AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yeah, he was probably stepping on toes by going to Zora directly, but he had a hunch.
“She couldn’t answer and gave me her phone,” Tucker said with little to no inflection.
“Everything okay there?”
“Yeah, just a call from the director.”
Harper snorted. “The Task Force director? That guy we never see?”
“Yeah, well, he’s her boss, so…”
“I see. Well, how are things?”
“Here she is,” Tucker said.
“Great talk,” Harper said under his breath. Maybe he’d reach out to Tucker later, get an update on the guys and make a plan for what to say to them.
“Is the world burning down?” Zora asked in that weary tone of hers.
“The list that Nadine gave you, can you tell me how many were women?”
“Why?”
He bounced on the balls of his feet. “I’ve got a hunch. Please? You don’t have to tell me numbers, be vague if you have to.”
“I think you’re going to need to be more specific. There are women on the list, yes, but is that really what you want to know?”
“Fine. How many on the list are both women and suspected of being in a position of power within Skilton’s organization.”
“None,” Zora said without hesitation. “Why?”
“It’s a hunch…”
“Tell me.”
“I think in an ideal world, Daar would recruit Robin to work for him. But because she’s a woman, he can’t. He practically just said so to her and based on things Robin has told me, there’s some serious gender bias going on that isn’t necessarily cultural. Not to this degree, at least. So where is it coming from?”
“Hm. And what does this information do for us?”
“Nothing. No idea. Sorry, maybe this should have been an email?”
“No.” Zora sighed. “You’re fine. I take it things are going well?”
“Depends how you define well. I’d say I’ve got my foot firmly in the door, but I don’t know what that does for us. Both Cassim and Daar are friendly with me to a point. The problem I see is that women aren’t equals to them. I worry that in the terms of the assignment, that means I will have very little access to Daar.”
“Work on that. Do you know how long he’s staying?”
“Nothing certain, but I think he’s staying for a while.” Harper rubbed the back of his neck. “From the sound of it, Robin is redoing the family’s financials and Daar is supervising. My take is that Daar is still taking care of Cassim.”
Samuel frowned so hard his face creased.
“What is it?” Harper asked.
“What?”
“Not you, Zora. Sorry,” he said quickly.
“It sounds like Daar is searching the office,” Samuel said slowly.
