“If she becomes more than a hobby, Grady… If I so much as notice a change in your work ethic or level of professionalism, she’s gone. Do you understand me?”
I sigh, grabbing another mint. “Sure. Got it, boss. Why did you summon me here? For this lovely talk?”
His anger paints his face fire-engine red, and it’s hard not to laugh at him.
“Sit down, Helms. You’re going to give yourself a fucking coronary.”
Sitting, he scrubs his hands over his face. “Why does the best motherfucker I have have to be the most infuriating?”
“It’s part of my charm.”
He scoffs, breaking into a laugh. “If you have charm, I’m the Queen of England.”
Standing, I bend at the middle. “Your Majesty.”
“For fuck’s sake.” He shakes his head.
I drop back into my chair. “So, Lasko is my mark?”
“He is.”
“A Fed? Don’t they typically handle their own internally?”
“This one’s different. He got on our radar.”
“Ahh,” I muse. “Become a threat to national security, has he?”
“He has.”
“Well, then today’s not his lucky day.”
“We have it on good authority that Mr. Lasko has become associated with the group known as Nameless.”
“The cyber collective?”
Helms nods, closing a file and tossing it over to me.
“Of course, we have eyes on the leader of the group, as do the feds; we have intel that he might be getting in a bit too over his head and has now become a threat.”
I flip through the pages of data and images. Nameless is a cyber collective that emerged about nine years ago, just as I was about to return to work.
They claim to operate in the public’s best interest, but some of the ventures they are involved in are deadly if not handled properly.
For years, they’ve been on our radar, but have done nothing of consequence for us to move on them. As long as their purposes align with ours, they get to live.
“He’s been moving a lot of money offshore,” I say aloud, flipping through pages of documents.
“Yeah, and not all of it’s his.”
“Why am I privy to this?” Typically, I’m given my marching orders, I carry them out, and I get a cash infusion into my bank account. It’s never this in detail, nor does it warrant a trip to headquarters.
“I want this handled properly. I don’t need the Feds to come at us for taking out one of their own. This needs an expert hand. Someone who will have keen senses that I can trust.”
I smile, closing the file. “Go on. Say it.”
He sighs. “You’re the only fucker I trust with this, Grady.”
“You say such pretty things to me.”
