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“So, back in the day, there was a mercenary who went by the nameBroydos,a play onbroyeur d’os—‘bone-crusher’ in French,” Julien explained. “The bone-crusher name was given to him because he had a penchant for, well, crushing bones.”
Giorgio made a noise in his throat.
Lavigne’s face came up on each screen, each backdrop different. Some were blurry, and across the panel of images, he went from a youthful, unmarred face to lines, scars, a buzz cut, and pounds of muscle packed onto his frame. A cigarette dangled from his lips in nearly every picture, and Joel prayed his lungs didn’t take the man out before he got the chance.
Julien continued. “It’s probably all hyperbole, myths and legends and whatnot, but Broydos started out as Siriano Lavigne. Some years back, Lavigne disappeared off the map and was officially declared dead by his only known living relative, a mother who died several years ago. Still, facial recognition was able to link him to several high-conflict areas across the globe.”
“You’re thinking he’s Black Ops?” Gage asked, angling his head as he studied each image.
“I’m pretty sure he’s part of a ghost unit. Like us.”
Mike frowned. “When you say ‘like us,’ what do you mean, exactly?”
“I mean, I think he’s part of a team created by Central,” Julien clarified. “From what I’ve found so far, there are at least three more—Delta, Gamma, and Omega. I’m thinking each name coincides with the inception of the specific team, which is why we’re—”
“Alpha,” Gage finished. “If Lavigne’s like us, it would explain how he got around the security you had installed at Ayesha’s and how he climbed into…into Theo’s room.”
The air in the room transformed into gas seeping toward a budding flame, and Joel hung his head and waited for his blood to return to a viable temperature.
Giorgio withdrew a switchblade and sliced it across the tip of his finger. They all knew it had taken a great deal of self-restraint for Giorgio not to kill Lavigne when he saw him, and Joel had told him multiple times how much he appreciated it. Maybe he would ask Giorgio to take part in the retaliation. It would be a nice “bonding” exercise.
Next, Julien presented an image of Curtis. “I’m not sure if it’s his entire team or Lavigne himself, but I think they might be here in Sweden because they’re tracking Ayesha. And I think they’re tracking Ayesha because Lavigne’s team might have had something to do with Curtis’ death.”
Mike snapped to attention.
Giorgio looked up from his tortured fingers.
“What?” Gage growled. “Theywhat?”
“One of the images I got of Lavigne came from an op we ran years ago. The one that took Curtis. I’ve combed through that footage more times than I can count, looking for answers or explanations about what happened that day, so when Joel sent me Lavigne’s information, I recognized the face. Then I linked the face to the name.”
The muscles in Gage’s folded arms grew twice their size. From what Joel understood, they’d never gotten any clarity or closure on the op that would have taken all of their lives if Curtis hadn’t sacrificed himself. They’d assumed it had to do with something they’d overlooked, but this wasn’t a group that easily overlooked things.
“How?” Mike asked. “How is this Lavigne fuck connected to all of this, and can you kill a man more than once because I want a piece of him too.”
Julien stared at the image of Curtis reclining in an easy chair, raising a can of beer, and he responded only after a groaning sigh that carried against the choking silence of the room.
“I’m not sure, but everything I’ve been able to piece together says Lavigne is a problem. He’s got no family ties, no vulnerabilities. People like him, like us, we’re not defeated on the battlefield. You have to target our minds.” Julien glanced at a photo of Ari, Thandie, and Ty on his desk. “Our hearts.”
Mike scoffed. “Why not tell us more teams exist? I mean, I get it. A lot of shit happens around the world. There are multiple SEAL teams, so there’d be multiple…whatever the fuck we were. Why treat us like some prototype or beta version?”
Gage rubbed his forehead, occasionally squeezing his brow bone with his middle and ring finger. They all appeared to come to the same conclusion at the same time.
“How long have they been trying to take you guys out?” Joel asked. “Because that’s what this is, right? Lavigne’s team was sent with you guys as the main objective. That’s how your location became known, and the entire op was compromised.”
Gage released a tight laugh, his eyes like emeralds being crushed under the weight of the world’s pressure. “Each time we were ‘compromised,’ it wasn’t because Central had a leaky vault,” he said. “They were sending teams to execute us whilestillsending us on ops. We’ve been waiting for the retaliation for going off the grid, but there’s been a target on our backs for a while.”
Joel snorted, now fully convinced Ayesha’s run-in with Adrían was no accident. The bastard was part of all this.
But Theo was four now.
Why would Adrían still be attached to Ayesha after all this time?
Then he thought about it.
Hewas attached to Ayesha his-damn-self.
“Eesh’s old fuck-buddy is part of this,” he said. “It’s no coincidence that him, Larke’s old tech guy, and Lavigne all popped up at the same time, and that Lavigne had a guy with him when Giorgio ran into him. If the teams were all created with the same blueprint, the tech guy’s their Julien and Lavigne’s their Giorgio.”
