It wasn’t yet five in the morning. The entire room reeked of testosterone humming with anticipation. “Sorry!” Meg, barely five feet, hustled into the room, dropping a tablet as she skidded to a stop in front of Xander’s desk.
“Thanks,” she said as Nick handed her the tablet. “Thank God for bumper cases, right?” She flashed a grin at the men around her and blushed to the tops of her ears.
“Thanks for coming, Meg. I know you’re tired,” Xander said.
“I am, but it’s okay. Can I…?”
“Of course,” Ares, always the gentleman cleared a stack of folders off the club chair infront of the desk and took Meg’s heavy bag from her. “Take a seat.”
“Thanks,” Meg mumbled, looking down at her screen.
The office was a tight fit for them, and he knew they should take over the empty conference room on the main floor, but they never used that room for Team Stealth, he liked them all here, in his black fortress of an office.
“Let’s get started,” Xander said, glancing at his watch. “Meg’s team worked all night long on implementing the technology we bought from Benoit, thank you, Nick,” Xander said. The guys all clapped Nick on the back, except for Erik.
“It was no big deal,” Nick said, but his eyes showed how pleased he was.
“And they tracked down a lead on the invisible aircraft that was used in the Mulberry attack. They found out through conversations and emails that an aircraft that sounds similar is up for sale tomorrow morning in Latvia,” Xander said. “Your job is to intercept that sale. I want that aircraft brought to a hangar here, where I have a team waiting to examine it.”
“Why bother?” Logan gritted out the words, tension radiating off him.
“I want to know who was behind the attack on Mulberry because keeping our clients safe is our job,” Xander said, struggling for calm.
“Let’s go do our job,” Gabe said. “What do we need to know?”
“Here is the area we think the sale is taking place, from a group who is connected to a cartel. Right here in this village, in an abandoned church,” Meg said.
Xander watched Erik’s eyes as he scanned the room.
“Problem, Logan?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“This is a new technology, and I don’t think it’s accurate. What kind of criminal is going to show up at an abandoned Latvian church to sell an aircraft? It makes little sense.”
“It’s a lead, Logan. We have to follow it,” Nick said.
“I trust my team,” Meg said, her brown eyes wide behind her glasses. “Maybe no one suspects the church.”
“Or maybe your fancy new program got it wrong. Come on, Nick, you don’t buy this, do you?”
Nick shrugged. “I go where I’m told to go, same as you.”
The thing about Logan was, that he was always moving forward and he didn’t like going backwards. It made him feel cornered, and when he felt cornered, his instinct was to fight. Each of these men had reacted differently to losing Jordan; each of them reacted differently to a new job. This was how Logan reacted.
“It appears I’m late to the party,” Quinn Walsh said, walking into the room, Harper right on his heels.
“You’re right on time,” Xander said. “Either go or quit, Logan. I thought you would want to know the reason your friend died and who caused the attack that ended in him losing his life. Maybe you aren’t the operative I thought you were if you can’t keep your cool.”
He noticed Logan stepped forward, curl his fingers into a fist as his nostrils flared and also noticed Harper’s gasp of breath at his words.
“Come on, let’s cool off,” Gabe said, taking Logan out of the room. “Meg, send us the details to the encrypted server.”
“Okay.” Meg nodded
Nick and Gabe and Logan left after clapping Quinn on the back. Erik stayed by the wall. Quinn walked into the room and extended his hand. “Happy to be back, I think.”
“Perfect timing,” Ares said.
“Thank you, Meg. Harper, can you set Meg up in one of the apartments?”
