“Well… now it’s several thousand minus one.”
“I can’t,” he said. “It’s highly sensitive?—”
“This is bigger than anyone realized,” Stoni pressed.
“Sorry, my hands are tied on this.”
“You won’t have your Presidentially-appointed job tomorrow if you don’t do this today.”
“Are you threatening me?” he barked.
“That nasty scandal we covered up for you will be front-page news tomorrow morning. I promise you that.”
“Dammit,” Belkin said. “Hold on.”
The seconds ticked by. Gabriel locked eyes with Halston. She was sitting like a statue, her gaze locked on Stoni.
“I’m back,” Steve said. “If you go into ALPHA’s portal, it’s there.”
“Wonderful. Congratulations again on your appointment. I can’t think of a better person to run the Agency.” Stoni hung up, shifted toward the team. “It’s all yours. Get it done.”
“Nice work,” Sin said.
“I learned from the best,” Stoni replied.
“Thank you,” Sin said before tapping his laptop. A schematic of US power grids from each blackout location populated on the screen. “Halston, this is one of the docs you took off Bulgrov’s laptop.”
“I’ve never seen that before,” Halston said.
“Greystone, Caroline, Teddy, and Sydney, can you see if there’s a connection between this and the power outages?” Z asked.
“My team at NSA can help decode it,” Kathrine offered.
Caroline and Sydney grinned.
“We get to work with Mom,” Caroline said.
“Excuse me,” Halston said. “I appreciate that this group?—”
“ALPHA BLACK OPS,” Greystone said.
“Has the case,” Halston continued, “but I can’t work this alone.”
“You won’t,” Gabriel said. “You have me and I’m all in.”
“Thank you.” After a beat, Halston swept her gaze around the room. “The ambassador caught me in his office when I was downloading these docs. Dmitri Petrov is searching for the armed militia who gunned down Pavel Donskoy. I was with that person when Donskoy was taken out?—”
“What?” Z blurted.
“I need my work phone and Pavel Donskoy’s phone wiped, including all cell tower records,” Halston said. “I’m concerned if they learn I was with him, I’m fired… or worse…and there goes your inside connection.”
“I got you,” Teddy said. “I can scrub the phone records and remove your cell phone’s history. That’ll kill any chance they have of GPS tracking?—”
“This happened days ago,” Halston said.
“I got you,” Teddy said. “What’s the number?”
She rattled it off.
