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His mom nodded. “It’s not English.”
“No, it’s not,” Lou agreed. “It’s not German either. Here’swhat the AI came up with.”
Demande-lui s’il connait le fabricant debombes.
“Fuck,” his uncle cursed. “It’s French. He wants to know ifTJ knows who the bombmaker is.”
Lou nodded. “That was my translation as well. I also pickedup on this.”
Tue-le s’il ne sait rien. Çapourrait être un piège. Il pourrait être envoyé par le Jester.
“He says the whole thing could be a trick from The Jesterand to kill TJ,” Lou announced.
His uncle nodded. “That’s what I got, too.”
Lou took a long breath as though bracing herself. “This isthe one I’m worried about. We need to remember that the AI isn’t always right.It’s making a best guess.”
TJ felt his whole body tighten. “What is it, Lou?”
She shook her head. “It’s not about you, babe.”
The babe totally made his heart warm even as shehit the button and the AI spoke again.
Comment sais-tu que c'est la bonne personne ? Je ne crois pas qu'il soit proche du fabricant debombes.
His uncle frowned. “He’s looking for someone close to thebombmaker.”
“There’s more, but it’s all along the same line. They argueabout whether TJ is the one they were looking for. Whoever was behind Huber, hewanted to get to The Jester to get to the bombmaker. But the other guy thinksTJ should know the bombmaker personally if he’s the one they’re looking for.There’s one place where he talks about finding the bombmaker before somethingin Nepal. The AI got confused,” Lou admitted. “I actually think we should letthe Brits hear it. They might make some sense of it.”
His parents looked to his uncle as though seeking hiscounsel.
“I don’t know if we should involve the Brits.” His unclelooked grim. “And it’s not about Oliver, the little shit. Despite theidiot-lothario thing he has going, he’s Damon Knight’s son, and I trust thatfamily. Sami has a good head on her shoulders.”
“But they’re working with Ben Parker.” TJ understood exactlywhat his uncle was saying. “And if he hears someone is speaking French in thebackground, looking for this bombmaker, his brain is going to one place.”
Emmanuel Huisman.
“Can we consider that he might be right and this personwe’re listening to might be Huisman?” Lou asked. “He’s speaking French. I wishI could hear more and figure out if the French he’s speaking is proper or moreCanadian, but the AI wasn’t able to differentiate.”
“As far as I can tell he wasn’t in Germany that day,” hismother said. “When I found out Parker was involved, I started looking. I’veread those files and knew what Parker would think, so I looked into Huisman’smovements for that last day. I can tell you he was in Montreal at a galleryopening at eight p.m. the night the team recovered TJ. So he would have to getto the airport and go straight from the Munich airport to Montreal, and stillmanage to make the gallery opening looking perfect in roughly eight hours. Theflight time from Munich to Montreal is eight hours and twenty-five minutes. Wewere at least an hour from the nearest airport.”
“Only if he flew directly from the airport,” his dad mused.“If he had a private plane or a helo waiting, itcould have been faster, and some of those new private jets are faster than youwould suspect.”
New technology was constantly pushing the boundaries of whatwas possible, and Huisman had the money to have that cutting-edge jet if hewanted one.
“It’s still tight,” his uncle allowed. “But it doesn’t takehim off the board. However, if the Canadian finds out, he won’t look at anyoneelse. I’d like more time with what we have before Parker blows up andpotentially goes after the doctor.” He held up a hand Lou’s way. “I’m notmaking a judgment call. I’m not saying he’s clean. I’m saying I want time.Parker is a bomb that’s set to go off. Look what he’s already managed to do. Heput our team in direct conflict with an MI6 team we should have a good workingrelationship with.”
“It wasn’t Ben’s fault that we didn’t know Damon Knight’steam existed,” Lou argued.
“I don’t care about that. I understand what Knight wasdoing. I need more intel about Ben Parker, and I don’t know that I can trusteither of my daughters to get it,” his uncle replied, a grim expression on hisface. “Kenzie is half in love with the guy and Kala wants to murder him. Iknow. Kala wants to murder most people, but she really has it in for this guy.”
“Kenzie will do her job,” Lou assured him. “If you tell herto get the dirt on him, she’ll do it.”
“That’s the problem, Lou. I don’t want to hurt her thatway.” His uncle looked a bit weary, and he sat on the sex couch without asingle protest. “I’m not sure this is going to work, and I have no idea howthey’ll handle failure.”
Kala and Kenzie wouldn’t handle it well. This was theirdream, and they’d worked so hard to achieve it. Hell, it was Lou’s, and hecould see that now. He was pretty sure Cooper and Zach and Tris wouldn’t behappy if they broke up the team.
“Have we considered sending Dare in?” TJ asked. “Parkerseems like a lone wolf, but he took Dare’s friendship seriously. I was on hisdetail during the Australian op. He made it clear he didn’t want Dare hurt. Ifhe could have gotten away with it, he wouldn’t have ever let Dare know who hereally was. Now that’s not to say he wouldn’t have walked away. I thinkParker’s a guy who always gets the job done, but he cared about Dare. He valuedthat friendship.”
