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“Iwanted you to know Irish Warrick was arrested a little over an hour ago,” said Decker when he called shortly after our plane landed in London.
He explained that Emerson had Dr. Benjamin’s reports with her all along.
“Those bloody bags full of bricks,” I mumbled. I should’ve known.
“It didn’t take her father long before he pieced the code together. Once he had, there was no reason for us to execute the rest of the plan.”
I was relieved there hadn’t been any need for Emerson to interact with Irish or put herself in unnecessary danger.
“I sent you the full report.”
“Thanks, Decker.”
“Godspeed, Lynx. To the crew also.”
“I’ll pass it on.”
I intentionally hung up before asking where Emerson was now. That was no longer any of my business, but, God, did I miss her. When I closed my eyes, I saw her face and smelled her skin. I could even feel her touch and her soft lips, her tongue, everything. Besides my parents, I’d never missed anyone. Not even Keon. But Emerson, I didn’t just miss her, I longed for her with a yearning like none other I’d ever experienced. I’d walked away from her this morning without a word about when I might see her again. It’s what we both accepted to be our reality, but that didn’t change the fact I’d give anything to have the fantasies I had about what our life would be like together become our new reality.
I sighed and opened Deck’s report and read it while I waited for our next flight.
Paxon “Irish” Warrick, it appeared, had been passing classified intelligence reports to the Chinese dating back as early as seven years ago. For betraying his country and being directly responsible for the loss of life of several of his fellow agents, Irish pocketed a little over five million dollars.
There was no clear understanding of why he did it, except for the money.
I’d just ordered a pint in the private lounge where the ambassador and I were waiting when my mobile rang again.
“Hello, Cope,” I said.
“You’ve been expecting my call.”
“I have.”
“Listen, Lynx, I’m sorry I couldn’t read you in on the investigation into Irish, but it was vital that he be left in place long enough that he’d eventually show his hand. We had to stop the bloodbath, and in order to do so, we needed to know who he was working with.”
“Understood,” I said, and I meant it. There was no reason for him to read me in last week. The investigation details were need-to-know only. It would’ve worked exactly the same way if the situation were MI6 led rather than CIA.
I got the signal from the ambassador’s detail that we were about to board the plane. In a matter of hours, one of two things would happen. Either I’d be on my way back to London with Saint and Dr. Benjamin, or one or more of us would be dead. That was how missions like this worked. I knew my brother, Rile, and Grinder were feeling the same way I was.
“I need to ring off, Cope.”
“Godspeed, Lynx. Bring ’em home.”
—:—
I spent the first part of the ten-hour flight from London to Beijing briefing my second in command for this mission, Damon “Typhon” Morgan. The code name given to the MI6 agent was after one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology.
While the official position of MI6 was that agents were not permitted to break any laws outside of the U.K. that would be illegal within, or in other words, agents and officers did not possess a “license to kill,” there wasn’t a single one of us who didn’t know that was as far from the truth as our jobs got.
It wasn’t something any of us were proud of, even Typhon. Taking a human life was always considered last resort, but if it came to that, no one I’d ever known was as deadly as the man sitting in front of me. I had access to Typhon’s kill record, and he’d exceeded mine in his first two years of duty.
His presence, along with two CIA operatives, was necessitated by the two people we were personally tasked with keeping alive throughout the course of the mission—both the U.S. and the U.K. Ambassadors to China.
Once Typhon and I were finished reviewing the plan, he went to brief the two CIA agents while I met with the U.K. Ambassador, briefing her on what would be required of her in the extraction’s aftermath.
There was no question in my mind that the Chinese would want to immediately retaliate, but with two such high profile diplomats, it would be impossible to do so.
One aspect of my job was to ensure the media, part of the entourage also on this flight, was in place at the same time the extraction was taking place. Buster, the more powerful of the two ambassadors in terms of influence as well as personality, knew to immediately ask for a press conference at the same time the Invincible crew brought Dr. Benjamin front and center.
