Trust Grif, the medic, to want to know who was hurt and if they lost anyone. Cade knew he was being slightly unfair. Anyone of them would have asked the same question. They all cared. They all gave a shit. “None.”
The relief on Shaun’s face was clear to Cade. He was sure the other people in the room, aside from maybe Zenko and Rock, didn’t realize or see it. But he and Shaun had joined Ghosts about the same time. So yeah, Shaun was his equivalent to a swim buddy.
“Other than our house.” Zenko muttered, “A-fuckin-gain.”
“You have a mole?” Rock wanted to know. “Does Noble have a secure place to take your team?”
“Anything is possible.” War and death flashed in Zenko’s eyes, the ice in his tone promised a very painful end of life if this turned out to be true. Zenko could be a fun-loving pain in the ass, but he was hell on wheels when it came to war. There was no doubt in Cade’s mind that if Red Squadron did have a mole, then whoever it was would be found.
“Our safe houses are open to Red Squadron at any time.” Rock waited for Zenko to nod in response before he turned back to studying the screen.
“What do you think?” Grif nudged Cade, reminding him that he was the only one who hadn’t offered an opinion either way.
In his head, his brain struggled to fire to life, to analyze what he had heard,what if…?Oh, damn it, now that thought was there, he couldn’t discount it. “I’m thinking about organizing my sock drawer.” Cade carefully thought about how or what he should say next. He knew he was talking in riddles. But if Red Squadron had a mole, then did Ghosts have one too? They had trained for situations such as this. It was even in the damn handbook that Rock had Grif make up for their new recruits. Now if only he could remember the exact words… “And I am planning on waxing the fucking cat.”
If Cade hadn’t been standing next to Grif, he would never have heard the other man’s inhale. The fact that he did, told him that he got the words close enough that at least one of his bosses understood it
“Clear the room.” Rock’s bellow confirmed he, too, had heard Cade’s softly spoken works. The shout had a ripple effect on the people in the room, who froze for an instant, before they all sprang into action. “Everyone is confined to quarters for twenty-four hours.” He grabbed Zenko by the sleeve when the other man turned to move, “Not you, dumbass.” It took exactly one minute and twenty-seven seconds for the War - Room to clear of everyone but Rock, Grif, Zenko, Shaun, and Cade. “Explain?”
“If—” Cade shook his head to clear it of the marshmallow fuzzy shit it had going on, and tried again, “If Red Squadron has a mole or someone sabotaging them from the inside then we have to consider the fact that we may have one too.” He jerked his chin toward Shaun, “It was a Ghost that was taken first.”
“Fuck.” Zenko leaned against Shaun’s shoulder, “Shaun was taken because he overheard Wade Sheridan and his cronies talking about doing a 9/11 on Diego Garcia.”
“Exactly.” Cade went to his computer and pulled up the reports from Shaun’s debriefing with Rock and Grif after his return to the US. “Sheridan was taken out, right?”
“Yup,” Shaun confirmed, “I shot the bastard after he got a lucky shot and hit Zen in the neck. Asshole.”
“Okay, we need to have FRED run everything on Sheridan, and cross reference it with all the chatter.” As he spoke his fingers flew over the keyboard giving FRED instructions and orders of what he was looking for.
“How long?”
“Fuck knows, Boss,” Cade shrugged, “FRED does what he does, and it takes as long as it takes.”
“Truth.” Rock turned back to the paperwork Zenko and Shaun had brought and continued reading it, pressing the remote to flip to the next page when he needed to.
The red line at the top of the screen told Cade FRED was running through all the parameters he had input into the system. Moving back to the screen, he saw Rock flipping back and forth between two pages. The tight lines around his mouth told him before he moved close enough to read it that this was not going to be good at all. One name stood out. It may as well have been highlighted in neon. “Fuck, is that…?”
“Yeah,” Grif’s fingers opened and closed into fists. “Is this verified?”
“No,” Shaun lifted one shoulder, “You can talk to Max about the ins and outs of that duck's asshole, as I sure as fuck didn’t understand what the hell he was talking about. But apparently, the dude she was also married to is somehow connected to someone we have living in our backyard here.”
“You are sure the money from those weapons went through that bank account?”
“Max says yes.”
“Then it is confirmed.” Rock threw the remote he held in his hand so hard, it broke a computer screen on a desk at the opposite side of the room. “FUUCK!”
“Babe—” Grif caught Rock’s arm before he could swipe everything off the top of the desk near him.
“No.” Rock growled at Grif but allowed him to drag him from the room.
“Shit,” Zenko muttered, “That’s gotta sting.”
“Yeah,” Cade muttered, “You don’t believe they knew about it?”
“Fuck no.”
Zenko, managing to both look offended and outraged at his question, eased the fury Cade was trying to keep under wraps. That they didn’t believe that the funds from that sale were funneled through Rock and Grif’s private bank account had a damn thing to do with their bosses. But it was related to Sharr, Rock and Grif’s former third, who had been shot by a former Delta Force Operator, Jonah Montgomery, after she’d kidnapped the niece of one of his teammates. Cade had thought Allie had more sense than that. But who was he to try to figure it out, it was their business. Allie was Ghost's preferred pilot, but she was currently grounded on maternity leave.
