“Yeah, that’s him,” she said even as she heard a grunt of surprise from Lennox. Glancing over, she saw him staring at the man. “Do you recognize him?”
Lennox glanced at Colt, who gave him one of those vague shrug-like nods as if leaving it up to Lennox to decide what to say.
“Without getting into the details of where we were or who we were working for, I can tell you that we encountered this guy, Keller, and some of his friends the other night,” Lennox said.“They were extremely well-trained and well-equipped with stuff that’s on par with our SEAL Team gear.”
Talia had about a hundred questions but bit her tongue as Katrina leaned forward. “So, who is this guy? And if he’s the kind of man the Navy SEALs would get into a fight with, why the hell are the Rybaks and McDaniels meeting with him?”
“I can’t help you much with that last part, but the first question is easy enough,” Kyla said. “Mason Keller is a soldier of fortune—a highly trained and experienced one. He served eight years in the British SAS, with almost all of that time deployed to one combat zone or another. He received multiple commendations for valor including the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and was injured in the line of duty at least three times.”
Lennox frowned. “You might not intend for it to sound that way but if I didn’t know better, I’d think this guy was some kind of hero.”
“That’s because from all appearanceshe wassome kind of hero—until he wasn’t,” Kyla said. “Something happened during his last deployment to Afghanistan. The incident is so classified that even I couldn’t dig out the details, but I think some locals died. Four weeks later, Keller was no longer a part of the British Army and was already working for a private military company in Yemen. For the next seven years, he moved from one mercenary job to the next. If you can think of a country in violent upheaval, there’s a good chance he’s been there. Two years ago, he disappeared off the radar. I have no idea who he’s working for now, but the rumor is that it’s a big-time player on the international scene.”
That didn’t sound good.
“Why would the Rybaks and McDaniels possibly be involved with a man like Keller?” Talia wondered aloud. “More importantly, what does he want from them? I’m not even surewhat Bogdan and McDaniel have in common with each other besides money.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have many answers when it comes to those kinds of questions,” Kyla admitted with a sigh. “My working theory was that Keller is running some kind of protection racket, telling San Diego’s wealthiest families he’ll make sure they aren’t harmed in return for money. But based on what Lennox just said—and didn’t say—I’m assuming Keller is part of something much bigger than that.”
Talia looked at Lennox along with everyone else.
“We can’t say too much,” Colt said. “Not without clearing it with some people.”
Kyla snorted. “He means the CIA. They’re the only people who would have dragged SEALs out of the country to deal with someone like Mason Keller.”
“You know that line, I can neither confirm nor deny that? Well, it applies in this situation,” Lennox muttered, glaring at Kyla. “But if I was to say something hypothetically, it’s that the Mason Keller we went up against wouldn’t be running any kind of protection racket. Theoretically, he’d be part of a major international terrorist operation with an agenda no one has figured out yet.”
That raised a few eyebrows around the table, especially Kyla’s. Talia could tell that she wanted to press for more answers but at a look from Wes, she backed off.
“So, Dayton McDaniel—a bio-medical nerd—is involved with international terrorists?” Katrina asked incredulously.
Talia couldn’t tell if her friend was stunned at the thought or simply refused to believe it.
“That might not be such a leap,” Lennox said. “This group Keller might be a part of has a history of going after targets associated with certain economic sectors, includingpharmaceutical and bio-medical. Maybe they want McDaniel for his bio-medical tech connections.”
“That would probably also explain his interest in Bogdan as well,” Colt pointed out. “He has a lot of connections throughout the world that would be valuable to a terrorist organization.”
Talia groaned. “I’m not sure I want to know, but what kind of connections could he have that an international terrorist organization wants?”
“As I understand it,” Colt said slowly, as if he was leery of saying the wrong thing, “while Bogdan was certainly a powerful man in the political arena of Belarus, his true strength always lay in his far-reaching network of loyal military officers, spies, arms dealers, and underworld figures. I could see a terrorist organization seeing the value in that network.”
Talia didn’t know what she was supposed to do with that information. It seemed her boss had a drastically different background then she’d expected. One that was quite a bit shadier than she would have imagined.
“Do we think John Fredrickson is involved with this terrorist group too?” Katrina asked.
Lennox looked at Talia. “Didn’t you say something about Fredrickson owning an international shipping company? If that’s true, it would definitely fit the profile of the kind of people Keller would go after. What major terrorist group wouldn’t want access to a fleet of ships that could take them and their weapons anywhere in the world without anyone knowing it?”
“Oh, no,” Katrina moaned. “Do we think Keller is the one responsible for Anna going missing? If so, would he even have a reason to keep her alive?”
Talia felt her stomach knot. If Keller grabbed Anna because she heard or saw something she shouldn’t, then he’d have no reasonnotto kill her.
Lennox and the other guys did their best to convince her and Katrina that Anna was still alive, that they would have found a body if there was one. Kyla, however, looked far less sure of Anna’s safety, though she didn’t say so.
“I think we need to bring all this information to the CIA,” Colt said. “Not that I’m admitting they’re the ones looking into Keller and his terrorist group. But if they were, they’d want to know about this.”
“While you’re probably right, this is all supposition until we get some kind of proof connecting Keller to Bogdan and McDaniel,” Kyla said, then added, “More proof than the word of a little girl who’s been eavesdropping on her father’s private conversations. Unless you like the idea of the CIA questioning Maria.”
Talia shuddered at the thought of sweet little Maria being questioned under bright lights by a man in a trench coat—she’d seen all the movies.
