“Last night we had a call with the group and we unanimously decided to offer you a position here on the team. That is, if you want to work with us.”
I sweep my eyes sideways at Thane, who’s gone rigid. Deep breath. “I’ll need to think on it.”
DB pulls back, surprised. “What’s your hesitation?”
Well, DB. You see that huge man in the corner over there? I’d like to climb him like a tree and have him dick me down six ways to Sunday, so…I probably shouldn’t go breaking laws with him.
And I might be a little bit still in love with him.
Shh, don’t tell anyone.
I shift my eyes over to Thane again, then back to DB. Guess he deserves a better answer than that.
“I liked taking down the bad guys, but I didn’t like having to decide at the last minute to kill a known agent in my shitty hotel room. I didn’t like the thrown-together nature of the op, and that I didn’t have enough time to truly respond to your request. There was a slight kill-em-and-sort-em-out-later vibe to the whole thing, and I’m curious if that’s typical.”
Everyone shifts uncomfortably. Maybe because they saw me get nervous with Thane, they think I don’t have an opinion on things. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
DB holds up his hands. “It’s a fair question, people. Some of our recent ops have gone a little sideways, and we’ve not had all the intelligence we needed.”
Everyone around the table nods in agreement, even if they don’t like the assessment.
DB continues. “Jake does a great job gathering the intelligence that’s there, but we often have to act quickly to take advantage of the element of surprise. We’ve implemented additional checks as a result, but there will always be the unknown.” Turning to me, he says, “I like you for this team because I think you’ll bring a higher level of certainty to these ops than we’ve had in the past.”
Ah. This is what Heath was talking about. Therealreason they want me.
DB pops his cane a few times before saying, “Folks, can you give me the room with Ronan and Thane for a few minutes?”
The team seems surprised by the request, but quickly complies without comment. Once the room is cleared, DB sits next to me, his eye contact intense.
“Real talk, what we could really use is your intelligence on ex-protectees who are still problematic once they are no longer in Witness Protection. There’s always a lot of chatter in the field, always rabbit trails to follow, but in order for us to be useful at all, we have to be able to target those who the criminal justice system can’t reach. And we have to be accurate. I never wanted the wet work, but sometimes you have to act on what you know. And we’ve been noticing some overlap.”
Whoa.
“I…I thought that you just needed that kind of help for this one op. I doubt I’ll be any use to you for future intelligence. I mean, I’ve posted my resignation. I’m no longer in the Marshals service, and I’m for sure going to be under investigation sometime soon.”
DB shakes his head. “You won’t be under investigation. Jake’s made sure of that.”
I feel like I should ask more questions about how they can be so sure I won’t be investigated, but DB’s already moved on.
“Here's the thing,” he says, leaning forward. “There's no way that you don't have a list of shitheads the government never should've worked with. Criminals that you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, are continuing to operate in a way that endangers American citizens."
He's got me there. "Of course."
"Do you have a top-five in the area?"
"Only five?” I say, snorting. “Sure, give me a minute to narrow it down."
Without needing a beat, I rattle off the five most egregious ones. Though, I easily could've added two or three—scratch that—four more, and that’s just Central Texas.
Thane hits something on the tabletop monitor and five names appear. Three of the names that I rattled off are on the list and the other two are among the ones I didn't say aloud.
"Yes, I'm familiar with all of these men and, frankly, the two I didn't mention are just as bad."
“And who would you start with?”
“Given the intensity of the last op, and the fact that this will be the first op that I am consulting on, let’s start small,” I say, pointing to my choice. “This is just one guy, and I believe that he is actively assaulting men as we speak. It should be a relatively easy op, and we can take him at home, which further simplifies matters.”
DB looks at the list and points to another name. “But not this guy? He recently had a complaint filed against him by a young woman.”
