Alexei fixed the problem for him by reaching over and slapping his hand on the minimize command, closing down Sean’s terminal. Sean glared at him, but Alexei didn’t seem bothered by his annoyance. He didn’t move his hand away from the terminal controls, which annoyed Sean to no end, but he wasn’t one to make a scene in front of the director. Kyle watched the interplay from across the table with an inscrutable expression on his face Sean didn’t bother to try todecipher.
The conference room door opening drew Sean’s attention, along with everyone else’s as Jamie finally arrived. Jamie looked like he had come straight from one of his father’s campaign stops, the expensive bespoke suit he wore a dark blue color and sporting a tiny American flag pin on its lapel. His blond hair was a little tousled, as if he’d run his fingers through it one too many times. His blue-eyed gaze swept around the table, lingering for a few seconds longer on Sean, before focusing on thedirector.
“Sir,” Jamie said without saluting since he wasn’t inuniform.
“Callahan. You didn’t have to leave the campaign trail for this,”Nazarisaid.
“You’re splitting my team up and sending half of them out on a mission. I think it’s important I be here for thisbriefing,sir.”
Nazari waved a hand at the table. “Take a seat so we can getstarted.”
Sean bit back a grimace at that little tidbit. Sometimes he hated beingright.
Jamie sat down in the empty seat near the director, watching as Nazari opened up a few data windows and sent them into the center of the table. Several holopics of the Wolcotts appeared in the air, surrounded by a half-dozenholoscreens.
“As you know, we’ve been cloning data taken from the zero-day exploit we left in the security systems of Saunders & Associates,” Nazari began. “We have yet to find a way into the Pavluhkins’ personal systems, but whatever target they choose from Saunders & Associates or any of the others we’ve opened up for them, we know about. Adrian and Declan Wolcott came onto our radar a few months ago becauseofthis.”
The holopic of Declan having dinner with Nikolaas Jansen popped up on everyone’s terminal, including Sean’s now that Alexei had removed his hand from thecontrols.
“The Wolcott family privately owns one of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas, not to mention a slew of strip joints and nightclubs. They’ve been some of the biggest power players in Nevada for at least four generations. The city is a playground for the rich and famous, despite being in the middle of a desert. Adrian Wolcott doesn’t need to go to them; they come to him. We believe the issue with Jansen and the Wolcotts is less of a blackmail incident and more a willing businesspartnership.”
“Why?” Jamieasked.
“Because of Declan and the companyheowns.”
A third holopic rotated into prominent view, its border flashing for a few seconds. Sean had seen it before, but the rest of Alpha Team took their time studying the candid picture of Declan in the field. He looked a lot like Adrian: tall, with the same underlying build, if a bit more muscular, just with darker hair and eyes. Even in the holopic his gaze seemed sharp and assessing, a byproduct of his time in Special Forces rather than boardrooms. At first glance, he seemed far less approachable than Adrian’s openlysmilingface.
“This is Declan Wolcott, Adrian’s younger brother. Former Army Ranger, honorably discharged at the age of thirty-two, he’s spent the last seven years getting his private military company up and running. It’s one of the top go-to PMCs right now and holds many federal and defense contracts with the government and military. North Star International is looking more and more like a problemforus.”
“Why go through Adrian then? Why not go directly through Declan if he’s the real target?” Katie wanted to know. She had her eyes on the data instead of the director, her fingers swiping over various files as she skimmed through it all. A deep read would have to come later foreveryone.
“Declan would see us coming a mile away with his background. Adrian is a little more trustworthy, especially when it comes to money and those who have it. Getting into his good graces means we have a better chance of being introduced to Declan under the guise of a business offer coming from a reputable source. We’ve been trying to set up a meeting with Adrian for a while now, but have had little luck until this week,”Nazarisaid.
A holopic showing Adrian at an event in his casino, smiling for the cameras, popped up besideDeclan’s.
“The original plan was to send in Brannigan and Dvorkin as ex-Strike Force operatives to infiltrate their ranks. Declan only hires ex-military, preferably ex-Special Forces. Our plans changed once we realized the Pavluhkins might be in the mix. We can’t double up your backgrounds, so we sent Delaney in to initiate contact with Adrian through Root Source, Inc. in the hopes of getting an introduction withDeclan.”
Nazari flung a few more command windows at the center of the table. Sean recognized the financial information from his review of North Star International a few weeks back. Glancing down at his terminal, Sean sorted through the files with hisrighthand.
“The Wolcotts may reside in Las Vegas, but they also own a ten thousand-acre working ranch in western Montana that’s been in their family for longer than they’ve been in the casino business. Their parents died in a car crash five years ago and the property reverted to the sons. As far as we know, Adrian left all the business decisions regarding it to his brother. Declan shuttered the vacation lodges on the property, essentially gutting the business his parents used to run, and turned the property into a training camp for hiscompany.”
“That’s not really out of the ordinary from a business perspective, right? So what’s the problem?” Donovanasked.
“None of those decisions would be a problem if the area wasn’t a known hotbed of Sons of Adam activity and if Declan hadn’t been seen in the presence of one of their strongestsupporters.”
Everyone around the table collectively grimaced. The Sons of Adam was a homegrown terrorist group with nativist tendencies, and weren’t above fielding metahumans from time to time. Their ideology was tantalizing to a certain subset of people. The fact that they’d managed to recruit metahumans in the past meant the MDF would always have an eye on thegroup.
A couple more holopics popped up into the air, showing Declan shaking hands with Senator Mark Graham from Montana in what looked like the senator’s officeinD.C.
“Senator Graham is the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. The Wolcotts donated quite a bit of money to his recent re-election campaign. Could be the glad-handing is merely thanks for the donations, but we dug a little deeper. It seems North Star International has received several plum contracts from federal agencies that got a boost in funding over the last few years due to earmarks added by Senator Graham. The quid pro quo can’t be proven, but it’s there if you read between the lines hardenough.”
“You’d have to read pretty deep for that,” Jamie said as he studied the holopic. “For the most part, nothing seems out of the ordinarythere.”
Nazari nodded. “Most of it wouldn’t be, except quite a few security contracts Declan has accepted involve the Vitae Neurotherapeutics biotech lab that shares a border with the ranch. Dr. Valerie Hayes owns and runs the privately held company. You may not know her, but you know her father. Timothy Hayes led the Sons of Adam on the side for almost a decade before finally going to jail formurder.”
Alpha Team leaned forward at the mention of a biotech lab. Ever since finding out that the Pavluhkins, through their control of thePresnenskaya Bratva, were working in conjunction with other terrorist groups around the world to try to create metahumans for their own use, the MDF and its affiliates had been playing catch-up. No solid lead had shown up regarding the labs where the terrorist groups were conducting torturous experiments on people usingSplice.
Until now,apparently.
