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The most logical supposition was he’d been recruited to work with AMPS, the organization being investigated by the United Nations Coalition Against Human Trafficking.Seshat, the woman Puck had allegedly been romantically linked to, was killed in a raid last night when an agent working on the case was rescued after being abducted.
Tracking Seshat was how they’d found the woman—Oleander.That in itself was troubling.Why hadn’t Seshat done a better job preventing us from tracking her in the same way Puck had?
“We’ve received footage from the overheads,” said Wilder, nodding to a board on our left.Z appeared on the screen, exiting his building and getting into a nondescript town car.Zooming in, it became apparent the identifiers on the vehicle had been intentionally hidden and the driver was masked.“We should receive more from where Z’s mobile and other devices pinged in South Tottenham momentarily.”
Within seconds, those videos appeared on the same screen.The driver, still wearing the mask and gloves, exited the vehicle, walked around to the opposite side, and opened the rear passenger door, the view of which was obscured.“This is all we’ve received thus far,” Wilder reported.“Reconnaissance is working to find more.In the meantime, I suggest we send a team to that location immediately.”
“They know what they’re doing,” Pinch muttered for the second time as he typed something into his mobile.Seconds later, four of my colleagues collected their gear, checked their firearms, and left the situation room.
Wilder nodded.“Whoever has Z covered their tracks down to the letter, as they say.”
I followed his gaze over to his wife, who was studying her mobile.“Wren?”prompted Wilder.
“Somethin’ is nigglin’ me,” she said, glancing at him briefly.While the woman wasn’t as active in intelligence as she had been prior to getting married, at one time she’d been considered the preeminent agent in the world.So much so, her very existence was often questioned.Many said “Wren” was a compilation of at least three operatives, perhaps more.
“What, my love?”
“Seshat made too many mistakes.”
When I’d initially read the report detailing what went down last night, I thought the same thing.At first, I wondered if the agent had been blackmailed into abducting Oleander, thus leaving clues for a quick discovery.However, she had to have known she faced death by doing so, and she had, in fact, been shot and killed during the raid.
“We’re missin’ somethin’,” Wren added.She’d looked away from her mobile, but her gaze didn’t appear focused.Watching as she processed information was fascinating, regardless of the fact I had no idea what she was thinking.
Pinch zoomed out, and a series of rings appeared on the electronic board.The outermost represented how far someone being transported by car could’ve traveled based on the time when the overheads captured both Z initially getting in the vehicle as well as that of the driver stopping in South Tottenham.From there, the most likely route would’ve been to travel via M1 northwest to Luton, where there was an international airport.Beyond it, Northhampton marked the southernmost city of the largest warehouse district in all the UK.
“This is a bit of good news,” said Wilder.“The NRO has not picked them up at London Luton.”
Which meant Z was not on a plane headed God knew where.
“I need everything we can find on Seshat,” said Wren, looking first at Wilder, then at me.
“Roger that,” he said, glancing in my direction.
“Go ahead,” said Pinch when I looked at him before following Wren’s directive.
I stood and picked up my laptop, then walked over to the table where Wilder and Wren were seated.
“What are we looking for?Anything specific?”
“I’ll know it when I see it.And, Wild?”
“Yes?”
“When I say ‘everything,’ I mean go all the way back to when and where she was born.”
5
Z
“About Seshat…” I began when Puck returned.
When he shook his head almost violently, I ceased talking.
He paced the room.“You let Mithras slip through your fingers.”His eyes bored into mine.“The entire op was executed by people who had no business crafting it, resulting in the loss of two of my agents—Beak and Vulcan.”
Puck had personally recruited Jamie “Beak” Thomas and Tracy “Vulcan” North, who were both killed in the line of duty during a shootout on the island of Gozo.It was where we’d tracked a known human trafficker who operated under the name of Mithras.Puck was right to say he’d slipped through our fingers that night.However, I did not agree it was due to a poorly crafted plan.
“I planned to propose.”
