Once there, the four of them walked the few feet down the hallway to the official Tac-Ops office. A distraught looking Ashley was at the door, waiting when they arrived.
“I am so sorry, Shadow,” the young woman apologized the second they made their way inside. “I don’t know how someone managed to not only clone the office number but also mask their voice so it sounded exactly like mine.”
“It’s not your fault,” Shadow offered, sounding sincere in both her words and tone. “With technology what it is today, all it takes is the knowledge and the right equipment. And sometimes, a little luck. But yeah…generative AI is getting more and more accurate by the day. It’s terrifying, actually.”
“Tell me about it.” Ashley’s round eyes grew with a nod. “I still don’t understand how they even got your private number, let alone my voice.”
“The person we’re dealing with is former deep-work CIA,” Bones told her. “There’s not a lot those guyscan’tdo.”
“He’s right.” Owens appeared from the hallway that led to their individual offices and the Tac-Ops conference room. “If thiswasStanton, and it’s looking more and more like it is, then for him, pulling off something like this would be like child’s play.”
Shadow didn’t say a word on her way to Owens. And when she got to her father, she moved seamlessly into the man’s muscular arms.
“I was so worried about you.” She spoke softly, clearly not caring that she had an audience of four.
“You took the words right out of my mouth.” The seasoned operative closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head. “I was halfway to the parking garage before Digger finally convinced me to remain here, rather than racing over to the hospital where you were.”
Pulling free from her father’s embrace, Shadow gave Slade a quick glance before turning back with a slight nod. “We didn’t want to risk the same thing happening to you.”
“Speaking of which…” Falcon took a step forward, sliding his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “We need to check over every vehicle in that garage.” His eyes locked onto their boss. “Starting with yours.”
“Already done,” Owens informed them. “While you were finishing up at the hospital, I had the entire place checked. No signs of explosives or trackers were found.”
“Well, that’s good, at least,” Bones mumbled low before asking their boss, “So what now?”
“Now, we go over everything we know up to this point, and then we make a new plan. Apollo is already waiting for us in the conference room.”
Slade and the others dipped their chins in agreement with their boss’s agenda. Minutes later, they were sitting around the large conference room table, recounting the events leading up to the bombing.
“My contact within the CIA has confirmed what we already suspected to be true,” Owens began. “My late wife, Shadow’s mother, did wet work for the CIA.”
“She was a government assassin,” Shadow clarified with a shrug. “Might as well call it like it is.”
“Very well.” Owens conceded to his daughter’s request. “Amanda was a government assassin, as was her partner, Michael Stanton. At the time of her death, my wife and Stanton were working under the guise of being attorneys who worked together at a law firm in Columbus. While they were both legitimately licensed to practice law in the state of Ohio, their primary job was to take out targets the agency deemed as national, and sometimes global, threats.”
“Why would Stanton want to kill his partner?” Apollo asked from his usual seat across the table from Slade.
“That’s a very good question.” Their boss sighed. “Unfortunately, that’s information I have yet to uncover.”
“What does your contact think?” Shadow asked. “Has he said whether the hit on Mom was sanctioned?”
“He’s still looking into it. So far, he’s found no evidence tying your mother’s death to anything official.”
“Yeah, but off-the-books jobs happen every day,” Falcon countered. “Just because there isn’t a record of an official order being given doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
“I agree.” Owens nodded. “Which is why my man on the inside is still digging.”
“What if it wasn’t an ordered hit?” Shadow pondered aloud. “What if Mom did some digging on her own, and what she uncovered got her killed?”
“You think she had something on Stanton?” Slade asked.
Her blue eyes turned his way. “It’s the only alternative that makes any sense.”
“He’s dirty, she finds out, maybe threatens to expose him…” Apollo nodded. “Definitely plausible. It would also explain why he’s so concerned about Shadow ousting him as her mother’s killer.”
“Apollo makes a good point,” Owens addressed the group as a whole. “Redacted or not, if the hitwassanctioned, there would be some sort of paper trail linking Stanton’s unit to the job.”
“One lone gunman blasting a motel room with bullets from across a parking lot doesn’t exactly scream spy job to me,” Digger agreed before turning to Shadow. “But didn’t you say Stanton has a rock-solid alibi for the night of your mother’s murder?”
