Chapter 3
“Why you think they called us back to headquarters,” Morgan asked as I pulled in my designated park.
“Whatever it is, it’s not good.”
We made our way inside, where everyone was waiting for us in the conference room.
“Did you guys come in together,” Crysten mouthed.
I just gestured with my hands and took my seat. My big sister’s lecture was going to have to wait until whatever was happening was over.
“Now that we’re all here,” Crysten cut her eyes over to me, “we’ve received confirmation that the cure has been sold.”
“Good!” One of my comrades shouted.
Everyone just looked at him. He made a clear rookie mistake by commenting before he knew all the details.
“Like I was saying,” Crysten said sternly, “the auction closed with us coming in second.”
I took a quick glance over at old buddy who realized he had spoken too soon. I had a huge smirk on my face as I turned my attention back to Crysten. “A team is going to intercept the buyers to retrieve it.”
“Steal it” old dude spat.
“Yo, man chill,” Omar told him.
Omar said exactly what I was thinking. If old boy kept talking, I was going to put him in a sleeper.
“We have video,” one of my comrades said as he walked in the room.
We all turned our attention to it. You could hear a pin drop in the room as the video came up. I-CAT had a team in place waiting to intercept the package. As I watched the team approach the convoy, I had this sinking feeling.
“Steady,” one of the team members said as the convoy slowed down. We had men in the convoy waiting for their signal to attack. As we watched, the footage went down.
“Get it back up,” Crysten snapped at Omar. “We need to know what’s happening.”
“I can help,” Morgan said as she walked over to Omar.
The two of them were scrambling to get the signal back. A few seconds later the signal was back, and all we saw was smoke. And, the sound of gunfire.
“What the hell is going on,” Crysten asked. “Reach out to the team.”
Omar and Morgan were trying to get a line of communication to them, but everything they tried wasn’t working. I watched two of the smartest people in the world try to get a signal back. Finally, Morgan looked up, “Get me a radio.”
“Going old school,” I said. I knew at that moment that they had exhausted all their options. I plugged in the thumb drive I had been carrying around, into Crysten’s laptop.
“What are you doing? We need to get a team down there to recover the cure,” Crysten snapped at me.
I ignored her because I knew part of the team was compromised and the other half was dead. That attack was too well planned and they knew our men were coming. Getting the cure back was going to take more than an assault team. “The cure is gone,” I informed Crysten.
“We can get it back,” the rookie stated.
I looked over at him. “What’s your name?”
“Bryce. Bryce Rocha, sir.”
“Bryce.”
“Yes sir.”
“Here’s your first lesson." I looked over at him, "Shut the hell up.”
“Zeke!” Crysten snapped. “Bryce don’t pay him any attention.”
I shot Bryce a quick look. And, he knew what time it was. Too much talking in our job would get you killed. We depend on five senses and talking wasn’t one of them.
After Bryce and I came to an understanding, I turned my attention back to the thumb drive Omar had given me. In one of the files was list of numbers, which I knew contained longitude and latitude.
“Morgan take a look at this.”
“What’s this?”
“List of Blue Face’s clandestine locations. Can you check and see which one is closest to the location of the winners.” I had a gut feeling about something.
“Give me a few minutes.” She grabbed the computer and walked back over to where Omar was sitting.
“I hope you don’t plan on sleeping with her,” Crysten mumbled. “We don’t need her quitting because of you.”
I smirked. “So, you stopped sleeping with Omar?”
The look on her face was priceless. No, Omar didn’t tell me. I just knew my sister and I knew Omar. About a year ago is when I first noticed the change in her behavior. They were little things. Her pants suits became a little more fitting and she even started wearing make-up. She even wore heels on occasion, instead of rocking her sneakers. Hell, Morgan remined me a lot of Crysten.
“Whatever Zeke. You heard what I said.” She rolled her eyes then turned her attention to Morgan and Omar. “You guys have anything?"
“Blue Face has a Serbian location. It’s about thirty miles from the buyer’s location,” Morgan stated.
I shook my head. “They got us.” I realized that the cure was never in Peru where they had stated. It was in Serbia all along, where the buyers were. The location in Peru was a decoy and it worked. That’s what I get for waiting three days to return to work. This was all on me.
“We need to get that cure,” Morgan stated.
“No, we need to get the virus. It’s too late for the cure.” I turned to Crysten, “You think you can scrap up the money for the bid?” Our only option was to get the virus at this point.
“I’ll see what I can do. Bryce, you’re with me,” she said as she walked out the room.
I already had a plan and I needed Morgan to pull it off. “Omar can you give me and Morgan a minute.”
Omar gathered his things and headed back downstairs.
“What’s up,” Morgan asked as she focused on some type of code she was working on.
“I need you to break into your Pops’ software company.”
“Why?” She became defensive when she responded.
“I’m not going to lie. Your Pops has a location in Serbia, and I believe he purchased the cure. Somebody on the inside told them that we were coming.”
“You think it was me? And, my daddy does not have a location in Serbia.”
I didn’t say anything as I opened the other file on the thumb drive. I showed her the list of name that corresponded to the list of locations. Her pops’ name corresponded with the location in Serbia.
“You took about ten minutes getting ready. You could have sent him a text.”
She tossed me her phone. “Check it. And, for your information I was freshening up because my cycle is on.”
Damn, I got that one all wrong. “I apologize.”
“Well, apologize with a gift from The Honey Pot. Then, I may accept your apology.”
It was no need to continue talking about that. But, I would get Crysten to order her whatever she was talking about. I changed the subject, and the tension in the room seemed to ease. I made a mental note of the date, so I would be on the lookout the next month.
“Follow me.”
I followed her downstairs to her station. It was set up in the middle of the plant and had a huge monitor hanging in front it. As she signed in, I noticed that her clearance level was higher than mine. Something I was definitely going to talk to Crysten about.
“Here’s a look at the area. Where did you say my father’s company is located? I don’t see anything.”
“Can you check for underground facilities?”
“Give me a minute.”
I watched as she worked her magic. If I was right, there was an old underground military base that the government leased out a few years ago.
“Bingo.” I didn’t smirk because I knew that would irritate her. Morgan's hormones weren’t stable, and I wasn’t trying to catch her wrath. “Aye, Crysten.” She hated it when I yelled for her. I knew she was going to snap when she walked out her office.
“She’s on a conference call,” Bryce said when he stepped out her office.
If it was taking her this long to get the money for the virus, I was pretty sure she was getting some resistance.
“When was the last time you paid your pops a visit?”
“Why?”
“I think it’s time you do.”
I needed Morgan to go to her father’s house to see if she could find out anything about the location in Serbia, and why he would possibly want the cure. But, she had to be discreet because he was probably already aware that I-CAT was after the cure as well.
Six hours later we were on a flight to Massachusetts, to have lunch with her pops at his estate on Martha’s Vineyard. I told her to convince him that she wanted him to meet the new man in her life. “And, who is my new man,” she asked when I told her the plan.
“Me of course.”
A couple of eye rolls and two phone calls later, her pops was all-in for meeting her new beau. And, who would be better for him to meet than Zeke Jordan.
The moment the helicopter landed at the estate, he welcomed me into his home. He was so excited that Morgan had brought someone home. He even hinted at grandbabies when the two embraced.
“How you doing young man?”
“I’m good sir. And, you?” It was customary to shake hands, but in this season of coronavirus, nods were acceptable.
“I’m well.”
Roosevelt Sullivan was nothing like I expected. Professionally, I heard he could be shrewd and to the point, taking no punches. Personally, he was laid back and welcoming. I’m pretty sure a couple of shots of the D’usse that I brought along would get him talking.
“Where’s Mommy,” Morgan asked as we walked in the house. “I thought she would be here?”
“She’s at Rosenberg.”
I knew from talking to Morgan that Rosenberg was their estate in Nova Scotia, her mom’s favorite place to be.
“Oh, I thought she would be back by now.”
He had this look on his face. “She’s contracted COVID-19. But, the doctors say that she is doing well and will make a full recovery.”
When you had money like Roosevelt Sullivan, you can deploy your own medical team at the drop of a hat. And, that’s exactly what he had done for his wife.
“What,” Morgan snapped. “She didn’t tell me. And, neither did you.”
“Because we didn’t want you to worry.”
Morgan grabbed her phone out her purse and headed out to the patio.
“Morgan has always been overprotective of her mom. When she was 10, her mom had breast cancer. She had a full mastectomy and has flourished ever since. But, that doesn’t stop Morgan from worrying.”
“I can see that.”
“And, my wife isn’t confident in the occupant of 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue. So, she’s been hanging out at Rosenberg, majority of the time.”
I swear I was learning more about Morgan and her family, than anyone I had ever dated. Maybe that was a sign.
“She said she’s fine. And, I talked to the doctors,” Morgan said when she walked back in.
With her calmed down, we could get back to our mission.
I needed to talk to her pops one on one. So, before lunch, we walked down to the beach to go clam digging. Morgan stayed behind to do some snooping in her dad’s office.
An hour later we returned to the house with a basket full of clams, that Mr. Sullivan gave to his private chef.
“Daddy, don’t you want to show Zeke your private collection?”
“I would love to. Give me a few minutes to clean up and we’ll head down to the wine cellar. Bernice, will you find Zeke something to change in please?”
“I’ll get it for him Bernice,” Morgan said as she motioned for me to follow her.
I knew something was up at that point as I followed her into the downstairs guest room. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve found something on my dad’s computer, but I need a few more minutes.”
I did exactly as she asked. I had him telling me about every bottle in the cellar. Twenty minutes later we headed back upstairs with a 1948 merlot to go with lunch.
“So, when are you kids heading back,” her pops asked.
I looked over at Morgan who hadn’t said much during lunch.
“We’ll probably head out,” I said before Morgan interrupted.
“We’ll head out when you tell me why you bought the VE-20 for 2.2 billion dollars?”
Damn, she got straight to the point. She was definitely checking all of the boxes off.
