"Why do you say that?" he asked gently. This was the first time she"d addressed him since Todd"s murder. He couldn"t see her eyes through the dark gla.s.ses, but in her own way she"d reached out to him.
"I don"t know." She shrugged. "But it was like you said. I was being led. I didn"t think of it until...." Her voice trailed away. Of course she hadn"t noticed it. She"d been consumed with grief. The poor woman should be on some kind of antidepressant, but Zack knew why she wasn"t. Same reason he wasn"t.
"Would you mind taking another look at them?" he asked. "Maybe look past Lord. Maybe we were only seeing what Peters told us to see."
She pushed away from the table. "Sure. I can do that."
He turned to Mother. "How long would it take you to double-check the Interpol findings on Huang?"
"By double-check, do you mean double-check?" Mother"s eyes were wide with surprise. "I mean, it"s Interpol, Boss, I mean, Zack. I"ve never double-checked Interpol files before. I"m not real sure how long it will take to get into their, umm, mainframe." She cringed when she said the last word. The truth was out, like everyone didn"t already know she dabbled in the black art of hacking.
"Yeah, but you"re the Mother around here, right?" Mark repeated her often-stated self-declaration. "Who else could do it if not you or Ember?"
"I didn"t say I couldn"t do it. I just haven"t done it before. It"s probably as easy as pie." Mother"s eyes twinkled as she and Ember headed out to their shared workstation. "Sure good to have you back home, Mark honey."
"Okay," Mark continued while everyone else smirked at her motherly endearment. "What else do we know about this Director Peters guy? He"s beginning to look interesting."
"Right after we lost Agent Chandler, he told Alex to b.u.t.t out of the Mainland China investigation," Zack muttered, thankful Ember was no longer in the room. "He said that was Interpol"s jurisdiction, that he"d go after Huang himself."
"We heard about Agent Chandler in Afghanistan." Mark"s voice softened. "That was a hard break. I"m sorry."
"Thanks," David replied. "It was hard on everyone, but I have to askhow are you hearing about office business while you"re overseas on a remote op?"
Mark nodded toward the outer office. "Someone keeps us informed, but you already know that."
David sighed. "I"m glad it"s Mother and not someone else. I guess."
"We don"t need a leak. We"ve got Mother," Zack said. "But now that I think about it, didn"t Director Peters work with Alex on the emergency response plan to evacuate and take down the foster homes? Don"t get me wrong. I"m glad we rescued those little girls, but didn"t it all go down a little too smoothly? I mean, I wasn"t there, but I heard the FBI and police swarmed in and grabbed everyone," he snapped his fingers, "just like that, and no one got hurt. It couldn"t have gone smoother if Jun had invited the FBI over for coffee and said, "Come on in, y"all"."
"Except you were lying in some hole in the mud, huh?" Mark"s eyes twinkled with mischief.
"Mother told you?" Zack grimaced. "Yeah. Not my finest moment."
"It did go extremely easy, now that you mention it." David"s answer was guarded.
"We were pretty stoked when we saved all those little girls," Murphy said. "I mean it, Mark. You should"ve seen the foster homes. Looked more like warehouses."
"It was quite an emotional event for the whole city, wasn"t it?" Mark asked.
"It hit us all pretty hard," David agreed.
"So hard that you and Zack both have new daughters." Mark smiled again.
"That"s it. I"m talking to Mother," Zack exclaimed. "That woman can"t shut her mouth to save her life."
"She can"t help it. We"re her family," Mark replied. "But think about this op from the perspective of whoever"s running the show. Saving three hundred little girls distracted everyone, didn"t it? So, naturally, everyone thought the child trafficking ring was broken up for good. It"s what I would have thought."
Zack"s mood had turned more serious with Mark"s fresh a.n.a.lysis of the evidence.
"Then Peters declared he"d take care of the China connection, which made perfect sense. It"s in his jurisdiction," Mark continued.
Roy spoke up. "Now you"ve got me wondering. Were we missing the big picture all along?"
Mark shut off the laser pointer. "If Peters is the powerbroker behind this operation, what better way to make the problem go away than to make it look like it did when it really didn"t?"
"So everyone involvedthe FBI, Metro PD, and uswe all go back to our jobs thinking we"ve done a great thing, saved all these girls, caught the bad guys, and-" Murphy said.
"And he opens up shop in a different city or country." David finished the thought. "He cleans up loose ends here and-"
"My G.o.d. How big is this ring?" Zack interrupted.
"Alex did mention Peters was the a.s.sistant Director in the Beijing Interpol office before he came to D.C.," David replied. "He worked out of Hong Kong before that. In fact, he"s only been D.C. Director for two years."
"He could have connections all over the world," Murphy said.
"Certainly in China," Zack said, the magnitude of what he was looking at worse than he imagined. Any business that could write off three hundred and eleven children as an acceptable business loss was beyond despicable.
"If what we suspect is true," Mark said somberly, "we"ve just proved motive and means."
"We need to see those FBI files. The sooner the better." Zack couldn"t keep the excitement out of his voice. "And we need to double-check every word that came out of Peters" big mouth."
"Let"s talk to Alex first," Mark said. "I"ve got the same gut feeling. Give Kelsey a call. Tell her we"re on our way. Maybe Alex feels it too."
THIRTY-TWO.
"How about we don"t go visit your boss just yet?" a familiar man"s voice interrupted.
Harley b.u.mped the door open with the percolator in his hands and a madder-than-h.e.l.l look on his face as Director Daniel Peters walked in behind him, a pearl-handled revolver stuck in Harley"s back. Peters waved for Harley to join the group at the table. Four more black-uniformed guards poured in behind him, all with weapons drawn. The six TEAM agents were instantly surrounded and out-gunned.
Peters gave Zack a cold look as he took the empty chair between Zack and Murphy. "Why can"t you for once in your screwed up, jarhead life follow orders like you"re told to?"
Zack didn"t answer. Peters didn"t sign his paycheck.
"All you jokers had to do was. .h.i.t Vinnie"s hangout and report back to me. I told you to call if you ran into trouble, but could you do that? h.e.l.l, no." He turned to Murphy. "Who"s the boss around here, anyway?"
"Not you, that"s for sure." Murphy smirked, and Peters" hand shot out, striking Murphy full in the face. All the agents jumped to his aid, but Peters" men were already engaged, the barrels of their weapons in The TEAM"s backs. Murphy settled into his chair, wiping the blood off his cheekbone with the back of his hand.
"Sit," Peters hissed. "I don"t have time for fun and games."
The men sat, tension thick and heavy in the room.
"You morons should"ve contacted me like I told you."
"Why? So you could keep running the show?" Zack shot back at him, his arm tensed to block the quick hand of Peters" and the pistol-whipping that came with it.
"No. So I wouldn"t have to kill you stupid d.a.m.ned cowboys!" Peters snapped. "You guys always think you can do as you please."
Zack grunted. Sure looked like Peters thought that, not him.
"Let me tell you how this is going to go down. Lay your weapons on the table. Come on. Let"s see "em."
David shook his head. "We"re not carrying."
Peters looked surprised, glancing around the table. "That right? None of you carrying? Well, h.e.l.l, that"s a d.a.m.ned good office policy. Makes a hostile takeover a lot smoother."
Zack caught the latent hostility glowering across the table from Mark"s eyes. He was planning his own hostile takeover, and Zack planned to be ready to go when it happened.
"Word on the streets is the police didn"t apprehend all the Tigers yesterday like they were supposed to. Apparently, they can"t do what they"re told, either." Peters turned, his revolver digging into Zack"s bicep. "Guess the Tigers are a little upset they killed that redheaded punk instead of you. They"re going down to some fancy hotel in Alexandria to finish the job."
Zack bristled at the inference.
"And you." Peters aimed at David next. "You weren"t supposed to show up at Lord"s place yesterday. It was none of your business."
"Then why"d you tell Alex he was involved?" David asked, as calm as always.
"Because he was. How do you think he got to be Senator? And that greaseball, Carducci. How do you think he got so far up the ladder? It wasn"t cuz they were smart. h.e.l.l, no. I owned them. I would"ve owned Brown too, but there"s another punk for you. Brown wasn"t smart enough to know when he had it good." Peters" eyes glittered as he scanned the men around the table. "And Stewart ate it up like a dog with a bone, but no more. That"s why I"m hereclean up the loose ends. It"s what I do."
"Why"d you kill Carducci?" Zack asked. "He just another loose end?"
Peters turned to him and the office stilled. He took a minute to answer, but the man wasn"t even breathing hard. "I should"ve known better with good old Kev. He figured he could pull you guys off Debargio"s scent with that stunt. Thought if he tossed one of them little girls at you, you couldn"t resist. He was right. It almost worked, but he never shoulda used one of my girls to do it. Lord tried to save his a.s.s with a Senate investigation on Stewart, but Kev just kept making one mess after another. Gotta hand it to Stewart, though. Never thought he"d tackle Richards and Debargio like he did. He"s tougher than I thought."
"He"s better than you," Harley growled.
Peters" raised brow and shrug matched his lack of concern. "Won"t matter after today. He"ll be just as dead."
"You planted information with the FBI," David stated.
Peters smirked. "It"s amazing how a little comment here and a little comment there can change the direction of an entire operation."
"Like building a contingency plan to storm the foster homes," Zack said.
"Whoa." Peters leaned back with an appraising grunt. "As dumb as you are, you"re still pretty sharp for a junior agent. What are you complaining about? You all got to feel like heroes. It almost worked."
"How many more foster homes are there?" David asked softly.
"Wrong question, Tao. You guys don"t have a clue what you"re up against. This is big business. I"m not even close to the top rung. I"m just the clean-up man."
"The east coast business was an acceptable loss then," Mark said quietly.
"More like insignificant. We don"t do too bad here in the States, but the real money is overseas," Peters replied. "But I"m done talking. Time to do what I do best."
Mark gripped the table, and Zack matched his move.
"You"re missing a b.u.t.ton." Zack stared at Peters" suit jacket sleeve. This was the man who"d dumped Zhen Ting into the trash, the master manipulator behind Carducci, and the snake who"d employed Jun. He was the reason the tiny, unnamed toddler had been branded and drowned. Zack clenched his fist and planned, with or without Mark"s partic.i.p.ation. He might not have his Ruger, but Peters was going to die today. "Bet you"re diabetic, too."
Peters shot him a look of incredulity before his gaze shifted to one of his men. "Do it."
That man pushed the conference room windows open wide before he pulled out a couple cans of spray paint. Within minutes, he"d tagged everything in the room with the bright orange and black stick letters and upside down religious graffiti, with a two-bit gang from Anacostia brightly taking credit for the murders of Alex Stewart and his team.
"Once the police arrive, they"ll chalk the whole mess up to the Tigers. Case closed. Those clowns won"t think a minute past the spray paint. It"s too bad your boss isn"t here." Peters aimed his gun at David again. At the same time, Zack felt the sharp dig of a gun barrel at the back of his head. He glanced around the table. Murphy, Mark, and Roy were all subdued in the same way. The only one not skewered with a weapon was Harley, who still held the percolator.
"When we"re through here, Lennox, the Tigers are gonna visit your little girlfriend. Oughta be a touching scene, don"t you think?" Peters winked like he was sharing a dirty secret. "You dog, you."
Zack"s mind went to Rory Dennison, dutifully keeping watch over Mei and Song. Rory hailed from Nebraska. Farm country. Cornhuskers. The heartland of America. And a few generations of d.a.m.ned proud United States Marines.
And then there was Connor Maher, a Boston man raised by a determined widow who"d single-handedly raised seven boys, most of who"d followed in Connor"s footsteps to join the Corps. The only brothers who hadn"t were still in high school. Peters and his men were in for one h.e.l.l of a firefight.
"Then we"re going over to visit Tao"s kids, I think there"s about five of "em, isn"t that right? Any last words you want me to tell Nancy?" Peters taunted David, his pistol in continual motion until he ended at Mark. "Then I"ve got plans for a blonde chick who lives in Rose Creek. That wouldn"t be a baby b.u.mp, would it, Houston? That"s kinda like two for the price of one."
"You"re not leaving here alive," Mark hissed, the promise of death in his eyes. Zack agreed with him, ready to spring into action at the first opportunity.
"You don"t think so?" Peters waved his revolver again. "Maybe you oughta check with Tony Brown and Kevin Carducci. They said the same thing."
The four false Interpol agents grunted while Mark"s knuckles turned white against the edge of the table. Zack studied his friend"s deadly calm. He and Mark were both weightlifters. They could crush these guys. There was still hope.
"Woodley Park"s next." Peters jabbed Murphy. "What"d ya do, Finnegan, rob the cradle with that one?"
If looks could kill, Peters would"ve been dead and buried with the insinuation, but there was little Murphy could do with the gun at the back of his head.
"Finally I"m going to chat with your poor, injured boss. Ya think I oughta include that little wife of his, that little Kelsey who gets all dreamy-eyed whenever they"re together? That"s another hard one to figure. What"s a doll like her see in a b.a.s.t.a.r.d like Stewart?"
Tension pulsed from TEAM agent to agent. Despite the open windows, the room seemed full of darkness. Zack glared at Mark, but all he offered was a scant nod. Harley shifted his feet.
"h.e.l.l, instead of killing the women and kids, maybe we oughta put them to work. Always looking for new talent. I"ve got appet.i.tes for young women all over the world, even pregnant ones."
Mark"s eyes darkened and Zack held his breath. Keep making Houston mad, Peters, and he"ll take you and your goons down singlehanded.
As if on cue, Peters" agents dug their guns harder into the backs of their victims" skulls. Mark, Roy, Zack, David, and Murphy"s heads were pushed so far forward that they were looking down at the table. Zack couldn"t see his fellow agents anymore, but he knew them. He could sense them. All were primed to blow.
"Then there"s you, Mortimer." Peters pushed his chair back, his legs stretched out in relaxation. "You"re the only smart one here. No wife. No kids. Killing you won"t matter, so I"m going to make you a deal. How about I let you be the sole survivor again?"
"How about I let you be the sole survivor again? Tie him up, boys."
By the sounds of it, one of Peters" men holstered his pistol. Zack tensed. He caught the slight shifting of weight across the table from Mark, the way a man anchors his feet before he launches into a brawl. Zack prepared to follow suit.
Peters pushed his chair back and stood. "Let"s get it done. I"ve got a real job to get back to."
Zack sucked in a deep breath. Time to move. Time to do something. Anything!
Peters stood behind Zack. So did one of his guards. Peters must"ve been aiming at Harley, though. Zack already had a gun digging into his skull. Peters wouldn"t be planning on wasting two bullets on a dumb junior agent, would he?