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“Well, that son of a bitch will probably come waltzing right in here after his captor brings him back for not shutting up,” Rip joked. “That bullshit he spews is his best defense against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
“Damn,” Ronan said. “Why does all of this feel so familiar?”
Killion answered, never taking his attention away from his computer. “Because it isn’t the first time we’ve been down this road in the past several years.”
“It is odd how we keep finding ourselves in this situation, looking for ghosts from someone’s past,” Ryker added. “I mean, that’s what this has to be, right? Something from his past that somehow crosses over into our world? Perfectly orchestrated to either take us down a specific path to out an enemy or learn of corrupt family, corrupt colleagues, or old missions gone bad.”
Ronan jumped in. “And each time we find ourselves in the same circle. Dirty Dozen shows up, fighting a similar or related issue and we both have the same shit in common.”
“Chalice,” Killion deadpanned.
“What the hell would Chalice want with Wit? I’m guessing it isn’t his soup recipes,” Coy added. “They’ve been at the center of almost everything we’ve worked lately, but Wit?”
“We hold a lot of power in their world,” Cane reminded the team. “We have ledgers, their ledgers, and ledgers equal power. Maybe we hold a majority stake and threaten the empire now?”
“The more we possess the more we have become a target, and it’s nearly cost us lives and the lives of our loved ones up to this point,” Ronan said, his own wife being at the center of one such case. “We have something they want, and it seems, as of now anyway, Wit plays a role that’s yet to be cast on our end. So find out why Wit?”
“We know he didn’t murder anyone,” Coy said.
Rip questioned. “Do we?”
“Yeah because he has a big mouth and likes to run it. We know everything running through that guy’s head at all times,” Coy reminded. “We’re starting to talk in circles here.”
“Then I’d say based on the encounter with Bozz’s team today, they’re running down the same bullshit path,” Rip said. “We keep ending up right back here, and they’re not far in the distance. And somehow, this time, Wit has something to do with it. Don’t take that in a bad way. That guy’s too ridiculous to be the maniacal plot twist. Too loyal, too. He’s the bridge between the bullshit.”
“What does that even mean?” Coy chuckled. “The bridge? Feeling sentimental and a little poetic over there?”
“Fuck off, Stone,” Rip fired back. “Just sayin’… nah, I meant fuck off.”
“We were supposed to see that today. The Dozen was supposed to see it too. And those agents somehow fit in,” Cane went on. “We need to figure out why. And who they thought they saw from our team. Would it be too risky to send them images of some of our female operators?”
“We only trust those guys until we don’t. Handing over that kind of intel feels a little too risky,” Ronan answered. “Or do I sound paranoid?”
“Nah, you’re right,” Cane said. “I can’t believe I even threw that on the table when the entire reason we’re here debating this is because one of our own is missing. We can’t play this desperate.”
The room filled with pings that rang in short sequence, and each of the men around the table grabbed their phones.
“I’ve sent you all Wit’s last seventy-two hours,” Killion said, regarding the pings. “You all know what to do. Keep the lines clear and check in if you find anything. I’ll keep looking at alternate theories, see if I can write a program to organize everything we have ever found on him and build a model we can work a theory off of.”
“A program. To theorize Wit’s fate,” Rip said.
“Yeah. It’s easy. Especially with all the advances in AI –– that’s artificial intelligence. It allows me to…” Killion paused and read the blank stares around the room. “Right, you don’t care about that part. Just… do it.”
The guys each shook their heads with a chuckle as they headed for the exit.
“You’re a strange dude, man,” Rip said. “But glad you’re on our side.”
“Thank… you?” Killion said. “Hey, Cane, can you hang back a minute, brother?”
“Should we feed Wit’s cat?” Coy asked, and the team expressed their displeasure with the idea.
“That thing’s a fucking menace. Tears me up every time I see it,” Ryker said as he reached the exit. “I don’t think it even likes Wit.”
“I-I’ll do it,” Killion said. “I, uh, get along well with it. We’ve reached… an agreement of sorts.”
“Agreement?” Rip asked, and everyone paused. “With a cat?”
“Well, I did some research and lots of reading. Found out what these behaviors indicate, combined with the timing of outbursts, then loaded it… into a model to help narrow down what might be going on. I think I have it figured out.”
