“Which is?” Jackal asks.
“We set him up,” Wren says.
Grudge leans forward. “You’re going to need to give me more than that.”
Wren looks at me, and I take over. “All this would be enough to bring down a federal agent. But what if we leaked it all and then set it up to look like he killed himself in the shame of it?”
“How would it work?” Wraith asks.
“I don’t know what happened to Mika,” I say. “But if he reallyisdead, why haven’t we heard about it on the news? How did Chase get away with it if there were other agents there? It smells of a cover-up. Wren has access to all this.” I gesture to the laptop being passed around the table. “So, we bundle it up and drop it to media channels and onto the dark web and let it spread so they can’t brush it under the rug. They won’t be able to hide it. But, in parallel, we lure Chase to a remote spot and set it up. I don’t know, hang him from something. Or use his government weapon to make it look like he shot himself in the head.”
“I’ll selectively wipe out his history from the inside, removing all mentions of my deadname. But my guess is, if an FBI agent goes that far off the rails, they aren’t going to want a huge inquiry into it. They’re going to make it go away quietly as soon as they get a first glance at how fucked up Chase is,” Wren says.
Atom leans back in his chair. “I don’t have a problem with that as a plan. But is there anything in those files that suggests he knew you were connected to the Outlaws? Or that you were brought here?”
“You’re gonna need to give me a bit more time to be certain,” Wren says. “But so far, I haven’t come across anything. I haveseen reference to Calista. She was mentioned because Mika found the fake personnel file we put in Valentine Security, so we’d get an alert if anyone was looking for me. It makes sense that it wouldn’t take too much effort to find out who Vex is.”
I stand suddenly because the adrenaline is pumping, and I’m scared they are going to say no. “So what if they do know about us? Knowing who we are and being able to blame us for the death of an agent are two different things.”
Wren places their hand in mine and squeezes it tightly, encouraging me back to my seat. “He’s right to be cautious. This is my mess. I don’t even like the fact you’re being dragged into it.”
That makes me sit, but I turn to face Wren. “We’re in this shit together. Always. But it’ll be a lot easier to deal with this if we have my brothers’ backing.”
Wren leans towards Grudge. “I can see everyone he contacts regularly. Friends. Family. I could plant a few messages of apology. How he feels like he let everyone down. I can even create a fictional narrative that he’s being blackmailed or being pursued by the cartel to get the funds back and he’s terrified. How someone approached him in person to threaten him. I can do to him what he did to me. I can take all his messages, learn his tone, write in a way that reflects his history with the sender. Only two or three of them. I can make him a man despondent with his life choices, filled with remorse, and terrified for his future. If they think it’s death by suicide, they won’t look too hard. Especially when all this hits the news.”
Grudge rolls his neck from left to right, and I hear it crack. “Fuck me. What’s that Navy SEAL saying, the only easy day was yesterday?”
“I feel like we have a little time to set this up,” I say.
“Not much,” Smoke says. “You forget, Chase probably knows we took all Mika’s shit. For all you know, Mika gave updescriptions of who came to his house and took it before that bullet. In fact, perhaps the bullet wasn’t even for him. Mika could still be alive. It could have been a warning shot.”
That stops me in my tracks. We hadn’t considered that. “Shit. I made a dangerous assumption.”
Wraith pulls a face that suggests he’s not sure. “What could Mika tell him? Five big guys in leather jackets. We all wore balaclavas. He couldn’t see shit. We didn’t wear our colors. And we were hours away from home. Sure, Mika knew we were asking about Chase and Wren. But we could be fucking anybody across a whole country asking.”
“Did anyone see you leave?” Jackal asks.
Atom shakes his head. “We were clear on the way out. Went over into a neighbor’s yard. We were under cover of darkness down a back alley. Even if a neighbor saw us, there’s still nothing identifying about us.”
“The truck?” Shade asks.
“We took the plates off,” Wraith says. “Rolled out in the dark.”
“Okay,” Grudge says. “Wren, you got until the end of the day to get through those devices, learn everything you can. I want this package bundled up and ready to go at the push of a button. It’s leverage. I want you to be able to act with one click if he rocks up at our gates today.”
“I can do that,” Wren says.
He turns to Jackal and Shade. “You two, when Wren’s done, collect all Mika’s shit, take it to our garage, after hours, and crush those fuckers. Melt shit, burn off labels. I want no identifiable trace of any of that equipment left by midnight.”
“Done, Prez,” Jackal says.
“Smoke. I want you and Taco to work on a location. We need options where we can kill this fucker. One here. One in Utah. Wemight need to go find him to make this happen. You figure out where. Atom, Catfish, Wraith, and I will figure out the how.”
There are various murmurs of agreement before Grudge turns to me. “Ask Babyface to coordinate some security around your sister and mom’s place overnight. Just as a precaution.”
For the first time since Wren showed me all those messages, I feel warm.
“Thank you, brothers.”
