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Callum sat up straighter and looked at Jenna. “I asked Craig to come with me once we found out you were in Oak Creek. I was fairly certain you’d shut me down after what happened with Wilson, and I was hoping your brother might have more success in getting you to hear me out.”
She met Craig’s eyes. He hadn’t said much, but that wasn’t unusual for him. “Is this a case for you? I thought you were an analyst.”
“I am. It’s not my case. When Callum approached me, I told him I would help establish contact with you, but that I wouldn’t try to talk you into it. What I say shouldn’t have any bearing on your decision, sis.”
“Although you should know—” Callum started.
“Shut up, Webb.” Craig cut Callum off. “That’s irrelevant.”
She looked back and forth between the two men. “What’s irrelevant?”
Craig shook his head. “Hear Callum out and decide if you want to help. But only do it if you want to. You’ve already done enough.”
That wasn’t true. Craig might want to think so because he loved her and couldn’t stand the thought of what she’d been through when she was held captive. But the truth was, Jenna could spend the rest of her life making up for the evil she’d helped create, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
She turned to Callum. “What sort of assistance do you need?”
“We have an undercover agent who was killed.”
She flinched but shook her head. “I’m sorry. Truly. But that’s not my problem, and there are other people better equipped to help you.” People who weren’t regressing in their agoraphobia and weren’t a half step from a breakdown.
There was a moment of silence as Callum geared up for his persuasive speech.
He didn’t have to think it through too hard. She already knew what he was going to say. So she wasn’t surprised at the words that came out of his mouth.
“The agent went undercover to gather intel about a human trafficking ring.”
She knew what was coming. She knew and wished she could run so she didn’t have to hear the rest of it. But where could she go? The only thing that scared her more than what Callum Webb was about to say was having to go outside to escape it.
“It’s not a normal trafficking ring,” Callum continued. “They’re not using drugs or violence to control their victims. They’re using chemical subjectification and gene editing.”
Jenna could barely force air through her throat, it was so tightly closed to keep her scream from escaping.
“The traffickers are using the methods you created.”
Chapter 5
Mark was putting an end to this right damned now. He didn’t know if Ian and Craig couldn’t see that Jenna was a half breath away from a total meltdown or didn’t care.
“Enough,” he said.
Callum met his eyes. “I’m not trying to be a bastard. Jenna is our best shot at stopping what’s happening.”
“How do you know it’s from my projects?” Jenna whispered.
Projects. She said it like it was something she’d chosen to do at school, not that she’d been violently abducted and forced for months to do someone else’s bidding.
Callum now looked at Ian. “We captured two people in the middle of crimes. Toxicology, blood work, and medical tests suggest genetic modifications and chemical subjectification.”
Ian sat up straighter. “Like what was done to Wavy and Bronwyn Rourke.”
Jenna got paler as Callum nodded. “Yes.”
“That can’t be right,” Ian said. “We took out Mosaic. Disbanded them completely. There’s no way they’re still in the human trafficking business.”
Mark placed a hand on Ian’s shoulder in support. Even thinking about what had happened to his wife still tore Ian up, despite Wavy making an almost complete recovery. Former Zodiac agent Bronwyn Rourke had been subjected to similar abuse by Mosaic and would wear the mental scars from her ordeal for the rest of her life.
Saying Mosaic—a pretty word for an ugly group of terrorists—was back in operation was akin to telling Ian he’d be going back to the front line of a particularly brutal war.
