SWNOVELS Chance: Chapter 21
Daphne was alreadyat the front desk when Chance walked in. “Morning,” she said with a smile. “Coffee’s made and I’m telling everyone to gather in Alex’s office.”
“Morning, Daphne. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Hey, is that your car outside?”
Daphne rolled her eyes. “No. Kane’s still looking. Warren loaned me his other car for the time being, so at least I don’t have to beg for rides. But I don’t want to take advantage of his kindness, so if Kane doesn’t find anything this week, I’m doing it myself.”
“Good plan.”
“I know,” she said with a grin, standing up to go get something from the printer. Her red hair was in a sleek ponytail today and she wore a white button down and jeans with high heels that clicked as she walked. She’d really blossomed since the night Blaze, Kane, and Seth found her squatting in one of the unfinished apartments in the Sutton building.
She’d been scared and quiet then, but she had confidence these days. She ran the One Shot Tactical schedule with efficiency and she didn’t ask questions about things outside her scope of duties.
She knew they had a secure meeting room, because their security consulting business had taken off and they needed a place to discuss proprietary information, but what happened inside that room, she didn’t know. And she didn’t ask. She was truly the perfect assistant.
Chance stopped and grabbed coffee before finding his way to Ghost’s office. Everyone but Blaze was already there. Easy to do when the rest of them lived on the premises.
“Morning, sunshine,” Kane said. “Plants still in the ground?”
Chance leaned against a cabinet and crossed his legs. “Yep. No incursions, no suspicious activity. Nothing but a couple of raccoons, some deer, and a possum last night. None of them got close to the garden. The motion lights startled them for now. Well, all but the raccoons. Those little shits don’t care. They were foraging through the garden waste pile and taking whatever they could find there.”
Ethan snorted. “Isn’t it funny to think just a few months ago we were gearing up, hopping onto a military transport, and disappearing for weeks at a time into foreign countries? Now we’re talking gardens and farming.”
“Not to mention actual gardening,” Ghost said. “That shit’s hard on the back no matter how good a shape you’re in.”
“Yeah, got a kink right between my shoulders,” Kane said. “Who knew it’d be that bad?”
“Farmers,” Seth deadpanned.
“Yeah, but they’ve got modern equipment. It’s that small garden shit that’ll kill you,” Kane grumbled.
“So just get one of your ladies to do some hardcore massaging of your back before she massages your dick,” Ethan said. “Problem solved.”
“Excuse me,” Daphne said from the door.
Kane’s face rolled through a range of emotions before he got control of himself and glared at Ethan.
“What’s up, Daphne?” Ghost asked.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt the man talk.” Her voice dripped honey, which Chance found amusing. Kane, however, looked annoyed. “But Special Agent Diana Corbin is out front. She’s asking for you, Alex.”
“Jesus H. Christ on a cracker,” Ghost said, rubbing a hand down his face. “Okay. Be right there.”
Chance exchanged lifted eyebrows with the guys as Ghost strode out the door. “Wonder what she wants this time.”
“Haven’t seen much of her since she took over the Kyle Hollis case,” Seth mused.
“Yeah, but don’t think she hasn’t been a thorn in the boss’s side,” Ethan said. “She’s been at the Dawg sometimes.”
“Hey, all I know is she hasn’t bothered us anymore, and that’s a good thing,” Kane added. “Besides, it’s a free country. She can go to the Dawg if she wants.”
Blaze rolled in a few minutes later. He apologized for being late as he dropped his range bag and took a swig of coffee. “Emma couldn’t find Sassy anywhere. Then she started to panic, thinking maybe she’d accidentally let Sassy out of the apartment when she’d gone down to grab something from the office earlier. I couldn’t leave her that way. Went out into the hall and started to look, went upstairs, downstairs. No cat. Then I heard Emma calling me. She found Sassy asleep in a box in the pantry.” He shoved a hand through his hair and shook his head. “Took a year off my life looking for that animal and praying she hadn’t gotten out. Emma would be a wreck if something happened to her. So what’s up with Diana Corbin? Kinda shocked to see her when I came in.”
“Don’t know,” Chance said. “She asked to see Ghost, he left. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
When Ghost returned, he didn’t keep them in suspense. “She’s being reassigned to a field office in Kentucky. Not much else to say, but at least she won’t be breathing down our necks anymore.”
“So why’d she come tell you about it?”
His hands were in his pockets and his eyes gleamed. “Because she’s angry and she thinks I had something to do with it.”
“Did you?”
Ghost shrugged. “Probably. Not my problem though. She’s leaving and I can’t be upset about it. We ready to head into the SCIF? Got some things to discuss.”
They went through the security checks to enter the secure room, closed it up behind them, and took their seats at the conference table. There was video feed from the range entry and store as well as from inside the range itself. There was also video from the exterior—parking lot, storage units, sides and rear of the building.
The cameras they’d used were high grade, not the typical home security cameras that were great for that kind of use but didn’t have the sharpness or range the commercial ones did. The new system he’d ordered for Rory wasn’t cheap, but there was no price he wouldn’t pay to keep her and his kid safe.
“This week we start evaluating the security protocol and procedures at Griffin Research Labs,” Ghost said. “The objective is to get inside the secure lab and monitor what’s going on in there. Obviously, we want a full list of who has access to the building, procedures for admitting guests, and we want a look at the logs. I don’t expect them to give us access to everything, but we’re gonna need to get it anyway. You prepared for that, Phantom?”
“Yes, sir,” Seth said. “I’ve got tools to gain access to their internal network. Not a problem.”
“Need Wraith and Demon on the inside as well. You two fuckers are the most charming we’ve got, so I need you there keeping people happy and unaware of what’s going on beneath their noses.”
“Copy,” Kane said.
Chance echoed him, his belly tightening. Being on the inside at Griffin Research Labs meant he’d have to spend long hours away from Sutton’s Creek during the day while they dug into the company’s records. If Rory needed him, he wouldn’t be there for her.
But he’d said he could still do the job he’d been sent here to do, and he damned well could.
Ghost Ops might feel routine these days, though it was anything but. They hadn’t had the excitement of any further incursions into warehouses in the middle of the night, and they hadn’t been tasked with blowing anything up. But that didn’t mean they were clear of those activities or that the mission was coasting. If anything, it was growing more dangerous as Athena’s launch date approached.
Ghost flipped open his computer and the overhead screens powered up. Two men were pictured.
“The FBI picked these guys up last night. They were working at a restaurant in Huntsville, and both had falsified passports. Wilhelm Olkowicz and Cyril Dyka, which aren’t their real names. They arrived from Poland via Frankfurt eight months ago to attend classes at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Both are taking engineering classes—and both went to work at Rocket City Pasta & Pizza in the Redstone Gateway shopping center two weeks after arrival.”
“Griffin Research Labs is in the Redstone Gateway complex,” Seth said.
“Bingo,” Ghost replied. “The restaurant is a regular stop for many of the people who work at the companies located in the Gateway. Doesn’t mean these guys know about Athena, but they’re most certainly observing, listening, and reporting what they hear back to someone.”
They all knew that even the most innocuous information, when carefully pieced together from plentiful sources, could yield dividends. Servers were invisible when they wanted to be, especially when alcohol was involved. People talked even when they shouldn’t.
“Or they could be well aware of Athena and meeting someone who passes them information,” Chance added, studying the sallow complexions and angry expressions of the two men.
“That too,” Ghost replied. “Somebody inside Griffin is either talking too much, or they’re actively working against the objective. There’s also the fact that someone was planning to exchange the legit shipment of processors with the bogus shipment. The supervisor who was paid to do the deed at Royal Shipping claims he never met the person behind the instructions. He got phone calls and money, and once he was in, threats were made against his wife and children if he didn’t go through with the exchange.”
“They’d have killed him once it was done,” Ethan said. “That’s the only way to keep the plan secret.”
“He probably realized that once it was too late,” Ghost said. “And now he and his family are in protective custody.”
“Crime doesn’t always pay,” Blaze drawled. “Better to be on the right side of things from the beginning.”
“Amen, brother,” Kane said.
“We need to get inside Griffin Labs and go over that fucker with a fine-toothed comb. I want to see inside everything they’ve got. I want to know who’s coding that command and control system and what the safeguards are. How many people are working on it? What are their qualifications? Who are they and who do they owe money to? Who do the people they love owe money to? This is good old-fashioned espionage, boys,” Ghost said. “I don’t care what rules you break to get that information because the enemy will do the same if given the opportunity. For all we know, they already have it. But we aren’t going to let them use it. We’re going to protect this system and get it over the finish line. After that, it’s up to the Missile Defense Agency and the FBI to keep it safe.”
“Since the government already knows who’s working the project, who’s doing the coding, etcetera, it’d be nice if they’d just share the files with us,” Seth grumbled. “The scientists and engineers had to get clearances. There were background investigations, paperwork. Why make us go through all this back door bullshit to get the information when it’s already there?”
Seth only said what the rest of them were thinking.
“I asked,” Ghost said. “Straight up asked POTUS’s chief of staff. He shot me down.”
Ronnie Auerbach was a tight ass son of a bitch. He disapproved of Ghost Ops on some level, but he also knew the president needed it. He was determined to keep Marla Willis smelling like a rose and that meant he could be difficult to work with.
Ghost sighed and spread his fingers on the desk. “The way I see it, there are two versions of what’s going on inside the company. First is the official version. That’s the one with the paperwork and the protocols. The unofficial version is what we’re here to find out. That’s where shit’s vulnerable and people are potentially going rogue. It is possible to pass a government background check, be squeaky clean, have good intentions, and then take the bribe anyway. Happens all the time. If it didn’t, what would the CIA do with their time? They’re out there busily recruiting foreign agents, knowing people have a price at which they’ll betray their government. That’s as true here as it is anywhere. People can be bought if the price is right.”
“Still be helpful if they’d let us know who they think can be bought,” Seth said.
“I know, brother,” Ghost replied. “But it’s up to us. Now let’s go find out what’s going on over there before some asshole sells the information to a rogue state or programs a back door into the control system.”
The shiver of dread that traveled down his spine was a new sensation for Chance. It wasn’t for himself, or even for his friends. Hell, it wasn’t even for the entire fucking country, though he knew it would be bad if somebody else got control of Athena. They could take over the system, redirect the shields to cover their own ass, and launch a nuclear strike at the US.
Obliterate the entire nation, or most of it anyway.
But none of that was what made his heart fill with dread. It was the idea that Rory and their child would die in an attack. That his kid would never take a first breath, and that Chance would never get to hold him or her. That they would just be gone. All of them.
He’d never thought much about dying, even when he was actively engaged in battles that could have ended him. But now?
Now he wanted to live. For Rory. For their kid. For the life they could have together if she’d let it happen.
But first he had to get over to Griffin Research Labs and find out who the motherfucker was that was willing to sell out their country and kill everyone in it. Then he’d make sure they were locked away so deep in a government prison they never saw the light of day again.