“No offense, but I don’t care. I trust him like Lark trusts you.” Grady lifted his chin. “I need you to find him as much as I need you to find that missing prototype.”
“Experimental battlefield wargames AI,” Tonka said grimly. “What the hell does this shit do anyway?”
“What doesn’t it do?” Grady stared at Tonka. “Command structures, AI-generated adaptive adversary behavior, and machine learning. Accelerated analysis. Drone systems. AI-assisted C2 systems. You name, we’re developing it, and we contracted Senatrix to do it.”
“So, why put in Bradford?” Pipe asked.
“Two reasons.” Grady held up two fingers. “The first was when our government heard that Senatrix was getting greedy. That they had put our feelers about our technology. The second was that the chatter was in the direction of someone in our government.”
“And you believe that was Lorre?” Lark asked. It was difficult for her to grasp the idea that Lorre could have anything to do with corruption, or even incompetence. But betrayal? That seemed impossible, and yet, someone had looked at her mission, her team, and decided they were acceptable losses. Collateral damage in whatever deal they’d made.
“Not at first,” Grady said. “But I became suspicious when his retirement was announced.”
“So why the hell haven’t you turned him in?” Lark demanded.
“Because I need more than suspicion. I need evidence. I need access to internal chatter, clearance logs, comms trails. That takes time. I have help. Colonel Amber is back, and for the record, he didn’t leave for personal reasons. He faced an internal review board.”
“Why?” Kawan asked.
“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.” Grady let out a long breath. “Sexual harassment.”
Bullshit.She'd worked with Dustin for years. Seen him around women in high-stress situations, in bars after missions, in close quarters. He was a lot of things, but he wasn't a sexual predator. “You’re right. I don’t.” Lark folded her arms. “I’d believe it of plenty of men in power, but not Dustin.”
“I know.” Grady ran a hand across his jaw. “But we had to take it seriously. It was dismissed, and that’s all I can sayabout that. Anyway, he’ll be looking at things—quietly—but I do trust him. Feel free to reach out to him but do it through back channels.”
“Agent Kyle Norris from Homeland Security reached out to us through an encrypted message early this morning. He wants to meet with us. He and his partner Marc Lovey,” Thor said. “What can you tell me about that?”
“I was getting to that.” Grady tapped his fingers on the top of the pinic table. “Joint task force I personally put together. It’s not on the books, but those two men owe me. I’d been hoping to have this conversation before they spooked you.”
“Well, they did,” Thor said. “We haven’t responded. Jupiter’s currently running a trace.”
“When he follows the digital trail and finds them, it’ll freak you all out because Norris and Lovey are sitting in a hotel room about fifty miles away,” Grady said.
“Fucking wonderful,” Pipe muttered. “How do we know you’re not part of this?”
“Because my record speaks for itself.” Grady cocked his head. “It’s not squeaky clean. It has a few blemishes. The kind of blemishes that tell a story of a man who’s willing to do what it takes to get the job done, but not so willing that missions come before men.” He paused, his gaze distant for a moment. “Early on, in my career, I butted heads with a few superiors. I asked questions when they would’ve preferred I do what I was told. But I wasn’t the kind of man who just fell in line. I’m still not. I’m lucky I’m a Major General, and not still back where I started. But being an out-of-the-box thinker isn’t always a bad thing, and I had a few COs who saw that as a good trait.”
“My team is often referred to asGhost Squadron,and not because we operate in the dark. But because we have a somewhat silent rebellious streak,” Thor said. “I get a fairamount of flak for giving my men so much space and freedom. I’m told it’s not an effective way to lead. I say bullshit.”
Kawan nodded in Thor’s direction. “I’d retire before working under any other team leader.”
Trust. That's what made a real team. Not orders and protocols—trust. And hers had been shattered from the inside.
“In JSOC and other special operations within the DoD, people either demand your SEAL team, or they beg not to have you anywhere near their mission.” Grady laughed. “That kind of push-pull tells me you’re doing something right. But getting back to the two agents I sent here. Just so you know, technically, they're looking into something else. They do have another assignment. But they’re also at your disposal. And they have resources that you might not be able to… access.”
“And if that trail leads to Lorre?” Lark asked. “To Bretton? Torin? Even Bradford? What happens then? Are you going to be able to deal with that?”
Grady looked at her for a long time. “It looks like Lorre. He’s the obvious choice,” he said, voice low. “If that’s the case, we burn him. However, we must be prepared for the possibility that someone is using him not just to acquire the technology. But to perhaps push him out. Push me out. Push out Lark. Someone got him that security footage.”
“You’re forgetting he could’ve been watching all along,” Pipe said.
“If he were, Specs and Jupiter would find the hack.” Kawan inched closer to Lark. “But Grady makes a valid point. Jupiter—and I bet Specs—would’ve been looking for an outside loop. For Jupiter, that’s standard in an op like that. If Lorre got some grainy footage, it was captured during the tail end. It was a split-second snapshot taken amid the chaos as we scrambled. Not watching. We need to see what Lorre has.”
“I doubt he’ll give it up,” Grady said. “And I have to be careful how I do this dance with him. I’m not running missions. I’m overseeing them. Providing insight, knowledge, and greenlighting them.”
Kawan shifted his gaze from Lark to Grady. “If the right person demands it, he might not have a choice.”
“What are you thinking?” Thor asked.
