“Years,” was Hagerty’s vague answer. “I don’t know all the details, but you know how scuttlebutt works. Nothing’s kept secret within the military except the unimportant things.”
Bear snorted. “Understatement.”
Bulldog passed the tablet with Shaw’s info to Lucky. “His records look exemplary until he was arrested.”
“They were,” Steel admitted. “I thought he was into drugs at first, not wet work. If I hadn’t told Papaw my suspicions, we’d be having a very different conversation right now. But things were run differently back then and the world’s conflicts were less…affected by the public.” Steel would never agree that social media was a good addition to the world. And now the whole AI thing? Hadn’t anyone learned anything fromThe Terminatorfranchise?
Hagerty nodded his agreement. “From what I gathered, the CIA continued to use him for wet work. They just paid him to shoot at whomevertheywanted rather than him to shoot at whomever he was paid to by the highest bidder.”
“You said he was ‘out’,” Steel quoted. “The CIA finally let him go?”
Steel wasn’t overly familiar with how the CIA worked. Movies and Hollywood romanticized the spy trade, but it was dirty work, and a lot of powerful people paid a lot of money to make certain secrets disappear. He highly doubted the CIA killed off all its former agents when they were of no use to them anymore, but there was still a lot of blood on their hands and a lot of secrets in their vault. And a man like Shaw? He’d want to get something on someone to ensure his survival.
Steel knew this because that’s what he would do if their roles were reversed.
Hagerty, though, shook his head. “I think I need to start at the beginning. A few weeks ago, I was out at a bar catching up with some old friends. One of them, his father was one of Shaw’s original victims. We all knew the rumors, but my buddy had a personal interest to keep tabs on Shaw beyond what was being talked about. Like, why you became a training officer and then a squad leader instead of keeping your rifle. There was even this one rumor that a sniper took a cheap shot at you while you were on patrol. Scuttlebutt is that was Shaw out for revenge.”
Lucky’s head snapped up from looking at the tablet. “What?” His eyes went from where Hagerty was sitting at the bar to Steel on the couch next to Jenna.
Not picking up on Lucky’s reaction, Hagerty just shrugged nonchalantly. “Yeah. It was right after 9-11. Maybe 2002 or 2003? I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the rumor we heard when I joined Steel’s command.”
Steel kept his jaw clamped tight. He’d been more worried about saving Lucky’s life than if the sniper had been caught, and in the firefight that followed, it was always chaos. No one knew for sure if the sniper had been taken down, but assumptions were made. Both Lucky and Steel were alive to fight another day.
Had that been Shaw? He would have been in prison five or six years by then. The CIA must have snatched him up quick, not wanting him to be executed before they had a chance to get their claws into him.
Hagerty continued, “But my buddy, he made it his personal mission in life to bring Shaw down. Once he learned Shaw wasn’t executed, he tracked Shaw everywhere. Got disciplined more than once for misappropriation of military resources.”
Jenna squeezed Steel’s hand, an unwavering show of her love and support. It broke Steel from his thoughts, allowed him to think past the fact that Shaw might have almost killed Lucky twenty years ago.
“Who’s your buddy?” he asked.
“Trip Orrin. I doubt you would know him. He was never in your command, and once he learned there was a chance Shaw was still alive, he joined the agency. Wanted to find proof that Shaw was actually working for them before he went public with what the military did.”
Steel hid his wince. That certainly would have put a target on his buddy’s back.
Jenna spoke up. “Hi, sorry. I just want to clarify. Your friend, Mr. Orrin, he just walked up to the CIA and asked to join?”
Steel lifted her hand to kiss her finger tips. “No, love. But the agency is always poaching from the ranks. It wouldn’t have been that hard to gain their attention if he knew what he was doing.”
“Wereyouever approached by them?” Jenna demanded, her eyebrows raised.
“You’re looking at the wrong Marine,” he told her honestly, “and so were they.” The spooks he’d seen overseas would have never approached him because Steel was, what they called, True Blue, meaning he wouldn’t leave the Marines regardless of what the agency offered him. Additionally, he had a wife and kids back home, and they preferred moredispensableagents. At least, that was what Steel had always been told.
“Did Orrin find Shaw?” Lucky asked. He was still holding the tablet, but no longer reading it.
Hagerty bunched his lips together and shook his head. “Naw. IED took half his arm and a chunk out of his face on a supply transport before he could. But he did learn that the CIA got tired of cleaning up Shaw’s messes. Turned him over to some people who owed them a favor.” Steel got a sinking feeling just before Hagerty asked, “You guys ever hear of Primis?”
The Officers knew betterthan to give anything away. Like Steel, they schooled their faces to hide their emotions. Well, nearly all of them. Keys spilled his orange soda when Hagerty named the former paramilitary group, and he had to rush to clean up the mess before he got it all over himself, his computer, Demo, and Demo’s notebook.
Ghost cleared his throat to bring Hagerty’s attention to him. “We’re aware of who they are. I don’t know anyone who’s served who isn’t.”
“Fair point,” Hagerty said, his eyes still flicking back to Keys and the wadded up paper towels that were now dyed orange with soda.
Steel suppressed a groan. The kid really needed to work on his poker face. This was one of the reasons why Keys was always left in the van when Steel ran the club’s missions.
“So my buddy,” Hagerty slowly continued, “says that he lost track of Shaw for several years. Close to a decade. Then he sees footage from Primis getting taken down last summer, and right in front of his eyes on national television, is Shaw.”
The club took down Primis last June. Keys had reason to believe Shaw had started stalking the club in July before he implemented his new security software. Brendon, the club’s former night janitor, was still down in the cellar, which was likely where Bear had been prior to this impromptu meeting. He hadn’t been able to tell Ghost much, just that he’d been paid a good amount to insert that drive into the dealership’s server.
