“Emmet Doyle led a faction within the Reborn IRA who wanted to steer away from the violence for a bit, brush up on their image.Cillian and his people were very much not for that.They wanted more attacks, more violence, in the hopes it would get the British Parliament to give Northern Ireland’s devolved government more autonomy.The majority of Northern Ireland wants to remain part of the United Kingdom, so it’s really a losing battle on that front.Cillian and his people weren’t earning any sympathies for their position, but he caught the eye of the CIA.He was my last mission.”
“Why?”
Sean blinked, his hands curling into fists over his knees, but his gaze was steady, even if his breathing came a fraction faster.“Cillian is a chemist.He was the one who made the Reborn IRA Splice chemical bombs used in all their attacks, at least within this decade.During my time in Belfast, the CIA’s goal was to figure out the source of who was supplying the chemicals to him and other terrorists.I don’t know if they ever discovered it.If they did, I don’t know if they would’ve shared the intel with the MDF.”
Jamie heard what Sean wasn’t saying, and as much as he didn’t want the other man to run headfirst into triggering memories, he needed information.“When did the CIA pull you out?”
“The Belfast Market Blast that Cillian orchestrated three years ago lists zero survivors.The count is wrong because I walked away from it.The CIA extracted me with the help of the MDF.Emmet sold Cillian out to the authorities, and Cillian took the fall for that blast and all the others they’d detonated over the years.”
“The CIA really needs to get its fucking act together,” Kyle said angrily.
Sean pressed his lips in a thin line but didn’t come to his former agency’s defense.
“We eliminated the men who came after us tonight.I assume they ambushed us in retaliation for humiliating Tomas,” Jamie said.He was kicking himself for not seeing that coming, but Katie’s actions at the club had taken up nearly all his focus after they left.“You said he was allied with Cillian.If Tomas is here in London, what are the odds that Cillian is as well?”
“Without any proper reconnaissance and intelligence to draw from?I don’t know.”
“Then take a wild guess.”
Sean grimaced.“Considering Tomas was with Jansen and representatives from thePresnenskaya Bratva?I’d go with high.But the Russians have their own Splice bomb-makers.They don’t need to make deals with the Irish for that.”
“Could be a coincidence,” Madison said.
“Jamie hates that word,” Trevor reminded her.
“Katie,” Jamie said, turning his attention on her.“You told me to say no to Oksana’s offer of a meeting with me present.Why?”
Katie dug her fingernails into the armrest of her chair, baring her teeth.“Jansen is an empath.He was trying to influence you into agreeing to whatever they wanted.”
Jamie rubbed a hand over his face at that revelation.Katie’s fury made sense now.There was a reason telepathy, and to a lesser extent, empathy, frightened people more than any other metahuman power in existence.That someone could read a person’s innermost thoughts and outright control them, could manipulate them through their emotions, all without the person in question ever realizing anything was wrong, was terrifying.Laws were in place to try to keep those powers in check in most countries, but that was reliant on the metahumans in question working with the government.On being honest.
Not all of them did.Not all of them were.
“You should have let me say yes,” Jamie said, anger making his voice tight.
“And then what?”Katie said in a low, hard voice.“Every single time they’d meet with you in the future, I can guarantee Jansen would twist your emotions more and more.It’s probably how they got all their rich victims to agree to things they normally wouldn’t.Reel them in with greed or desire.Play up their fear so they’d be too scared of the risks of being found out that they’d gladly pay Jansen and the Pavluhkins to not release the evidence and ruin them.If it happened once, it would happen again.They’d expect they could twist you into what they need, and it might not be something you or your family could easily break free of.”
Jamie glared at her.“You should have conferred with me about that.Worst-case scenario is they think we’re metahumans now, and any further action we take will beuseless.They’ll have made us, and the mission will have failed.”
“If they don’t contact us within the week, then yes, we’ve probably been made.I’ll take that dressing down from the director when we get back to the States and a mark against me on my record if that’s the case, but I was not risking you, Jamie.Not you or this team.Not like that.”
“That wasn’t your choice tomake.”
“I have a suggestion if you’re willing to hear me out?”Sean interrupted before they could really start going at each other.
Everyone jerked their heads around and looked at him, but Sean kept his eyes on Jamie.
“What?”Jamie snapped.
“Katie has given us a chance to play a long game rather than a short one.I believe you’re still a target they don’t want to give up, Jamie.They’ll probably put you under surveillance to get more information about you, your habits, your people’s habits, but they aren’t going to write you off as too hot to touch.Not yet.Katie piqued their interest by telling you to say no to their offer.So we work from there.The United States has always been on the cutting edge of military technology and weapons.We spend more than half of our very large, very expensive budget on the military-industrial complex.Who’s to say SOCOM hasn’t engineered some neural nodes that can shield against mental interference better than the crappy tech people peddle on the internet?Give them an excuse on how you evaded them, make it believable, and let them fill in the details on their own.”
Jamie turned Sean’s words over in his mind, analyzing the options presented to him.There was a razor-thin chance that it could work, that if they played everything just right—if they’d played it right enough already—they could maybe come away from this mess with a win.
Katie hissed out a breath, snatching up her tablet and the solid-state drive.“I’m going to work on this.”
She stalked off, and Jamie didn’t call her back.The rest of the team shared more than a few uncomfortable looks but stayed put.
Jamie clenched his teeth.“It’s been a long night.We’ll finish this in the morning.”
