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“What can I do?” She grabbed her juice and took a chug.
“We’ll need all the information you have on the Solntesevskaya Brotherhood.”
Jewell blinked and put the juice down. “The Bratva? Why? What’s going on?”
“Sunset Operative Thirteen discovered that Smithson Young is the son of Nadia Solntesevskaya. I need to know where she fell in the pecking order before she left Russia. Has there been communication between his mother and Smithson?”
Jewell’s fingers raced as she typed. “Got it. Did he volunteer the information?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that's a good sign,” she muttered. She liked Smithson. He was quiet and respectful and took good care of Mrs. Henshaw.
“Can we expedite his clearance?”
Jewell looked up at her screens. “I know someone who owes me a big favor. I can call in that chip. It’ll take twenty-four hours, but we’ll have everything on Smithson Young, his family, and their pet parrot.”
“Call it in, please.” Anubis cleared his throat. “We all like Smithson, but if he’s a plant, we need to know.”
“Got it. What else?”
“Route me in with everyone? I’m not leaving this until later to brief it up.”
She didn’t blame him, especially with Guardian’s one-time war and continuing skirmishes with the Bratva. That war had started when Vista, the Russian hacker, had attacked her systems, back when Zane was just her caretaker-slash-bodyguard. “Okay, hold on.” She put Anubis on hold, typed the request to call in a favor from her friend in the NSA, then sent out an all-call. As the participants started answering, she checked to ensure the calls were secure and took a sip of orange juice before telling them the line was clear. Time to be a fly on the wall.
Archangel barked, “Repeat that?”
“His mother is Nadia Solntesevskaya,” Anubis repeated for Jewell’s brother. She glanced at the clock. He should have had his coffee by now. Jason being a grump was not good for anyone. She smiled at her husband, Zane, or Bengal, as everyone knew him at Guardian, as he walked into the living room-slash-CCS. She could hardly wait to move to the Annex and spread out. They didn’t have a place for a Christmas tree. Not even a small one, and Christmas was only a handful of months away. They had precious little space in the apartment and no privacy with Ethan living with them. Zane began to read the voice-to-text transcription she was running on the meeting. His eyes narrowed, and he sat beside her. “Damn.”
She nodded and hit the button, putting the conversation on speaker instead of her headphones.
“We can use him,” Jacob and Joseph said at the same time. Those brothers of hers were on the same page most of the time.
Jason grunted something, neither confirming nor dismissing his brothers’ comments. “Do we know how involved he is with the Brotherhood?”
“I’m pulling favors from the NSA. I’ll know what color his dog’s food bowl is by this time tomorrow.” Jewell glanced at the message she’d sent and smiled at the “done” she’d gotten in return. Super hackers had each other’s back no matter what organization they worked for. Well, the legal organizations, that was.
“He speaks fluent Russian. I say we get the information from Jewell’s contact, and if he’s good to go, we baptize him with fire. Put him in country with Val. We aren’t hunting Bratva. We’re hunting Komal.” Fury, her brother Joseph, said.
“Then, when we have that bastard taken care of, we regroup, and if possible, we can use him to go after the Bratva.” That was Jacob talking.
“We’re not at war with the Bratva right now, and I’m not ready to defend the walls if they do come after us,” Jewell reminded them. She didn’t need any more stress in her life. Working with limited capabilities and only herself and Ethan manning the fort was exhausting. There was never a down moment when she was in front of the keyboard. Her life consisted of work and sleep.
“Agreed. We don’t want to start a war, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take proactive steps to prevent one in the future," her brother Jacob said.
“What do you mean, Alpha?” Anubis asked.
“A long-lost son of the Bratva returns. An introduction, an open door, a way in. We need to normalize the meeting. Have it casual, a comment overheard by someone with known connections and allegiance. They seek him out. We don’t seek them out. In the meantime, we make subtle inquiries in the country about the mess in the Hague. Two birds, one stone.”
“That sounds like a plan, but only if Jewell’s contact clears Young. If he is, use that data to push his security clearance and bring him into the fold.” Archangel gave the command.
“As a Sunset Operative?” Anubis asked.
There was a pause as everyone waited for Jason to make the call. Since the Siege, they’d been flying by the seat of their pants on a lot of issues. That one was a sticky sucker. Jewell glanced at her husband and lifted her eyebrows. He shrugged.
“As Thirteen’s bravo, her partner. They’re now a team.”
“Copy that,” Anubis replied.
