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“You heard me correctly. I was just inquiring about your mom’s health, given you and I are old friends. I have pictures from our time together, thought maybe your mom would want some mementos from her daughter’s college years.”
“I’ll call you when I’m back in the U.S. provided you stay away from my mom,” she said, reading Lassiter’s note. But then she added her own commentary. “But so help me God, West, if you contact my mom I will kill you and I know a hundred different ways to do that.”
Harrison West laughed, feeling his power had been restored, which wasn’t how they’d wanted this call to go. “All right, Army girl, I’ll be waiting for your call.”
Then he disconnected.
Laura Lee took a drink from her water bottle.
“You went off script,” Shepherd said.
“I was into my character,” she said. “A true badass black ops operator wouldn’t stand for her mother being threatened.”
“A legit candidate wouldn’t openly threaten to kill a person on an open phone line either,” Shepherd said.
“Well, good, we’ve just given him something else to blackmail me with,” she said.
“Which isn’t a bad thing,” Lassiter said. “That right there should be grounds for the creds to be declined. But West will not do that.”
“No, he won’t. He wants something from you,” Shepherd agreed.
“What now?” she asked.
“Get some sleep. Your ride leaves at zero six hundred tomorrow morning from Chicago Executive,” Shepherd said.
Laura Lee watched the others come to their feet. She followed suit. The meeting was over.
“I’ll be in before we leave for the airfield. You can ride with me,” Garcia said to Laura Lee. “Meet me in the Team Room at zero five twenty and the dress is business casual.”
She nodded. She followed the others from the room. After she’d passed through the door into the hallway, she glanced back to see that Brad stood near Shepherd. Whatever Shepherd had said to him made him breathe out heavily and stare at the ceiling. He looked upset. She wondered what that was about. She took a few steps towards the stairs, and she waited there after the others had all gone up or down and were out of sight.
In Shepherd’s office, Dupont took a moment to compose himself as he stared at the ceiling. “Thank you for telling me. You’ve seen the security camera footage. I had no choice, Shepherd. He aimed a weapon at me.” His gaze shifted back to Shepherd’s as he spoke.
“That’s correct. Had you not rammed him with your car, you’d be the one who’s dead. He was a career criminal, had a rap sheet a mile long.”
“He was screaming as they loaded him into the ambulance.”
“Brain bleed plus bleeding to his spleen, kidney, and liver,” Shepherd advised.
“And the guy he shot?” Dupont asked.
“He’s holding on, survived surgery.”
“I’m glad about that,” Dupont said.
“Make an appointment with Lassiter,” Shepherd ordered.
Dupont knew that wasn’t a suggestion. “Yes, sir.” He left the office and came face to face with Laura, standing near the stairs. “Are you okay after that call?”
Laura Lee nodded. “Yes. Better than you looked just now after you talked with Shepherd. Can I do anything?”
Dupont removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Let’s go up to the apartment.”
As he followed her up the stairs, he debated what to tell her. He had purposefully not told her about the gas station incident. She had enough to worry about, and he wasn’t the type of friend who dumped on people who were dealing with issues of their own.
As they reached the ninth floor, Laura Lee regretted taking the stairs. She was sore. Obviously, she wasn’t healed well enough to scale four flights of stairs yet. It made her wonder if she’d have the stamina to travel and conduct the interviews in the field with Garcia. A trip with Garcia, great.
Once behind the closed door in the apartment, she turned to Brad. “You looked upset when you were talking with Shepherd.”
