“Okay, so you’re connected. That doesn’t make you above the law,” Sarah said flatly.
“Of course not. I’m just not subject to the same laws you are. You may find this hard to believe, but we are on the same side…at least right now. Now please”—Hennigan gestured to the chair next to Kira—“sit down and let’s have a civilized conversation about how we’re going to save Pennington University tomorrow before there are a lot of victims.”
Hennigan then laid out the intelligence they had about the CLA and their meeting in Houston and the subsequent fallout.
“You think the meeting was a sham? They came to Houston to kill the Germans?” Sarah asked.
“That seems to be the most logical conclusion,” Hennigan said. “Everything about it from my vantage point was a setup. Part of me wonders if the whole thing was to get my team in the arena, while they conducted a separate operation.”
“What ’separate’ operation?” Sarah asked.
Hennigan had hoped to keep this part out of their conversation, but decided the truth was the best path forward with Sarah. “The Foundation operates a facility we call The Complex. While we were incapacitated here, they infiltrated the facility. The woman who seems to call the shots, Laura Lee Jackson, is one of our former operatives.”
“Why is one of your former operatives associated with the CLA?”
“We don’t know. In fact, until earlier this evening, she was presumed dead—and I mean a long-time dead. No one has seen or heard from her for over twenty years.”
“Do you frequently lose your operatives?” Sarah asked.
“No. Operatives don’t retire.” Dr. Hennigan stared into the other woman’s eyes and knew she didn’t need further explanation.
“Okay, so we have a former secret governmental spy agency operative who hooked up with some homegrown extremists. To do what? What’s her end game?”
“That, no one knows. All we know right now is that she’s here. Well, she was at our facility earlier today, but I doubt she’ll miss the opportunity to take part in this offensive action of theirs tomorrow.”
“And the only intelligence you have is that they’re targeting Pennington and a rally. And because Blayne heard about a rally in a class he snuck into today, you’re assuming that tomorrow’s rally is the target?”
“Yes.” Murphy sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. “You do realize this intelligence is quite thin, don’t you?”
“Most intelligence is,” Hennigan admitted. “We act based on the most up-to-date information. Those facts are constantly evolving. So, today, we raided two CLA facilities—one in West Texas, the other in Eastern New Mexico.”
“Interesting,” Hennigan replied, steepling her hands under her chin, then signaling for Murphy to continue with a gesture.
“Both homes were rigged to implode. We triggered one during the raid and received no actionable information. On the other, we let the bomb squad do its thing before we entered. We found an underground bunker that had a lot of intelligence.”
Hennigan made a mental note to have Ms. Wilson hack into the FBI’s computer networks and retrieve any of the digital files from the operation.
“And?”
“We found detailed blueprints of Pennington University. We’re talking blueprints that go back to when the original campus was built. Underneath the blueprints, I found one picture.” Sarah picked up her cell phone, which had been placed on the table in front of her, unlocked the phone and scrolled through the information on her phone. She turned her phone around when she found the file she was looking for. “Do you know who this is?”
The woman in the picture appeared to be a young Latinx woman, possibly in her late twenties or early thirties. Someone had drawn a red bullseye around the woman. “I don’t know who that is.”
“Damn,” Agent Murphy said before putting the phone on the table.
“Wait! Show me that photo,” Blayne said. The three women turned to look at him, but Agent Murphy didn’t hesitate to do as requested. “Wow, that’s her. That’s Dr. Olivia Martinez. She’s the political science professor who is organizing the rally tomorrow.”
Chapter Seventeen
Agent Murphy
After the tête-à-tête the previous evening, Kira had driven Murphy back to her place. They had talked into the early morning hours. Murphy was not happy with this situation, but she understood it from Kira’s point-of-view. However, she still thought Kira should have confided in her.To what end?Murphy pondered as she was chauffeured to the Houston Field Office. If this continued, she would need to purchase a new car. She hadn’t needed one in New Orleans, but Houston was more spread out and didn’t have NOLA’s tight public transportation system.
“Ma’am? Do you need me to get the door for you?” The agent in the front seat turned around, looking at her.
How does he drive like that?Then she realized they weren’t moving anymore. “Sorry about that,” she said. “I got lost in my thoughts.”
“Happens to us all, ma’am.”
