Page 17 of The Ghost

“And if I had one...” Lukas contemplated.

I glanced over at him, appreciating how personal this had become. The thought of a biological marker that would trace his every step was terrifying. It meant that New Dawn had a good idea of where we were. They might know everything there was to know about Dark Sparrow.

If Ashcroft was behind the trackers, that meant they had been implanted when Clark and Lukas were teenagers. For more than a decade, they had literally no privacy, their most intimate activities on display for whoever wanted to watch.

The scope of the problem nearly caused me to throw my chair at the wall. I wanted to see Ashcroft. Forget Regg and his supplemental involvement; I wanted to go after the big man himself. And yet at the same time, I refused to believe it was possible.

“If she had a tracker, we would know,” I assured them.

“We’re going to ask both Clark and Lukas to submit to medical examinations,” George concluded. “We’ll know at that point, and we’ll be able to inform our decisions going forward.”

“I assume your decision will be to remove it,” Lukas snapped. For all I was worried about Clark, he had a much more immediate concern.

“If that serves our purposes,” George hesitated.

“If you find anything there,” Lukas said, his voice deadly, “I want it out.”

“I agree,” I chimed in. If by some hideous twist of fate, Clark was being tracked, I wanted it to stop as soon as possible.

“We will take that into consideration,” George replied, ignoring our concerns.

“You won’t take it into consideration,” I threatened, rising up out of my seat. “You’ll do it.”

“Agent Wells,” George snapped, attempting to put me in my place.

“I won’t tell you again,” I growled.

Lukas had my back, his eyes narrow slits. He put a hand on my shoulder and guided me back to my seat. But the message was clear; we weren’t going to be pawns in any kind of game, no matter how high the stakes. If the trackers were real, then they were coming out. Not that I believed that Clark was walking around with a bug in her shoulder. The thought was absurd.

“I don’t appreciate threats,” George said calmly.

“Then do your job,” I suggested.

“I am,” he countered. “And you would be wise to do yours as well.”

There was a pause as all the energy in the room simmered. George was holding on to his authority, promising us nothing but more intel. Lukas was worried about the possibility of having a tracker in his shoulder, and I was crawling out of my skin, desperate to get to Clark and fill her in.

“Reginald Banks,” the first analyst said, breaking the tension.

There was an audible gasp as we all remembered the mission that had called us all together in the first place. It seemed like the closer I got to Regg, the less I wanted to go after him. Between Ryan and this tracker nonsense, I had ample reason to remain close to my girlfriend and not wander off to get my revenge.

But I knew I had to pack up all my grievances and get on with the job. The world was counting on me. Clark would never agree to my sticking around. She would want to follow protocol and do whatever it took to bring New Dawn down.

I couldn’t argue with that. Ashcroft had seriously messed with her life, and the fact that he expected her to carry his torch was reason enough to fight against him. We needed Dark Sparrow, MI6, and the CIA to help us. New Dawn was just too big.

And I had to play my part by finding Regg and bringing him in. Even though it hurt my heart to think about parting ways with my lover, I knew it was the only escape route to this life that we were forced to lead. With the goal of retirement on a deserted island in mind, I set my jaw. I could do this; I could see this through. I could be the man that Clark needed me to be.

“Are we finished?” I snapped. Though I’d decided to play along, that didn’t mean I had to be happy about it.

“For now,” George allowed. “Your team is ready. I expect you to move out within the hour.”

“Understood,” I growled. Glancing down at Lukas, I caught him avoiding my eye. He was wrestling with his own demons, and I could respect that. It was time for us to part ways, and I trusted him to watch out for Clark while I was gone. Nothing more needed to be said.

Storming out into the command center, I breezed past all the techs at their computer stations. The massive monitors with their blinking lights didn’t even enter into my thought process. I approached the elevator, stabbing the button to call the car, my mind a blur.

I knew I was supposed to report to the hangar bay to meet up with my team. We had a bead on Regg, and that was too important to pass up. Yet I didn’t want to leave without letting her know what was about to happen. Better she hear it from me than from George or anyone else in command. They wouldn’t care about her feelings and they were likely to approach it with a clinical perspective.

I thought about her beautiful eyes and her soulful expressions. I remembered the way she felt beneath me and on top of me, her sweet love the only thing worth rescuing in this hectic world. I couldn’t wait until all this business with New Dawn was behind us. Rather than focus on stopping a threat to global humanity, all I could think about was Clark.