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SAFFRON
"What the fuck happened?"Gabe’s voice boomed.
Twenty faces turned to stare at me. I knew what debriefs were like. They were immediate and stressful, and I was the agent who had fucked up in the field.
Gabe scowled at me. "Are you sure it was him?"
“Yes. I took photos so we would have proof of a sighting. I didn't just abort a mission for nothing. We made eye contact. He recognized me."
"Are you sure he recognized you?"
I glanced around the room. Everyone in there was a senior agent. My team was there. Saint and King, both looking at me with a grim determination to the set of their lips. They were going to back my play, whatever I said. But I didn't want them going down with me if this went sideways. Why didn't Gabe believe me?
"All I can tell you is what happened. I was working Graciella, and she told me she was having an affair. I gave her the standard we'll take care of you, and if you need a friend, I’m here for you speech. She was asking me to cover for her while she spent time with her new boyfriend, who was on the island."
Gabe frowned. "We had no intel that Webster was on the island."
“I don't know what to tell you. Maybe he came in on a boat. Maybe he's got someone on the docks who brought him in quietly. I have no idea. On the way back, we spoke to Ariel on the sat phone. There was no record of him coming or going."
"He's a ghost. We know that much." Gabe ran his hands through his hair. "What the fuck, Saff?"
I lifted my chin. “Don't you mean Agent Abott?"
A hush fell over the room. I shouldn't have said that, but if he was going to ride me like I was just another one of his agents, he couldn't pretend I was his sister today.
Tabs spoke up. “If Agent Abott says that it was Drake Webster, I trust her instincts. She's one of the few people who has managed to get a recorded sighting of him. Everything else we have is blurry at best. And if she says he recognized her, he did. Which means she's in danger."
I shook my head imperceptibly at her. I didn’t want Gabe punishing her for defending me. “If we can get to Graciella, we can get to him."
Gabe laughed. “You are not going back in the field."
"We have an asset who trusts me. It's ridiculous to pull me now." I wasn’t being petulant; I was making a good argument. At the end of the day, everybody wanted Drake Webster. All of us. My parents were legends, and I was the heir. Webster had taken them from me, which meant I owed him a debt. Whether Gabe liked it or not, he could shuffle this all the way up to Oversight, but they would agree.
That's if they believe you.
Lock came to my rescue, which I didn't need. “I broke protocol. I knew the route agent Abott would take, so I waited along that route to provide back up."
Gabe lifted his brow as Lock spoke, but he said nothing. Because, of course, Lock was new. And a man. Although, half of the best agents in this place were women and could run circles around my brother.
Lock continued, undeterred. "We were definitely shot at."
Gabe crossed his arms and eyed Lock up and down. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe it's because of how Agent Abott responded?" he asked derisively.
I squared my shoulders, ready for this fight. “For starters, I followed protocol. You can track the routes I took. I made an escape out the window. According to Ariel, someone broke down the door of that loo coming for me, and then broke the window. I didn't break it on my way out. I was chased through the Winston Isles. Last we spoke to Ariel, she was pulling video footage. I'm sure you will find Webster's men looking for me. And finally, we were shot at. I know what I saw, and Graciella is the way to get to him."
"We'll send Agent Smith then."
Tabs looked up, frowning. "What the fu— No. I can't identify him. She's the one who knows who he is. And as good as I am in the field with assets, Saff—Agent Abott,” she corrected with an apologetic smile, “is the one who has established a relationship. It doesn't make sense to send me."
Gabe's jaw ticked. He wasn't used to anyone talking back to him. The other agents in the room said not a word, not even a murmur. But they were all leaning forward, watching the show.
"Agent Abott has a point. We can send her back with more support,” Tabatha concluded. “I'm happy to support her, but she should be the lead agent on this. I'm sure it's Oversight's call, but this is the closest we've been to Webster in two years.”
Two years exactly. I would never forget those bright blue eyes as he leaned across the picnic table while I was saying goodbye to friends on the main quad a couple of days after graduation. I’d just lost my parents. He had come to campus where my friends were trying to console me, and he’d told me, plain as day, 'Get the hell out of dodge or you will die too.' I saw it as a threat, but it felt like a warning. Why not just kill me then?
He'd stalked me for months. How he even knew I was there was beyond me. But he'd stalked me and used me to kill my parents. It was my fault. If I hadn't insisted they needed to see me graduate, they would still be alive, and I lived with that every day.
I inhaled deeply and lifted my gaze to my brother's. “I know the players. Webster recognized me. I'm the only one who knows what he looks like. You can tell from that video that he is perpetually in a blind spot. He's that good. So I’m your best bet at getting him in the field."
