"Analyst, not field agent. My supervisor is Patrick Hollings. Zara, Kenji, I'm sure you can verify all that in about thirty seconds."
The beautiful dark-haired woman looked up from her monitor and threw Sarah a bright smile. “Already done.”
The dangerous-looking man behind her, Finn, nodded. “She’s who she says she is.”
"How did you two meet up?" Maya gestured between her and Griff.
"She's been running her own investigation into the biological passport scheme," Griff explained. "Coming at Tank's killers from the financial side. Following the money while I followed the bodies."
"And they tried to kill you for it." Axel finished, shaking his head. “So typical.”
She nodded. "Sent me to Montana for 'emergency training.' Chechens were waiting."
"Sarah Elizabeth Winters. Clean background," Kenji informed his team. "Father was Army Intelligence, died 2014. Mother's a teacher in Connecticut. Commendations for three major fraud cases. No red flags."
"Your father was military?" Deke's tone warmed slightly.
"Colonel James Winters, 7th Intelligence Battalion. KIA Afghanistan."
That changed something in their expressions. Military family. One of them, in a way.
"Show them what you found," Griff said.
Sarah turned her laptop toward the camera, launching into her presentation. "After you all took out Admiral Richardson, the biological passport scheme never ended. It expanded. Senator Buckley's been authorizing payments to Stillwater. His authentication code is all over these transactions. First we saw them paying bribes out. Now we know why—they’re being bankrolled by Buckley’s black budgets. Two sides of the same machine."
“So he’s running Sentinel,”Kenji said.
She pulled in a deep breath."It gets worse. The Charleston Summit? It's what they're calling the Charleston Option. A false flag operation."
She forwarded them the termination lists, watched their faces as they found their own names.
"They're planning to kill us all," Axel said flatly.
"And blame it on domestic terrorists," Sarahconfirmed. "Then they’ll be free to sell their fake biological passports to anyone who can write a big enough check."
Doc leaned into frame beside Sarah. "Which is why we're going to stop them."
Maya frowned. "Who are you?"
"Dr. Theodora Worthington," Doc said crisply. "Sarah's former professor. I've been providing... let's call it tactical support."
"A professor?" Axel’s skepticism was obvious.
"Among other things. I believe Admiral Knight might remember me from a joint task force in Prague, circa 2009."
Ronan’s jaw dropped. He blinked at Doc. "You're THAT Worthington? The one he said could?—"
"Yes, well, John always did exaggerate,” she insisted, but Sarah could tell the praise pleased her.
Griff shot Doc a look. When Doc nodded, he turned back to the camera. “She’s got a stake in this, too.”
Most of his teammates acknowledged that solemnly, clearly understanding his meaning, but Ronan studied her for a little longer. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Doc bowed her head for a moment. A streak of daylight caught the white highlights in her hair. When she looked up again, it was all business. “Thank you. Now on to logistics. They expect you at the summit. You need to be there, but not how they expect."
"We can't pull out," Axel said. "That would tip them off."
"Agreed," Griff said. "We go, but we go prepared. And we go separately."
