“I couldn’t face you.” Cal’s voice was barely audible. “After what I did. I thought if I could stop the attack, maybe it would count for something.”
“It counts for something,” Omar said. “But it doesn’t erase the damage.”
“Did you turn the explosives over to CSIS? Nobody mentioned that to me,” Ryan said.
“No. Like I told the maple syrup swillers, the shipment hasn’t arrived yet. If they’d let me, I’d work for them. Collect it when it comes in and turn it over. But they don’t trust me.”
“Imagine that,” Omar said.
One of the CSIS agents behind Cal stepped forward and said something off-camera. Cal nodded.
“They’re telling me our time is almost up,” he said.
“One more question,” Jake said. “The shipment you’re waiting on. How much explosive material are we talking about?”
Cal’s expression grew grim. “Enough to level a city block. Maybe two. The fireworks are legitimate, but they’re packed with extra propellant. Military grade. Someone knew what they were doing.”
Omar leaned forward. “How were they planning to get explosives into a venue that’s going to be crawling with security?”
“That I don’t know. My contact never shared operational details. Just asked questions.”
The CSIS agent appeared on screen. “We need to conclude this interview now.”
“Wait,” Omar said. “Is there anything else? Anything that might help us stop what’s coming?”
Cal was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, “No, I don’t know anything else.”
The screen went dark.
“He’s telling the truth,” Ryan said. “At least about not accessing his email. I pulled the metadata. The Tunisia connection was routed through multiple proxies, but the device signature doesn’t match Cal’s laptop.”
“So someone else is pretending to be Cal,” Jake said. “Someone with access to his communications and his protocols.”
“Someone who wants us to think Cal is still actively helping them,” Omar added.
“Why?” Trent asked. “Cal’s already compromised. They got what they needed from him. Why keep up the charade?”
Omar thought about it. “Misdirection. If we think Cal is still feeding them information, we might change our behavior. Avoid certain locations. Use different protocols.”
Omar pulled out his burner and started typing a message to update Marielle. Then he stopped. If someone had access to Cal’s communications, did they have access to the team’s burner network too?
“Hey, Jake. You know these burners you passed out at the airstrip?” he asked carefully.
“Yeah.”
“You took them from Potomac’s inventory before you left for Marseille, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Before we knew McCloud was dirty.”
Jake fisted his hands and squeezed his eyes shut. They all watched silently. Eventually, he snorted out a breath through his nose and looked at them.
“Cal would have had access to all five phones,” he confirmed.
“And whoever has access to his air-gapped device does, too.” Omar tried to swallow, but his throat was tight.
The room was silent.
