“I did,” Jupiter said. “Specs joined me.”
“Anything interesting come from the sit-down?”
“Grady wasn’t completely honest,” Jupiter said.
“How so?” Kawan gripped the railing.
“Homeland has a file on the mission, and they’ve been looking into Lorre. There’s more to his retirement.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Norris might have mentioned that Lorre is being pushed into retirement. That it wasn’t his decision.” Jupiter waved a finger. “But neither Norris nor Lovey would give me the details as to why Lorre would be forced to step down. They did say the spin will be an honorable discharge. There will be no red flag. Nothing for the world to see. Unless someone unearths the smoking gun that brought them the file in the first place.”
Kawan rubbed his jaw, staring at his cabin. “I wonder why Grady didn’t say anything.”
“I asked Norris and Lovey about that,” Jupiter said. “Norris’ response was… plausible deniability. Lovey added that Grady probably didn’t believe we needed to know to do our job. And perhaps he didn’t want us poking that bear. He wanted us to strictly adhere to the mission. So, it was all about compartmentalization.”
“I suppose keeping us out of a possible investigation into Lorre from the Homeland side makes sense.” Kawan wiggled his fingers. “But he could’ve just asked us to stay out of it.”
“That would’ve been so easy for me.” Jupiter arched a brow. “I’m already looking for a way in. But I’m not as good as Specs or Ry. Might be better served to have them do it if we don’t want to get caught.”
“Jesus. Grady just fucking played us.” Kawan shook his head and chuckled. “Talk about plausible deniability. This way, he didn’t tell us anything. We found out by having a little chat with the person doing the digging. His hands are clean of anything.”
“That’s fucked up,” Jupiter said. “Even for Grady.”
“Yeah, but think about how we operate. How Thor does things.” Kawan pointed toward his cabin. “Even Lark. We all tend to do things in the gray area. We follow the rules… until the rules don’t make sense.”
“You know, there’s another angle in this.” Jupiter shifted. “Grady had a hand in that meeting. He knows those two agents, and this so-called task force isn’t legitimate. It’s his way of having his fingers where he can, without anyone knowing, including Lorre. More importantly, he’s getting us to do his dirty work.”
“You mean look into what his own people are doing?” Kawan narrowed his eyes. “Grady’s two ranks above Lorre. He oversees both JSOC and Ghost Tier, and I’m sure other programs we don’t even know about.”
“Yeah, but in the Army, Lorre isn’t technically under his command. They’re in two separate units. They only work together through JSOC and Special Operations Group.” Jupiter leaned against the railing. “Grady might not have anything to do with whatever is happening with Lorre and his retirement… or forced retirement.”
“Wouldn’t Grady be notified?”
Jupiter shook his head. “Not if someone is trying to cover it, and we both know our government likes to do that.”
“So, Grady is using us to find that intel.”
“Could be.” Jupiter nodded. “Or, he’s handing it to us, without getting himself in trouble.”
“This is why I’m not gunning for a promotion. I don’t need a leadership role.”
“I hear you, brother.”
“Anything else?” Kawan asked.
“Only that I still haven’t heard back from Colonel Amber.” Jupiter shrugged. “If I don’t hear by tonight, I’ll try to ping him again, but we need to be careful. There are only so many backdoors I can go through.”
“He might know something about Lorre,” Kawan muttered.
Kawan shifted his gaze from his cabin’s porch to the window of Jupiter’s. Specs’ silhouette came into view.
“How’s she doing?” Kawan stared into the window.
Jupiter’s lips tugged downward. “Surprisingly well, considering. She’s not spiraling anymore, not overtly, anyway. She’s sleeping a little. Eating, if I remind her. But there’s… more there than I realized. More than anyone could’ve prepared for.”
Kawan glanced at him. “You gonna tell me what that means?”
