Chapter 5
It took me less than five seconds to realize that Morgan was lying. Don’t get me wrong, she's an extremely intelligent black woman. But, her thing is computers. Not creating viruses in the research lab. That was more of her mom’s department. I let her finish telling me how she created the virus. The more she talked it became obvious she was trying to protect her mom.
“Tell me again how you came up with the virus. Go step by step.”
The look on her face told me everything I needed to know. “You know don’t you.”
“That your mom created the virus? Yeah I figured it out.” I poured her a glass of water. “Tell me what happened.”
She took a deep breath. “After my mom won her battle with cancer, she was determined to come up with the cure. She convinced my dad to fund her research.” I could see tears forming in her eyes. I handed her a tissue box, but she pushed it away. “My mom said that she didn’t want another woman to go through what she went through. So, my dad funded her project.”
“Her lab is at Rosenberg. That’s why she spends so much time there.”
“Yep.” She took a sip of water. “During her research, she worked with some of the greatest scientists, doctors, and researchers around the world. Five years ago, she along with a doctor from Venezuela, Dr. Carmen Perez, stumbled across the virus.”
Morgan explained that Dr. Perez wanted to sell it to the highest bidder because she believed that it could be used to wipe out pestilence and other things that plagued the earth. “But, Mommy wanted to destroy it. Dr. Perez and mom decided to part ways. In agreement, Dr. Perez took half of the formula for the virus. And, my mom kept the other half. Mommy knew Dr. Perez would sell it, so she came up with the cure.”
It all made sense at that point. Dr. Perez had been on the I-CAT's watch list for a while. And in exchange for keeping her mom’s name out of the entire situation, Morgan agreed to take a position with I-CAT.
I hated having to piece shit together myself, but that’s the way it was. “Does Crysten know?”
“I’m not sure.”
I grabbed my phone and sent my sister a text to come to my place. We needed to talk, and I didn’t want to talk at headquarters .
Crysten arrived twenty minutes later with Bryce by her side. “I thought I told you to come alone.” She just rolled her eyes.
“I brought Bryce along because he worked on Dr. Perez’s intel. He’s been in contact with her. She’s the one behind the auction. And apparently, it was her team that infected your mom,” she said as she looked over at Morgan.
“You know.” Morgan seemed shocked.
“Your dad told us everything. Now, we need to figure out how to locate her and destroy the virus,” Crysten replied.
Great minds do think alike because I was thinking the same thing.
“I’ve been in contact with her assistant and Dr. Perez is on her way to Peru,” Bryce stated.
“Have you assigned a team,” I asked.
“Not yet,” Crysten replied.
Just then I heard a knock at the door. I checked the monitor. It was Omar and Roosevelt. Roosevelt had this guilty look on his face when he walked in.
“Everyone is here,” Crysten said when we walked in the living room.
“Here for what,” I asked. Surly she wasn’t thinking I needed help to straighten this mess out.
“To figure out what the hell is really going on. I want to keep this lowkey and off the radar until we can secure Dr. Perez. I have a team extracting Dr. Sinclair at this moment.”
“Thank God,” Morgan stated. “Are you bringing my mom here?”
“No, she will be taken to a secure location,” Bryce stated.
“Time out,” I interrupted. I looked over at Crysten, “So, you’re using my house for headquarters?”
“Yes. You have a problem with that,” Crysten snapped.
It was no need fighting with that mouth of hers because it had a mind of its own. I sucked it up and started working on a plan in my head. Omar and Morgan took over the kitchen, hacking into Dr. Perez’s research location. Crysten and Bryce were in the living room, going over what team should be used to extract Dr. Perez. And, Roosevelt was pacing back and forth waiting to hear from Dr. Sinclair.
I headed down to the basement to hatch out my plan, and go over the drive that Omar had given me to see if there was something I had missed. As I was reviewing the drive for what seemed the thousandth time, Crysten came downstairs.
“You’ve got it so dark in here. It’s like Bird Box in this house,” she laughed.
“I don’t get what the hell you all got out of that movie.”
“Whatever.” Crysten is a movie fanatic and gets sensitive about movies she loves. She sat down on the barstool across from me with a serious look on her face. “Did you sleep with her?”
“Sleep with who?” I didn’t even look up, and just kept on working.
“Stop playing. You know who. Morgan.”
“Really Chipette?” That was the nickname I had for her. “You know I don’t kiss and tell.”
“We need her. Omar is leaving.”
I looked up. “What are you talking about?”
“They want him to head up the I-CAT cyber unit. He’ll be running his own team.”
I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t hating because he deserved it. But, we’d been a team for so long, and I didn’t trust anyone else in the office to work on the stuff I asked him to do. ”Damn.”
“So, I don’t need you emotionally compromising Morgan, and causing her to leave. She’s the best at what she does. Hell, she’s even better than Omar in my opinion.”
Listening to my sister give me the dos and don’ts of relationships with co-workers was the last thing I wanted to hear. I cut her off before she finished. “Listen, you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Zeke I know your track record with women. That’s how we lost Yakima because of your B.S.”
I didn’t comment. Yakima wasn’t my fault. I told her from the jump it was just sex, nothing more. But, she got hooked and wanted more. Now, she’s back with FBI.
“I hear you. Like I said, you don’t have to worry.”
Crysten gave me her signature eye roll, right before Morgan came barreling down the stairs. “We located the bunker.” And, just like that she ran back upstairs.
Crysten and I headed upstairs to see what was going on.
Morgan and Omar had worked their magic and located Dr. Perez in a bunker in Utah. I wasn’t surprised because that’s where most mad scientists hung out. Underground in Utah, the Dakotas, New Mexico, Nevada and Wyoming.
“You’ll never believe this,” Omar stated. “Dr. Perez owns 52% of Blue Face Technologies.”
“Say what,” I replied. “Are you sure?” That was a curve ball I wasn’t ready for.
“Yep, it seems her son Antoine Benjamin and his best friend Zachary Warren own the other 48%.”
All this time, Dr. Perez was right under our nose. “Did you figure out who the leak was,” I asked.
“We did,” Morgan replied.
“Who,” Crysten and I asked at the same time.
“Us,” Omar said. Then he explained they found an encryption in the system which linked back to an old site that we had before moving to headquarters. Which is now occupied by Blue Face.
“Wait. So, you mean a piece of equipment that was left at our old location is what they’ve been using to infiltrate us. Do they know what we’re doing now,” Crysten asked.
“No.” Morgan stated. “We’re using our own encrypted system. We’re sending a virus to I-CAT’s systems now to keep anyone from getting in.”
It still wasn’t making sense to me. Whenever I-CAT moved locations, they did a clean sweep. “Can you pinpoint the location?”
“Yeah it was the warehouse in New Orleans. Why,” Morgan asked.
“Because I was responsible for shutting it down. And, I promise you it was as bare as the tissue shelves in Wal-Mart. That can’t be the location.”
Crysten looked at me, “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“We need to run it again,” Omar told Morgan.
While they worked their magic, I decided to head over to headquarters.
“Mr. Jordan.” I turned around to see Bryce coming towards me.
“Zeke. Mr. Jordan is my pops and he doesn’t like for anyone to call him that either.”
“Zeke,” he seemed uncomfortable saying my first name, “I have a question.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Do you trust Omar?”
I didn’t know where he was going with this. “Why?”
“I think he’s the leak.”
I never brushed anyone off until I heard everything they had to say. In our line of work it was easy to be turned. “Ride with me.” I didn’t need anyone overhearing our conversation. Especially, Omar.
“A few weeks ago, I was talking to one of my contacts and he said someone by the name of O was feeding intel to Dr. Perez’s team.”
“O could be anyone.”
“You’re right. But, the person gave them intel of locations that was formally owned by I-CAT. The warehouse in New Orleans was only used for three months, so it wouldn’t be on the real-estate list with all the other properties. Only someone with intimate knowledge would know about it.”
I didn’t say anything because Bryce was absolutely correct. And, the only people that knew about that location beside myself were Crysten and her commander. I know damn well Crysten ain’t pillow talking, I thought as I pulled up at headquarters. My sister was way to smart for that. “How did you know about New Orleans?”
“My guy told me during our conversation. I thought he was crazy, so I never mentioned it because New Orleans wasn’t on the list.”
“Wait here,” I told him as I hopped out the car. Truthfully, I needed a minute to gather my thoughts.
I’d known Omar for almost 10 years, and I’d trusted him with my life on missions. Bryce is the new guy who is trying to come up in the ranks. So, who do I believe. I was truly in between a rock and a hard place.
