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“Don’t let that happen. We need intel from him,” Shepherd said.
“You can let my team take him to the silo. We’ll get that statement out of him,” Jimmy Wilson spoke up.
Laura Lee saw the corner of Shepherd’s lip tip up. “I’d like to approve that, but Whiting will not let it happen. He’s one of theirs and Whiting wants to go at him personally.”
“Like that desk jockey’s scary,” Wilson said.
“Keep me in the loop,” Shepherd said. “Delta has wrapped up their mission. If you need extra backup, let me know and I’ll deploy them.”
“Maybe,” Garcia said. “I’ll let you know. Thanks, Shep.”
The two windows on the screen closed.
“Getting Delta’s help isn’t a bad idea. None of them carry FBI creds. They couldn’t possibly be on West’s radar,” BT said.
“I’m hoping we can end this today,” Garcia said. His eyes came to rest on Laura Lee. “You’ve just become a mercenary for hire and you’re greedy. My guess is that West will have to go to someone else for approval to pay what you’ll charge to give up your unit and who’s running it. We get it recorded and we’ve got him.”
Laura Lee nodded. “I never said I wouldn’t sell out my country to him. I just said having that name would give him a lot to worry about.”
“The name is Donovan Lewis,” Garcia said. “Shepherd has had the Marshals build a colorful past for the former Navy SEAL turned private government contractor. You sell him to West as one scary motherfucker.”
“What’s his callsign?” she asked.
“Lucifer,” Garcia said. “Paints the appropriate picture.”
“And my callsign?” Laura Lee asked.
Garcia smiled and chuckled. “Snake eyes. A history has been built for that rogue Operator as well that West may be able to access.”
“When this case is over, I’d like to keep that callsign,” she said.
“Nah, you’re our Lah-lee,” BT said, giving her shoulder a friendly bump with his own to go along with the smile he shot her direction. “Snake eyes is a cold-blooded killer.”
“So, I’m a cold-blooded killer in addition to a mercenary, great,” she remarked.
“I’m jealous. I’d love to sell that persona,” Jimmy Wilson said.
“You’d like to be him,” Michael teased him.
“Damn straight,” Wilson replied with a grin.
Everyone in the room laughed.
“Okay, the rest of you need to get back out there. Bubbles, join Tessman covering this Jin Ma asshole. He might be State Security Ministry, so stay sharp,” Garcia said. “Rogers stay on Liu, and that leaves you, Taco, to pair up with Roth who’s already shadowing West. BT and I will prepare Saxton and cover her whenever the meeting is on.”
“Let’s hope West is as anxious to get this meeting set as we are,” Wilson said.
“Stay invisible everyone,” Garcia said. “We’re close and we don’t want to fuck it up now.”
Laura Lee remained seated as the others who had field assignments stood and filed out of the room. After they were gone, she helped herself to another cup of coffee and a muffin. She, Garcia, and BT spent the next two hours going over what she’d need to know for her meeting with West. Names, dates, places, missions, the physical description, and the dark personality attributes of Donivan Lewis.
All the while, Laura Lee kept a nervous watch on her phone, waiting for either a text message or phone call from West. As they were wrapping up the briefing, the call she’d waited for, dreaded, and wanted to come in, did.
Garcia nodded at her phone. “Answer it.” He muted his own and accessed the cloned instance of hers so he could listen in.
“Yes,” she answered in an impatient, gruff voice.
“My colleague and I would like to meet with you this morning in my office at the university. Semi-private but not completely public.”
