Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
“You know that could be anything. It doesn’t have to be a leak. Borys could have said something to the wrong person. He could have been identified as a probable asset and followed.” Brad offered a number of reasonable explanations.
Drake wasn’t sure. “Or my sister could still be causing trouble even after she’s dead. I wasn’t careful enough around her. She could have given valuable information on assets to any number of foreign agencies.”
“That’s not what she was doing,” Brad pointed out. “She was working for a cabal, and all that group cares about is money and power. If anything, they would want the world stable. Most of these corporations moved out of Russia. They don’t have interests there.”
But there was still money to be made. “I want to know if there’s any connection at all. If Julia was recruited by The Consortium, then it’s a good bet she’s not the only one. We need to figure out who else is a double.”
“Okay. I’ll get on it. Hey, I’m going to bring Lydia on the line. She’s got a few things she needs you to know.”
Lydia was the tech he worked with when he needed support. She was often the voice in his ear.
“Hey, Drake. Are you okay? I followed your car on the satellite, but they wouldn’t let me talk to you,” Lydia said, her worry obvious in the tremulous sound of her voice. “You should have gone to a hospital.”
“I had to get the data to a secure line,” he countered. “And I’m fine, thanks to Delta. It was a lucky thing she was here.”
A suspicious pause came over the line.
“Lydia?” When he was in the field, she often had access to information he didn’t. “Is there something I should know?”
She was silent for a moment.
“I’ve heard some rumors about Delta, and more importantly, about Alpha.” Her voice had gone low.
Brad sighed over the line. “She’s not wrong. There are some worries about people Alpha’s been meeting with.”
Lev Sokolov had been with the Agency for years and proven himself time and time again.
But then so had Julia.
“What kind of people? You know he meets with people from his old SVR unit from time to time to get intel we need.” Lev often handled the bribery elements of getting intel from his former home. Corruption in government meant opportunity for spies.
“He’s evaded his handler a couple of times now. It’s why they put his daughter in charge, but we know she lied about his whereabouts on two occasions. Be careful around her,” Lydia said. “I’m looking at weather reports for 124 and it looks like you’re going to be stuck there for at least a week.”
He glanced back, but the door was firmly closed. “She sent the intel on the hardline. Do we know if she used any other comms device in the last twelve hours?”
“She used the landline to talk to her father, but there was nothing suspicious about the conversation. That was the only other time she called out,” Brad said.
“But she did leave the cabin. There’s no cameras inside, but we keep CCTV cams outside,” Lydia explained. “She was out of range of the cameras for twenty minutes earlier today. There’s no cellular on that mountain, but…”
A smart spy could work around that.
“You might want to keep an eye on her.” Brad sounded resigned. “I’m sure they’ll ask you to get her talking once they realize you’re stuck with her. I’ll let them know you’re already on the job.”
“You said it’s going to take a week to get out of here?” He had some time before his mother would start looking for him. She was busy looking for Julia. Looking for a daughter who was never coming home because the man who’d loved her had been forced to kill her.
“At the very least a couple of days,” Lydia promised. “I’ll keep up with the weather and send you an evac if we need to. And Brad’s right. I’ve been told by the big boss he wouldn’t mind you spending time with Delta and giving him your thoughts when you get back.”
He wasn’t a fool. He knew exactly what that meant. They wanted him to get close to her, see if she gave anything up. If her father was turning on them, it was a big fucking deal. Lev Sokolov knew where a lot of bodies were buried, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t turned on his country before.
“All right. I’ll report back. If my mother…”
“I’ll let her know you’re out of pocket and you’ll call her as soon as you can,” Lydia assured him. Lydia often played the role of his assistant when it came to his mother. The same way his father’s support staff had done when he’d worked for his import/export facilitation business. It was a good cover because he traveled so much and because almost no one understood what it meant.