“The hell you say,” Nate retorted back. He could tell by the look on the guy’s face he didn’t much appreciate being called a liar.Isn’t that too damn bad.“I looked at her phone myself. There were no emails, texts, or documents sent to her containing that pic.”
A muscle in Coach’s chiseled jaw bulged, but he kept his tone even. “It was hidden within one of the selfies Craig Wyatt sent to your girl.”
“Yeah? How the fuck did you guys get it, then?” Nate challenged.
He knew he was being a Class-A jerk, but couldn’t seem to stop. If he did, he’d have to admit he’d missed a vital piece of information. One that could have locked Yavuz’ ass up before he ever had the chance to touch his Gracelynn.
Coach exhaled loudly, keeping his cool as he explained. “McQueen called us on our way here. Said he’d been racking his brain trying to figure out where Walker would have managed to hide a file so Gracie would know nothing about it. He had a guy named Derek West take a second look at her busted phone. Said West was part of R.I.S.C.’s Alpha Team and is some sort of genius when it comes to computers.”
Mumbles of agreement came from some of the other Bravo guys. Coach glanced their direction then back to Nate.
“From what I understand, you are too. But since you’ve had your hands full and the assignment West had previously been on was finished, McQueen figured it was worth a shot to let the other guy have a crack at it so you could focus on what needed to be done here.”
Okay, so that…actually made sense.Well, shit.
“Apparently—” Coach continued on— “West noticed something off about one of the pictures. A missing pixel or something. Hell, I don’t know. All that tech shit is Harl’s—my wife’s—territory. Not mine.” The guy waved it off. “Anyway, when West downloaded the selfies, the one with the missing pixel disappeared and this one materialized in its place.”
About a billion thoughts hit Nate all at once. “Why did Jake send this information to you guys and not us?”
“I asked him the same thing,” Ghost answered for Coach. “McQueen said he tried, but couldn’t get it to go through on your phones. Must’ve been sending it while you were traveling through a dead spot.”
“Got a lot of those around here,” Fletch muttered from where he stood.
Nate ran a frustrated hand over the scruff of his jaw. “I can’t believe I fucking missed it. Encryptions like that are like goddamn child’s play for me and I fucking missed it.”
“Quit beating yourself up, Carter,” Gabe ordered. “No one thought about checking her picture album for a missing file. We were all focused on trying to find some sort of document or folder of some sort. This is on all of us, not just you.”
“He’s right,” Matt gave him a solid nod. “What matters is we now have irrefutable evidence that Edric Yavuz has been in contact with a known nuclear arms dealer. Put that with Rasat’s eyewitness testimony, and the guy’s toast.”
Coach spoke up again. “Once we’re home, both Yavuz and Akmar will be formally charged with the murder of Petty Officer Third Class Craig Michael Wyatt, as well as the kidnapping and assault of a civilian, Gracelynn McDaniels.”
“President Russell has already been informed of the charges and the evidence collected up to this point. Though, it has not been made public, Ryker assured us that Russell and his people are already working on a statement to announce the cancellation of the treaty.”
“Halle-fucking-luja,” Matt threw his arms up in praise.
“That is good news,” Gabe remarked, “but that’s only half of it.”
“Yeah,” Zade agreed. “The easy half.”
“He’s right,” Coach chimed in. “That piece of shit treaty may have gone up in smoke, but before we can ensure Yavuz and Achim pay for their crimes, we have to get to them.”
“Which brings us to the fun part,” Fletch quipped.
Ghost did something on his phone as he came closer to Gabe and Nate. Matt and Zade hovered around them to get as good a view as they could.
Tapping the screen, Ghost located and enlarged the picture.
“This is a satellite image of the property where we believe Gracie is being held. Like Barry said, it’s a farm about forty minutes south of here. It’s isolated and secured. When Yavuz is present, there are armed guards watching the grounds twenty-four seven.”
“No fence or wall along the perimeter,” Zade noted. “Makes our job a bit easier.”
“Absolutely.”
“I’m surprised there isn’t some sort of barrier, given the shit going on behind closed doors there.”
“It’s not one of Yavuz’ regular go-to spots,” Fletch explained. “The property belonged to a relative of his mother. It’s still listed under the relative’s last name, which I’m guessing is why it didn’t pop up in any of your original searches.”
“Shit,” Nate reprimanded himself. Jesus, he’d been screwing this whole thing up from the beginning. “I should’ve looked deeper.”
