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“Ashlyn is almost here and has Hen and some of the Dozen with her,” Cane added.
“It’s more than that,” Killion continued. “Before you all head out and hunt down leads, hang tight. I think I have something, and you won’t want to miss it.”
16
The Lair had thinnedto only necessary bodies as it became crowded once Dirty Dozen arrived. Ransom’s people had apprehended two of the people involved in the incident earlier in the day, so manpower from BK Security and the Dozen were needed there anyway. They’d also located the missing chopper after piecing together the series of events that led to Ayelish and the others temporarily deemed missing, and that needed attention as well.
Wit and Hen sat at the head of the conference table in the Lair, surrounded by members of both teams. It was more than a debriefing, more than a keep your enemies closer moment because they were no longer enemies. It was pure teamwork and defensive strategy at play. They had a shared interest, shared mission, shared encounters. It also seemed they had a shared enemy.
“I can’t believe you guys had such a similar confrontation,” Ayelish said, listening to Hen tell the story of their encounter.
“Yeah, well… we didn’t have a whirlybird in the sky like you fancy folks over here,” Hen teased.
“Thatwhirlybirdwas a casualty and didn’t really benefit us much,” Killion said. “They fired on those choppers as much as they did us. We all went dark because a stray bullet hit some of our tech and generated an unwanted jammer of sorts. They went down after losing controls, and we were off grid and unable to communicate.”
“Wow,” Relay said. She was the tech genius for the Dozen. Killion’s equal, really. “That had to be a one in a million –– maybe billion –– shot to create that kind of interference. There’s no way that was calculated as a part of a plan.”
“I agree,” Killion said. “But despite the odds, these guys aren’t amateurs. Lucky shots or not.”
“Our assessment lines up with that,” Nico said, one of the Dozen. “They had sloppy moments because they couldn’t account for our tactical response entirely and anticipate how it would go down, but they weren’t amateur either.”
“Agreed,” Cane said. “I can’t help but think that first surprise run-in was a part of the same regime. Everything about them then and now is similar.”
Bozz nodded his head. “We’ve come to the same conclusion. Glad we agree on that.”
“Look, I’m going over these cases side by side with Coy here,” Jazz, from the Dozen, said. “And we agree on something else too.”
Wit bit at the tease. “What’s that?”
“It’s all the same. Every bit of it. Not just our original encounter yesterday where we saved your ass.” Jazz smirked.
“Saved our ass?” Coy fired back. “Hardly. You let someone get away with the target.”
“We thought it was a friendly, and we were right,” Nico defended. “She’s sitting right there, holding his hand.”
“Touché,” Wit said, kissing the back of Ayelish’s hand.
“Listen, jokes aside…” Jazz continued. “Today and yesterday are just the tip of the iceberg. The murders are the same. The charges are the same. The bounties are the same.”
“And here’s where it gets real weird,” Coy interrupted. “Your pasts? Upbringings? Almost the same.”
Wit turned his attention to Hen. “You grew up in the system?”
“Pfft. If y’all could call it that,” Hen answered with an obvious chip on his shoulder. “It was messy.”
“That’s a clue then.” Killion went to work on his computer, entering information and hunting for information. “There has to be a crossover.”
“I agree,” Relay said, matching Killion’s keystroke speed. “We need to unbury their records somehow and sit them side by side. Whoever is behind this knows both of them, and that’s the link.”
“Where do we start digging, though?” Killion sat back in his chair and scratched at his chin. “So far, we don’t have much of a starting point. Records differ between states and counties, and we don’t even know which one to stick a shovel in.”
“You work with models?” she asked.
“Do I work with…” Killion tossed his hands in the air. “It’s my strong point, and I like where this is going. Write a program, give it what we have on Hen and Wit, and see what models it can put together for us and potential overlaps and scenarios in their histories.”
“It’ll be easy. You want to write back end or front end?” Relay clapped her hands with excitement. “I bet we’ll have this done in record time. You ever race yourself on stuff like this?”
“All the time,” Killion said, back to his keyboard wearing a broad smile. “I’ll take the back end; you got front, Relay.”
