“Not a chance,” Evan said. “Thorn will almost certainly have his own security people there to keep people out. If we’re going to hear what they’re saying in there, it’s going to have to be covert.”
Trevor chuckled. “Fortunately, we work for a covert organization that’s damn good at snooping on people. See if you can find someone you still trust in IT, and ask if they have a listening device we can get into the conference room.”
“Getting a wire that can do the job won’t be the problem—it’s getting it into the room,” Evan said. “If Thorn’s people are any good, they’ll sweep the room before the meeting, so we can’t put the listening device in there ahead of time. It will have to go in at the last minute, and that might be tough.”
“Leave that to me,” Trevor told him. “You get the bug and make sure we find out exactly when Thorn is holding the meeting.”
“I’m on it.”
“You think this has something to do with this big move we’ve all been waiting for Thorn to make?” Tanner asked after Evan hung up.
“I hope so,” Trevor said. “Because if not, I’m not sure how else we’re going to get the son of a bitch. We’ve dug into every lead and gone down every rabbit hole looking for something to put the man away. I don’t know what else to do.”
Tanner wanted to put Thorn away as much as Trevor did, but it was looking less likely with every passing day. Even this classified meeting was a long shot. For all they knew, Thorn merely wanted a fancy place to hold one of his weapons program briefings for the DOD.
He and Trevor sat there in silence for a while, watching the fourth quarter of a game that even the fans in the stadium had given up on and walked out.
“So what are you going to do about Alina?” Tanner asked as the ref finally—and mercifully—announced the game was over.
Trevor shrugged. “Pick her up for work in the morning, then take it from there.”
Tanner considered suggesting Trevor try talking to Alina instead but thought better of it. Trevor was as crappy at talking to women as he was, so it would be a train wreck. Better to pray and hope for the best.
Chapter 9
Molly ran straight in to say good morning to Katelyn the moment Kathy opened the door.
“So how’d everything go last night after I left?” Kathy asked Alina. “Judging by how tired you look, I’m guessing it went very well. Tell me everything, and don’t even try to spare me the details. I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”
Alina was tempted to make something up so Kathy wouldn’t be disappointed, but she didn’t. Not only did she hate lying to her friend, but she was simply too tired to come up with anything.
“If you want to know how the night went, that’s easy. It sucked.”
Kathy looked surprised for a moment, then hustled her into her apartment and closed the door. Alina had been there enough times to know what the place looked like by heart. The layout was the same as her apartment, with most of the furniture nearly identical too. The only major difference was the pile of small cardboard boxes stacked up against the living room wall. Most likely socks waiting to be sent out in this morning’s deliveries.
“What happened?” Kathy asked.
Alina was in the middle of giving her friend the synopsized version of last night’s events when her cell phone rang. She dug it out of her pocket. It was probably Trevor telling her he wasn’t coming to pick her up and that she needed to take an Uber down to Quantico.
It wasn’t Trevor. It was Dick, no doubt wanting to know why the hell she hadn’t returned any of his calls. In addition to calling her several times the previous night, he’d already called twice this morning.
She sighed and let this call go to voice mail, too, then shoved her phone back in her pocket.
Kathy must have seen the look of displeasure on Alina’s face, because she led her over to the couch and plunked her down, then sat beside her.
“What’s wrong? You haven’t had this new job long enough to be hating the thought of going to work in the morning already.”
“It’s not that,” Alina said.
Picking up last night’s story where she’d left off, Alina explained about Seth Larson and how she’d told her boss about the meeting.
Kathy frowned. “I don’t see the problem here. Dick is your boss, right? Why wouldn’t you tell him about it?”
Alina sighed. “This is going to sound crazy, but I’m getting the feeling my boss isn’t exactly one of the good guys. There’s a lot going on that I don’t understand, but my instincts are telling me that Dick is in league with the person who had the previous director murdered. From everything I’ve seen over the past few days, Trevor is trying to get the evidence to prove it.”
Kathy grimaced. “And you just told the bad guy exactly what Trevor is up to.”
