“You said this time was different. How?” Mitch grabbed a life preserver and headed toward Liz.
Drake shot a look at the notepad-sized tracking screen hanging by the ladder to the wheelhouse. “We’ve always had a system for contact. Re-contact. Code words. And finally, follow-up with direct communication. Since Russ’s first contact this time, nothing else has happened. Either he’s found a hidey-hole—”
“Or they got him?” Liz asked.
Mitch motioned for her to put on the life jacket. “If they captured him, they’d have made contact by now. And, if CT wants her so bad, why didn’t they walk into the Mariner’s and take her before we got there?”
“How would they know I was there?”
“I don’t know. But they were waiting for us.”
Drake’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”
All Mitch had was a gut-ache feeling. The kind he got in dark cover assignments on his own without any backup. The kind that wormed its way into his worst thoughts, and said “Hey, there’s someone worse out there. Something that will kill you if you don’t figure this out.”
The kind that called for out-of-the-box thinking—crazy outside the box.
Willing to put everything on the line, Mitch needed to make sure his reasoning hit the right spots. “Whether CT’s got her dad or not, I don’t think they needed him to do anything. Without even knowing, he completed the job the moment he contacted you and Liz. Has it crossed your mind CT could be simply using her as bait?”
“Bait? What the hell are you talking about?” Drake asked, seeming mildly insulted. “Bait for who?”
“You? Me? OPAQUE? What if they figured out Russ was feeding us info? Decided to use him?” Mitch didn’t much like where his brain was taking this. “Hell, you’ve brought most everyone on the Shades of Leverage team into this mess. What if that’s what they wanted? Take down OPAQUE’s elite team. Think of the hole that would leave.”
He glanced in Reese’s direction and could tell from the expression on his face he was intrigued by the idea. An idea that could provide a lot of answers to this assignment or open a whole different set of what-ifs.
Drake set his jaw, his nostrils flared. “You better be able to back that up.”
“Coercion Ten already knew about Russ and the WPP. Somewhere along the line, they figured out the OPAQUE connection.” Mitch knew once this conversation ended, they all needed to head for safer places. “I figure all their connecting lines on people, places, legal, illegal, they hit upon you and Russ back in college. From there it was an easy—”
“An easy trail to me as head of OPAQUE.” Drake shook his head. “I should have seen this coming.”
Liz reached out and touched Drake on the shoulder. “There’s no possible way you could have known. Besides, you care about my dad and me. You’d do anything to keep us safe.”
“That’s the problem,” Drake said. “Evidently, a lot of people know that.”
Chapter Thirteen
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Mitch carefully considered his next words. “Throwing everything on the table…what if CT thinks Liz might be your daughter, too?”
The corner of Drake’s eye twitched.
“That’s no big deal, I’m already in danger,” Liz said.
“It’s not the same.”
“Of course it’s the same.” She glanced from one man to the other and back. “Besides, how would they even suspect such a thing?” She zeroed in on Drake. “Even you don’t know for sure.”
Staring at her, Drake chewed the corner of his mouth then turned to Mitch. “What do you think? Gut deep, what do you think?”
Mitch didn’t want to admit OPAQUE had become vulnerable, but everything that had happened so far shouted they were. CT had never been able to take the offensive against OPAQUE, and this whole scenario could be about OPAQUE playing catch-up. There were only two players in this game who were possible targets—Drake…and Liz.
“I think there’s a rat someplace,” Mitch forcefully said. “Not sure who. Not sure when. Not sure why. But I’m ruling very few people out as possibilities.”
Drake stepped into his personal space. “It sounds like you included me in that statement.”
“Yeah, that includes you, old man.”
“Then you make damn sure you keep her out of CT’s hands.” Drake’s ominous warning accompanied the snarl on his face. “And don’t let anyone get in the way of her safety. Got that? Not. Anyone.”
