Page 62 of Brooks

Son of a bitch. You can’t shoot a weapon with no firing pin. And it doesn’t just fall out on its own. Someone would’ve had to purposefully disassemble the bolt carrier group, unscrew the firing pin assembly, and taken the long pin out. It wasn’t like you wouldn’t notice a four-inch piece of metal that looked like a paperclip unfolded and straightened out lying around when you reassembled the weapon.

“Don’t suppose you have a gunsmith kit with extra parts lying around, do you?” I tried to joke off my supreme anger.

Leon Brown was sending me into a trap. Who was meant to get caught remained to be seen.

“Brooks?” I called when he didn’t answer.

“What?”

“Never mind.”

All righty then. Someone was pissed off. I wasn’t sure why he was so mad, it was me that Leon had potentially gotten killed. You only sabotaged someone’s weapon when you didn’t want them to be able to shoot back when you came shooting at them.

“Sorry. I’m thinking.”

“About what?”

“Trying to figure out if there’s a way I can convince you to keep your ass in the car when we get to Nazari’s.”

“Not a chance.”

With a heavy sigh he answered, “Didn’t think so.”

I put the useless rifle back into the case, placed it on the back seat, and climbed over the center console and settled into the passenger seat.

“You think he sent someone to take me out?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“I have to admit this is getting old.”

“What is?”

“People trying to kill me. And now, Leon. What. The. Fuck.”

We were approaching Nazari’s house. I didn’t have time to think about all the new information that had come to light in the last hour, especially the fact that the US government now wanted me dead, too.

“When we get out, you stay at my back,” Brooks told me as he found a place to park.

“No way. Nothing’s changed. I’ll take the back, you walk the perimeter. It will be faster.”

“Everything has changed,” he argued.

Brooks pulled his phone out of his cargos, cutting off any further rebuttal.

“Yeah.” There was a pause, then his eyes widened and he replied, “No shit.” Another pause. “Never had to worry about Tatiana taking a shot, anyway. Brown gave her nonop. The firing pin was removed. We’re going to walk the perimeter and we’ll be back.” He looked over at me and said, “Copy that.”

“What’d he say?” I asked as soon as Brooks hung up.

“You’re never gonna believe this shit. Sefa Nazari is CIA. Her name is Ashaki Maloof. American born. Her parents are both naturalized US citizens.”

“I’m not seeing Leon’s play. Is she supposed to kill me? And why the hell did Nazari go through the trouble of making people believe she is his daughter?”

“Hell if I know. Declan wants one look around and for us to get our asses back to the condo.”

“Sounds good. I’ll take the left and meet you around the back.”

“Fine.”