All around him computers buzzed. Blinking lights lit up the maps, and a screen displayed satellite images from various hotspots they were watching around the globe. Much the same as Angelo had been doing, the rest of his people talked quietly among themselves as they worked, verifying intel FRED had provided them earlier in the day.
The War - Room was on the deepest level of Dreamland. Six stories beneath the caldera above them, heavily secured and completely hidden. Other levels had residential suites, with a bedroom, bathroom, and an open-plan kitchen and living area. A medical suite where all surgeries, including the plastic surgery for new recruits which altered their appearances, and vocal cord scraping which changed their voices, was carried out here.
“Here.”
“Thanks,” Cade gratefully took the mug. Sniffing over the rim, he inhaled the earthy scent of the Italian grounds. Oh yeah, the good stuff Angelo only brought out the Moka pot for: special occasions like nightmares or in the aftermath of a major fuck up.
“You good?”
Cade just nodded and sipped the coffee.
“I got an early start,” Angelo leaned his ass against Cade’s desk, stretching his legs out in front of him, he crossed them at the ankles.
Inwardly, Cade was relieved that Angelo wasn’t going to push for why he was sitting here with a trash bag full of something. He should have expected that he wouldn’t, of course. His friend had learned over the years that with Cade, it was better to wait until he wanted to talk. “What you got on?”
“Training with the new recruits.” Angelo drained the end of his coffee, “Bravo team is nearly ready to go active.”
“Good.” Cade was relieved. When he had approached Rock and Grif about adding another team to the mix, he hadn’t expected for them to agree so readily. However, with their relationship with Allie, having one kid, and another on the way, it made sense to Cade that Rock and Grif needed to not be out in the field so much. Having a backup team was a necessity. Thank fuck they already had training rooms, classrooms, obstacle courses, even a kill house based on the one Navy Seals used to train in Virginia Beach, filling some of the other levels of the compound. Everything Ghosts needed to prepare for battle was provided within the confines of Dreamland.
“You?”
“Just going to make sure we didn’t miss anything.” Cade put the mug down next to the bag. Pulling the plastic closer to him, he nudged Angelo in the side, making him move off the table. “Gimmie some room.”
“You want me to stay?”
“Nah, I’m good,” Cade dug his fingers into the plastic and ripped it open, “You go on to bed.
“Okay,” Angelo studied him for a couple of seconds before he turned and headed for the staircase that would lead to the catwalk and the way out of the War - Room, “Buona notte.”
“Night.”
Cade riffled through the items in the bag, Rio’s discarded clothes. The blood-covered shirt, he put aside. That one he could send to the lab. Maybe there was DNA on it. From the information they had been able to find, the person the blood belonged to, Nahim, was dead. But maybe his DNA would close out some cold cases somewhere.
“I should have done this sooner.”
“Talking to yourself is a sign of madness.” Selene, the analyst sitting closest to him, called. She probably hadn’t heard exactly what he said, but in her typical manner, she liked to tease him.
“Sometimes expert counsel is required.” Cade frowned when his fingers closed around something hard wrapped in the coat. Fuck, because he hadn’t opened the damn bag, had he left a loaded weapon lying around?Idiot.Feeling with his fingers, he blew out a breath of relief when he didn’t feel the distinctive shape of a weapon.Cell?
Unwrapping the coat confirmed his suspicions. A cell phone.Maybe you can get his number off it?Cade kicked himself that this was his first reaction.Ugh, idiot, why would he have his own phone number in his phone? That’s just a stupid thing to do.
Ripping off the back cover and taking out the battery gave him access to the sim cards. Pulling both out, he inserted the first one into the secure laptop he kept at his station. No way he was putting anything into a computer connected to the Dreamland network. That would just be asking for trouble, and despite what previous actions had shown, he wasn’t that stupid. Right clicking on the sim card with the mouse, he hit verify on the CRC32 system. An all clear from this program would give him the okay to connect to FRED.
Within seconds, the little green box with a tick in the center popped up on screen. The sim was virus and worm free. Connecting to the second laptop, he called up FRED’s input page, directed it to the sim card drive, and asked the program to do its thing.
Clicking on the file FRED had provided when they were in Brazil, Cade scanned it for any information he may have missed. In his head, he snorted out a laugh,missed? You can recite the freaking file at this stage.
It bugged him that looking at Rio’s photo caused a weird feeling in his chest. Bah, he knew better than to even be doing this. This man was so far off limits he might as well have crossed the pearly gates and had a meeting with St. Peter himself. But gah, no matter how many times he told himself this, he still ended up with the damn file open, staring at that fucking picture. FRED beeped to tell him he had completed the scan on the sim card. Cade hit print on the file.
“I’ll grab it.”
Selene’s call meant he didn’t have to get out of the chair. Glancing at the clock told him she would be heading for her break shortly. A quick look at the satellite feeds on the big screen told him the situations they were watching across the globe were quiet, for now. Even the devastation of the explosion in the Middle East a few days ago looked normal. If you could call half a city flattened, normal. “Here you go.”
“Thanks, Sele.”
“Something new?”
“Nah,” he took the printout she held out to him and dropped it on his desk. “Any update on the incident in Beirut?”
