We figure out the details and leave it at that. Turns out the Bashes have been reading up on winemaking, and Georg is super-interested in the process. They’ve been working with a botanist to understand the varietals that grow there and have been clearing out weeds and overgrowth.
Plans for the weekend in place, I turn my attention to this evening. Just gotta get through this meeting with the team in one piece.
10
Thane
“All right everybody, sit down, shut up. We’ve got a lot to get through and not a whole lot of time.”
DB looks disgruntled, and I wonder what’s going on with him. Remembering my conversation with Odd, I check out my friend. He’s always been slightly more reticent about speaking, but today his face is stone, and his lips are thinned to the point of nonexistence. Anders leans over and whispers something in his ear, and Odd, resolutely focused on the TV screen, simply shakes his head.
Jake, dressed in his luxuriously layered black fabrics, including a stunning one-shoulder leather harness, darts his smokey eyes back and forth between the two of them. I catch his attention and raise my brow. He shrugs and pushes his hands out as if to saynot it.
Just fuck and get it over with, guys.
Thankfully, everyone’s settled down and we can begin. DB gestures at me as he sits down, awkward in his balance.
I stand to address the team. “Hey, folks. First of all, let’s welcome Abigail. As you recall, she’s here on a probationary basis, and she’ll be joining us on this op.”
The team gives her a subdued round of applause, still wary of her unplanned presence. DB, Jake, and I, however, are completely on board with her after watching her interview with Hedy. We met with Hedy and Edison at Wrecked in the early hours before it opened. Hedy asked her a few simple questions and had her do some takedown exercises with Edison. To be honest, it made me feel a little better that he ended up on his ass more than once.
Hedy’s instincts and background checks matched our own, and we were able to remove the up-close detail from her pretty much immediately. Her demeanor is serious, and to her credit, she seems locked in.
While everyone’s attention is on Abigail, Parker finds her bag and searches for the bug she placed there a few days ago. After a few minutes, she looks up at me and shrugs. The device has been live and active the whole time, so I’m not sure what’s going on.
I look over at Abigail, who’s smiling and chatting with the team. Catching Parker’s eye, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out the bug in question, sliding it over to her with a wink. Park flushes a deep red and accepts the tiny device with a shy smile.
I have a feeling those two are gonna be trouble.
Satisfied that we’re in agreement, I continue. “This one is another from the files of witness protection. According to our sources, Silas Wayne Blake worked with the government to bring down a large slavery and drug smuggling business. However, last week, his girlfriend reached out to local law enforcement with complaints of physical violence, claiming she is in fear for her life. Additionally, she said she suspects some of the people staying in their house are victims of human trafficking.”
“Seriously? He sounds like a serial killer,” Rafi interjects. “I mean, his middle nameisWayne.”
The team laughs and Anders starts reciting all of the serial killers with Wayne in their last name. It’s a longer list than I would’ve guessed.
“Nope,” DB says, cutting off the chatter in the room. “He’s not a serial killer; he’s just an asshole.”
“Sure,” Abigail says, her eyes narrowing. “But why isn’t this asshole being handled locally?”
It’s an important question. “When law enforcement showed up, his girlfriend retracted her statement. She had no bruising or physical signs of distress, but the officers noted another young woman on the premises who appeared to be frightened. When they questioned her, she also declined to press charges. They’re required to make arrests when there are clear signs of domestic violence, but they couldn’t proceed without probable cause or the victims’ consent.”
“If they didn’t have enough to go in, how do we have enough to go in?”
Jake speaks up. “We illegally intercepted communication that indicates he’s setting up a new location. So, we know he’s dealing dirty. We don’t have enough information on the girlfriend’s actual involvement.”
DB, sitting uncomfortably, pops his cane. “Here’s the thing. According to the Marshals’ records, he oversaw the enslavement of hundreds of people but cut a remarkably generous deal with the Department of Justice. Given the damage he’s capable of, and has already inflicted on people, he was on our radar anyway. This complaint and then the suspicious withdrawal just moved up his timeline.”
I square up with Abigail. “That going to be a problem for you?”
She takes a measured breath, adjusting her shoulders. “The Marine in me wants to follow the rules of engagement, by the book. The human in me, on the other hand, would like to remove his eyeballs with a spoon. I won’t say I’m comfortable with it, but I can’t deny that this is a person who needs to be removed from the board.”
I catch DB’s eye and he looks down. Based on our convo in the kill room, he is definitely in touch with that emotion.
Smiling at our newest recruit, I lay down a few critical truths. “It’s important that you know these are the kind of decisions we have to make all the time. This is what we mean when we say we’re willing to operate in the gray areas. None of these decisions feel entirely great, because we’d rather them be handled through the proper channels. In equal measure, they feel unavoidable unless we’re willing for these people to walk around unrestrained in our midst. Which we’re not.”
Anders holds up a finger. “I actually feel pretty good about taking these people off the board, but everyone else likes to grapple with the morality of it from time to time. Then again, I’m still pouting over the fact that DB wouldn’t let me remove that one guy’s spleen while he was still alive. So maybe I’m not the best gauge of these things.”
Omar reaches over and grabs Anders by the neck, pulling him in for a kiss on the cheek. He says something in Arabic, which I assume translates to something along the lines of “You’re batshit crazy, but I love you.”
