Page 16 of The Ghost

“Why?” I asked casually. I wasn’t sure if that was a directive I could comply with. Regg had done too much to me personally to let him live. As long as I got the information we needed out of him, I wasn’t sure that it mattered.

“We want to interrogate him,” George explained. “You mission will be to retrieve him, nothing more.”

I glanced over at Lukas. Our eyes met, and he could tell that I was considering more permanent measures. To his credit, he didn’t voice an opinion. He kept silent, allowing me to determine my own path.

Clark and I had debated Regg’s involvement with New Dawn since coming back together after his betrayal. It seemed likely that it was all connected, but we had no specific proof. But here was the confirmation that I needed. He hadn’t just gone rogue, but was a part of a bigger criminal conspiracy. In some ways, that was comforting, but in others it was alarming.

Because Regg was connected to New Dawn, I was encouraged to go after him. If he was a lone wolf, I would have had to explain myself and possibly pursue him underground. At least this way, I was on the clock and had the backing of my own people.

But New Dawn gave him access to a wealth of other crazies and technologies that might serve to protect him. He wasn’t hanging out there in the wind by himself, and that would make taking him down all the more difficult.

“I need your confirmation that you understand the mission,” George said. My silent communication with Lukas hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“I understand,” I replied. Whether I complied was a whole other story, but George didn’t need to know that.

Just as the briefing was winding down, another man intruded without a knock. He walked right up to the top American commander and handed him a tablet. The American took a moment to review whatever information was displayed on the screen, then passed it to George.

I held my tongue as the leadership in the room passed the tablet back and forth without comment. Finally, George satisfied my curiosity by motioning to the newcomer.

“Explain,” George commanded.

The new man took a position behind the laptop, typing on the keyboard for a long moment. Finally, a picture of a corpse sprang onto the monitor. As the analyst tapped the keys, the image focused in on the body’s right shoulder.

“This is the body of a recovered CIA agent,” the analyst explained. “Here we see the mysterious shoulder wound that all of the recent murder victims share.”

I studied the image. The wound was obviously postmortem because there was no evidence of healing. It was about the size of a quarter and looked as if someone dug into the recently deceased agent with a spoon.

“We think that there was some kind of tracking device implanted in each of these operatives,” the analyst said. “And that their killer removed these devices so that we could not examine them.”

“We’re assuming that New Dawn installed these tracking devices?” I wondered.

“That’s the assumption,” the analyst confirmed.

“But these weren’t New Dawn operatives,” I puzzled, feeling like there was something missing from the briefing.

“I recognize some of them.” Lukas spoke up.

“From where?” I asked.

“From Ashcroft’s mansion,” Lukas said. “They were my foster brothers and sisters who went on to work for MI6 and the CIA.”

“Sleeper agents?” I questioned.

“It’s a distinct possibility,” George agreed.

“Do we expect Regg to have a similar tracker?” I asked.

“That’s unknown,” the analyst said. “But we’re looking at others who lived and worked with Ashcroft.”

“Like me?” Lukas asked.

The analyst swallowed uncomfortably. “Yes. You and Agent Clark.”

“Clark?!” I demanded, slamming my palms down on the table.

It was a more dramatic reaction than I had planned, and I instantly regretted the show of emotion. My feelings had run away with me, and for a moment, I pictured Clark lying dead on the autopsy table, her shoulder similarly violated. I swore that would never happen.

“If Clark had a tracker, wouldn’t we have known about it?” I elaborated, trying to soften my initial outburst.