“She saved your life and she didn’t have to. She defended you when you were unconscious. She’s had any number of opportunities to take each and every one of us out, but she hasn’t. All she’s done is snoop. I don’t think she wants to hurt anybody,” Hunter said.
“She’s been sent here by Mankel, which means he’s still got Caroline. And we just had Cotter taunt the man on national TV. God he must be laughing his balls off. Marissa belongs to Mankel, she would never turn on him.” She’d even given her body to carry out the lie.
Hunter shook his head and Merc wanted to grab his team leader and shake him. “What? Why are you shaking your head? Can’t you see, they must’ve been planning this for years?”
“But why now? And why not just kill us and hack into Cotter’s server? It doesn’t add up. Mankel might have raised her and trained her, but he hasn’t succeeded in making her evil,” Hunter said.
Merc could beg to differ. Only an evil woman could fool him into thinking she loved him the way Caroline – fuck Marissa – had. She might as well have left him strung up in that tent with Salaam.
Hunter kept going. “Think about it. If Mankel kidnapped her as an infant, the easiest way to keep her in line would be to raise her as his daughter. What if Mankel turned the story around? What if he told Marissa that Cotter killed Sarah Fisher and kidnapped Caroline?”
“Why the hell would he do that?”
“Because Jack Mankel is a sick, twisted bastard who will do anything to get what he wants. And for some reason he wants Tom Cotter to suffer.” Hunter held up a finger, pulled out his radio and hit the comm button. “Senator, come to our bunk room now.”
“On my way.” The senator’s voice filled the room.
“We’re going to find out exactly why Jack Mankel hates Cotter,” Hunter said.
A few minutes later, Cotter made it to the room. Hoyt shut the door behind him and turned the lock.
“Well, what did you find out? Anything new? You sounded urgent on the radio.”
Merc kept his mouth shut, knowing his emotions would cloud his logic. He let Hunter do the talking.
“Why does Jack Mankel want to harm you?”
Cotter paled. “I’m not sure.”
“Senator, do you see that man right there?” Hunter pointed to Merc. “If you don’t start talking, and telling the truth, I’m going to let Merc do the questioning.”
“Listen, it was a really long time ago and I really don’t like to talk about it.”
“Senator, you talk or we walk. It’s simple.”
“I need a drink.” Cotter tugged on his collar and edged toward the door. Merc nodded at Hoyt, who shifted to stand directly behind the Senator. Cotter bumped into him and jumped. “Okay, okay. But none of this leaves this room.”
“Talk.” Merc managed one word.
Trapped and surrounded by TF-Scorpion, Cotter obeyed. “Jack Mankel and I used to be friends. We didn’t really match up. I came from wealth; he was raised in an abusive household in the slums. But we both had one thing in common – ambition. We worked harder, longer and smarter than anyone around us. I promised to help him and he would help me. My goal was to reach Senator. His was the CIA director. We planned to do great things.”
“As time passed, more and more opportunities came my way. But not much with Mankel.”
Merc interrupted, “You mean your family’s connections helped you get the job.”
“Yes, they did. It’s the way it works in politics. Anyway, Mankel had no one. I tried to pull what little strings I had to help him, but I didn’t have the clout back then. He started to resent me, and I couldn’t blame him. We spent less and less time together, but we still saw each other daily at work. And then Sarah Fisher was hired as a new researcher.” Cotter’s tight expression softened. “She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I wanted her like I’d never wanted anyone, but I was dating a D.C. socialite at the time. Mankel made the first move and he and Sarah started dating. Then she was assigned to my team and we couldn’t deny the attraction any longer.”
“You took her from Mankel,” Merc said.
Cotter shook his head. “Sarah broke it off with him. I broke off my relationship with my girlfriend. We spent every spare minute together.”
“So Mankel thinks you stole her from him and he wants revenge?”
“It goes deeper than that. His resentment toward me and my wealth went deep. I made Senator and he never made it above the status of supervisor. I could have married that socialite and solidified my seat in the Senate, her father was a veteran Senator, but I fell in love with Sarah Fisher. The way he saw it, I’d purposefully kept him down in his job by not using my own family connections to propel him up the ladder.”
“So Mankel thinks you stole his woman and his job?” Hunter asked.
Cotter nodded. “When he found out Sarah was pregnant he went into a rage. You see, in his sick mind, he thought she should have had his children. He wanted a family to erase his own abusive past. So in his mind, I took that redemption from him as well. And then Sarah died, and he lost it completely. But I never thought,” Cotter choked and then cleared his throat, “I never thought he’d come back over two decades later and take it out on my little girl.”
