Sean tilted his head in acknowledgment of that fact.“The secondary plan I was told to build up isn’t as strong as the first.It involves the same methodology, but with far more effort involved in creating false facts we want to portray as true.”
“Why don’t you enlighten us to your methodology?”Madison said flatly.
“Yeah,” Annabelle agreed.“Enlighten us.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do.Look, Jansen only targets the rich.They have the money the Pavluhkins need, a social status they don’t want tainted, which makes them easy to manipulate with the right leverage.They don’t care about nationalities; they only care about money, power, and keeping their targets under their control.Jamie’s military record with the Marine Corps is a known fact.We can’t hide that.So that leaves us with changing the narrative.”Sean brought up holographic copies of their military jackets in the center of the table.“Allof your narratives.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”Trevor snapped as he leaned forward.“You gave us Other Than Honorable discharges?”
“It was either that or a dishonorable one, and I shot that option down because itwouldn’tworkwith the cover we had to build, not with the timeframe we’re running on,” Sean said, raising his voice to be heard over the team’s fierce denial to the discharge detail.“An OTH for all of you and a dismissal for Callahan to get everyone out of your respective branches as of two years ago.Callahan’s cover is that he doesn’t agree with what his father wants him to do with his life now that he’s no longer in the military, so he’s making business deals on his own with the wrong kind of people for his social status.”
“At least you got one thing right,” Katie said snidely.
Sean sighed, reaching up to rub at his temple.He could feel a headache coming on.“These details are all correct for the cover we built you.Can I explain, or are you going to keep arguing?”
Katie waved at him to continue while taking the most vicious sip of tea he’d ever seen anyone swallow.
“We made Ovechkina the founder of a cybersecurity startup company, and your second hire was Dvorkin.It’s completely legit, and we’ve backdated all relevant business application forms needed to incorporate it.Ovechkina opted not to go the venture capital investor route for seed money in favor of offering Callahan a controlling stake in the company if he bankrolled it for the first couple of years.Callahan agreed.He’s the money, your company is the lure, and I’m the person who’s going to guide you through this as your CFO for the cover and as your handler for everything else.”
“Why you?”Kyle demanded.
“Because I have experience in deep cover work, and none of you do.My job is to make sure you live and breathe your covers while we’re overseas.This isn’t like your field missions when you’re in constant contact with headquarters.This requires you to be in a communications blackout as much as possible and act on your own toward the end goal.”
“You do deep cover,” Alexei said, his eyes narrowing.“You CIA?”
“He’s an ex-CIA officer,” Katie answered for Sean in an even voice.“I cleared him last summer myself.”
Sean winced at the memory.Knowing that the infiltration of MDF headquarters and its ranks was perpetrated by someone who had broken oaths to protect the country had been a bitter pill to swallow.For Sean, coming from the CIA, it had meant a deeper telepathic scan than his fellow MDF agents received to root out any possibility of him being a traitor.He’d been in the field when the attack occurred and then was almost immediately recalled, forcing him to break cover on a mission in Canada that never got finished.Having Katie dig through his mind, reading every last one of his thoughts, sifting through memories Sean would rather leave buried, had not been pleasant.
Neither was this.
Alexei’s mouth curled in a distasteful snarl.“Not like CIA.”
“I’m aware of that,” Sean replied tiredly.Pretty much every MDF agent knew why Alexei and Kyle hated the CIA.“But I’m not CIA anymore.I’m an MDF agent, which means we’re all on the same side here.”
The silent looks the team exchanged told Sean he would probably be the odd man out for the duration of this mission.It wasn’t the most comfortable place to be, but he’d work through it.He always did, whether on the job or back home with family.
“The goal here is to dangle a big enough prize in front of Jansen and the Pavluhkins that they bite and we get access to the inner workings of their criminal circle.I’m sorry you don’t like what the director ordered me to put together, but this is the mission on the table, and I’m not done briefing you,” Sean said into the hostile silence.“So let’s finish.”
Sean could read the mutinous expressions on all of their faces, but Alpha Team was made up of professionals.They might not like their orders, but they’d follow them.Whether or not this mission would be theirs all depended on Jamie’s answer.Until then, Sean had a job to do, so he let out a quiet breath and got to work.
* * *
“Does my father know?”were the first words out of Jamie’s mouth once the doors to the director’s office closed behind them.
“He will once we read him in on the mission parameters if it goes forward.We opted not to bring him in prematurely in the event you shut us down.We understand the hardship this will cause your family, which is why we’re letting you decide if you want to take this mission,” Nazari replied.
Jamie stayed standing at parade rest, hands clasped behind his back, while Nazari took a seat behind his desk and Stirling claimed a comfortable chair off to the side.“And if I don’t?What then?”
“We reconfigure the mission with another team in mind, and the timeframe gets pushed back.It’s not ideal in any way, but we’d make it work.We had Delaney and others in his division work out a secondary plan, but it won’t hold up as easily as this one will,” Stirling said.
“You’re asking me to risk my family’s good name and possibly ruin my father’s political career, to say nothing of my own, all for the sake of a chance?”Jamie asked.
“Our intelligence division has spent the last six and a half months working to find a way to break into the criminal alliance your team discovered last summer.They profiled the people involved and laid out the best possible plan.This mission was drawn up byourpeople, not anyone else, so I trust that they did their best to minimize the personal damage.”
“I understand your hesitancy—” Nazari began.
“With all due respect, sir, no, you don’t,” Jamie cut in.“Agreeing to this mission puts my family in danger.My team and I, we signed up for this job.We knew the risks that came with putting on a uniform.My parents—mylittle sister—are civilians.They didn’t agree to any of this.”
