Page 77 of Her Fearless Warrior

“I mentioned Vugar and Syria to her, and she said she’d call me back. Fifteen minutes later, when I got a call from an unknown satellite phone, I picked it up. It was Caryn. She wanted me to give her as much info as I could on Vugar. She wasn’t aware of everything that had happened in Syria.”

“Aw, fuck,” Linc said. “How high up is she?”

“High enough that it should have hit her desk, unless somebody destroyed the intel before it made the rounds,” Kostya said. “High enough that she was a hairsbreadth away from having our entire team, Sam Phelps, Katherine Cole, and her secretary Annie, and Leila pulled into CIA headquarters to go over everything in minute detail.”

“Why didn’t she go that route?” Jase asked.

Gideon raised his hand. “I’ll take this one for two hundred, Alex.”

“Fuck that, this is the double jeopardy finale question,” Kostya said.

“Okay, I bet it all and my answer is, ‘She thinks Vugar has a spy at Langley who could be her level or above,’” Linc answered.

“You lose, you didn’t answer in the form of a question.” Jase nudged him with his shoulder.

Kostya nodded. “But if you had, you would be the official winner of this fucked up game.” “Obviously, from Leila’s report alone it was clear that Vugar had information that he had most likely received from CIA headquarters. Add to the fact that he knew when and where to attack that day—and to grab Elijah—someone had to have handed him the exact blueprint of what was planned that day.”

“That still doesn’t give us anything to go on regarding Leila’s attempted kidnapping.”

“Caryn’s going to come out to visit with you, Jase, and Leila.”

“No,” Linc said vehemently. “If there’s a spy out there, and they’re as high up as Caryn thinks they are, then I don’t want any CIA agent within a hundred miles of Leila.”

“I told you. She can be trusted.”

“Kostya, he’s right,” Gideon broke in. “I told you all about the stingray capabilities. You know that Homeland Security, FBI and the CIA. have all had this technology in their pocket. Not miniaturized, but available to them. The only thing stopping them from using it on people here in the US is all the laws that are in place to stop them. They need a ream of paper signed in blood by a judge before they can get a warrant, and even then, it can only be used narrowly.”

“Yeah?” Kostya said.

“But whoever the spy is at Langley knows about the tech, and he probably was on board when I handed over the correct patches to fix Leila’s phone. I’m sure they’ve got it miniaturized by now, and Vugar’s spy won’t ask for permission to use it to its fullest capabilities.”

“Well hell, if that’s all you're worried about, don’t be. Caryn called me from her husband’s satellite phone. The one they keep in the family safe to be used when you’re really feeling paranoid.”

“If I worked for the CIA, I’d be using that phone day in and day out,” Jase muttered.

“Okay then. She’s smart,” Gideon nodded. “Got it.”

“I’ll arrange it so Caryn travels without any kind of tech, and she rides with me and Gideon. How does that sound?”

“Still not good,” Linc said as he shook his head. “What’s she planning on doing for Leila? Seems to me she wants information about Vugar for her agency, and she’ll want to use Leila’s knowledge to figure out who might be the spy. Hell, she’s probably salivating at the thought of using Leila as bait, so Vugar attempts another kidnapping. Then she can catch Vugar and trace him back to the spy.”

“She wouldn’t do that. Kostya told us she’s on board to help,” Jase protested.

Linc continued to stare at his lieutenant through the video screen, refusing to break eye contact.

“Linc, you’re almost beginning to think like a paranoid Russian. Must be because you grew up surrounded by so much snow.” Kostya sat back in his chair and gave Gideon a quick glance, who just shrugged. Kostya turned back to look at Linc.

“Linc. We’re not one hundred percent sure that Leila was the target, so this could all be a moot point, agreed?”

Linc nodded.

“But if this is real, it’s ninety-nine-point nine percent sure that it’s Vugar who’s after her, agreed?”

Linc nodded.

“Do you know why? What would she have that his CIA spy wouldn’t have? She was just an add-on to this mission. She was just supposed to smooth things over.”

“Elijah was her godfather. He and her dad went way back. I’ve never asked her to tell me all the details of the operation, because it’s not right. Same way she doesn’t ask about my job.”