“Sure.”
“And that she wanted to get kidnapped?”
“That was part of it.”
“Only part?”
“The plan was for Ava to neutralize TNT. First, she needed to obtain proof of his ties to Ben-Gold. It’s what she’s trained to do.”
“Steal documents?”
“No, Dad, the other thing,” said Jane.
“The other thing?” Mac wasn’t trying to be purposefully obtuse. He knew what Jane meant; he just couldn’t get himself to believe it.
“Wet work,” said Jane.
“Ava?”
Jane nodded.
“I see,” said Mac, though he didn’t really. He’d always thought that lies were what you told your enemies.
Wet work. Neutralize. Liquidate. Assassinate.The agency had a hundred words for it except one:kill. Something else Mac hadn’t known about her. He could see that there were going to be a lot of long nights when they got back to the Chalet Ponderosa. “Lucy, you got some splaining to do.”
Black humor, maybe, but, hey, sometimes that was all there was.
“Who told you about the red flag?” asked Mac.
Jane pursed her lips.
“Who?” Mac repeated, looking at the others.
“That would be me,” said Baker, immediately appealing to Elkins. “He’s a friend. I had to.”
“Later, Don,” said Elkins. “And don’t worry, I won’t forget.”
“Not that it helped,” said Mac to his old friend. “I hope it made your conscience feel better.”
“Screw you, Mac.”
“Back at ya, buddy.” Mac returned his attention to his daughter. He nodded and drew her toward him. “Thank you,” he said. “For everything.”
“I did the best I could.”
“I know that,” said Mac. He kissed her on the cheek, then turned to face the others. “So now? Don’t tell me we can’t do a damn thing about it.”
“We’ve taken every measure possible,” said Elkins.
“Then why are we here and not hauling ass to Versailles?” asked Mac.
“Excuse me,” said Elkins. “Remind me when you started working for the French authorities? We’ve given them everything we have; that means all the information your Ava copied from Tariq al-Sabah’s laptop. Vincent Dalin is the deputy chief of the DGSE. I trust him to use it expeditiously.”
“There’s too much for him to process,” said Jane. “This is a live op. He needs to act on the intel real time.”
“Listen to her,” said Mac. “She knows.”
“It’s not our country,” said Elkins.
