Yunho did some digging. Can’t find shit on Yixing or if there’s a connection.

He can’t access the Chinese satellites. But he found the Milvus official report.

” Rhett’s eyes cut to Jay’s. “Yin requested the Milvus assignment.”

What?