“Get Buck and Tierney — I’ll get Bodie on a secure link. Avery, too.”
“Sloane—”
“Just get them. Please. This…”
Nick nodded, sent a nine-one-one to Buck. The guy appeared a minute later, sweeping through the main room as if he expected a group of mercenaries to pop out of the shadows. Tierney covered his six, looking as if she might fire at the darkness, regardless.
Buck moved over to them, arched a brow. “Jesus, Colter, don’t scare me like that. I thought I’d missed something.”
Nick snorted. “I said we needed an emergency meeting, not that we were under attack.”
“After what happened at Bodie’s, I’m not underestimating these assholes, again.”
Nick thumbed at Sloane. “Sloane’s found something. She’s setting up a secure link.”
Buck glanced at Sloane, nodded, moving in behind her, Tierney at his side. Nick returned to his seat, waited as Sloane launched some program, bounced the satellite signal through half a dozen other servers.
The main comms screen on the far wall flashed to life, his buddies and Avery filling the space.
Bodie leaned against the wall, shirt on inside out, hair tousled as Rowan sat in the seat in front of him, what was obviously one of Bodie’s t-shirts dwarfing her. “Why do these kinds of meetings always happen at midnight?”
Sloane snorted. “Because I shouldn’t be the only one who isn’t getting any sleep.” She eased back in her chair. “Though, by the looks of it, you two hadn’t quite made it all the way there.”
Bodie raked his fingers through his hair. “Is that why you called? Because usually Nick’s the cockblock.”
Nick coughed. “Don’t blame me because you two can’t keep your hands off each other.”
Bodie shook his head. “The point?”
Sloane sighed. “The point is that I found a connection between Hill and our last mission.”
Nick balked. “Prague? But, we aced that one.” He grunted when she arched a brow. “Fine, things went a bit sideways, but we kept Kessler breathing — got him and his files safely back to Virginia. Last I heard the Feds had relocated him — had involved the Marshals, though I don’t think he’s been officially put into WITSEC, yet.”
“Which is the problem.” Sloane tapped some keys, flashed a bunch of documents on the screen. “Remember that company Kessler was turning evidence on?”
Nick nodded. “Weird name. Armatus Logistics.”
“Looks like Armatus is in the end stages of a multimillion-dollar merger. All that’s left is a security audit on all their past acquisitions and sales.”
“Wasn’t Kessler involved in laundering weapons for them?”
“Through government contracts.”
“Shit. No…”
“Turns out Hill’s shell company, Synergenics — the one I made him for a joint Homeland Security sting operation that he was supposed to shut down — is listed as receiving consulting fees. And Hill, himself, has signed off on the Agency’s security clearance for Armatus for the past five years. Long before Kessler decided to save his own ass.”
Nick groaned. “So, if this audit goes through, they’ll find Hill’s involvement.”
“And the bastard can’t lie his way out when there’re living witnesses.”
Avery cursed. “So, the burn notice really is just a smokescreen, and this directive seven is him cleaning up before the audit hits daylight.”
Bodie tapped his chin. “Doesn’t that mean that this Kessler guy’s on the list, too?”
Sloane sighed, looking more exhausted by the second. “His bounty went live the same time as ours. The only plus is that Hill wasn’t involved in the relocation process. Doesn’t know where the Feds sent Kessler, and it’s not the kind of intel he can research without setting off a bunch of warning bells.”
Dalton stepped forward. “So, you’re saying we need to find Kessler before any of these mercenaries do.”
