Park put the phone on speaker then gathered Gift back into his arms, expecting this Avery person to find the name of the employee and then give him a generic answer, telling Park he’d look into the issue himself and get back to him. Or maybe he would leave him on hold indefinitely?
Avery was back in less than five minutes. “What did you say the name was?”
Gift was tracing patterns on Park’s bare chest.
“Aspen.”
There was a long pause before Avery said, “There’s nobody in our system by that name. We have no record even showing they’re employed by the Watch.”
Park frowned. “How is that possible?”
Avery made a noise that suggested he was just as stumped as Park. “All hires are subjected to a background check that takes approximately six months to a year to complete. This man isn’t even on our radar.”
Gift’s hand stopped moving when Park said, “Could it have been erased from your system?”
“Absolutely not.”
“So, how did he end up an instructor here?”
Avery scoffed. “Now, I have no proof of this but if I was a betting man, I would put my money on Marshall Kendrick. He hasn’t wanted our involvement since day one.”
Kendrick. Fucking Kendrick. Of course, it was.
There was a rustling sound on the line and then a soft male voice from a distance said, “We’re going to be late if we don’t leave now.”
“Coming, babe. Just one more minute.” To Park, he said, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Park started to say no, then asked, “That depends. How deep down the rabbit hole do your background checks go?”
“My analysts could tell you what you wore to your kindergarten graduation if I needed them to.”
Park was about to put that to the test. “Then I need you to run a background check.”
“On Aspen?”
Park glanced at Gift. “No. On Marshall Kendrick.”
Avery laughed. “You do realize that running a check on a man like Kendrick is going to require far more creative measures than our top secret security clearance, right? The man is a high-ranking government official. We won’t be able to do this the usual way.”
“I understand.”
“What you want us to do is highly illegal,” Avery emphasized.
Park sighed. “If you’re not comfortable—”
Avery cut him off. “Oh no. Don’t misunderstand me. I would love to do this for you. I just need you to acknowledge that you want us to do whatever is necessary to get that information, even if it’s outside the bounds of criminal law?”
“We’re long past worrying about what’s legal, Avery. Do whatever it takes. Hack the CIA, the NSA, Homeland Security. Hell, hack the fucking pentagon.”
Avery laughed. “Call me Jackson. As long as you’re sure…”
Park would shoot the president himself to keep Gift safe. “Let me be clear, Jackson. I don’t care if you have to dig up his dead mother, hire a psychic and hold a seance. I want to know everything that man’s done since he was old enough to walk.”
“My pleasure. I’ll call when I have something.”
Then he was gone.
Gift gazed up at him with those wide brown eyes Park once found so innocent. “That was kind of hot.”
