Calculated Contagion Page 22

  “I have some ideas.”

  “I rejected your request for your own sake. You chase this down, I’ll have to fire you.”

  Quinn raised her eyebrows. She wasn’t under the impression she was irreplaceable, but she was good at her job because she knew when to call a bluff. “You’re a real cut-up, sir. So, I need to take that vacation. To spend as I choose. If I happen to see something fishy going on while I do some sightseeing, I’ll let you know. I’ve done some research of my own. I’m thinking of heading out west, maybe going to visit some mountain towns.”

  There was a long pause on the end of the line. If Quinn was there in person, she’d see Dan’s jaw tighten and nostrils flare, just slightly. “We’ve got analysts digging into the evidence and checking security video. You’re not the only person upset we lost one of our own. I need you away from this.”

  “Then you’re going to need to be a good shot to take me down. C’mon, sir. Let me take this on. You need someone who can get in there and get the job done.”

  “You know there’s a chain of command, right?”

  “I call you ‘sir.’ Will you put me in charge, sir?”

  Dan sighed. “If you show one sign of not being able to handle this, I’m pulling you. I’ll take you into custody if I have to.”

  Quinn grinned. “Deal.”

  “We’ll get you some information by tomorrow. Take your time coming up with a plan for this one. The last thing I need is to lose you too. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Sounds great, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  Quinn cleaned up her things, tossed her target, and waved goodbye to the range master. Then, she went back to her apartment to pack. She couldn’t bring Rory back, but she could make sure her friend hadn’t died in vain.

  2

  Cam Mitchell’s phone buzzed. He looked around the tastefully decorated reception, but everyone was focused on the couple sharing a dance under strings of lights. He slipped his phone out of his pocket. It was a message from Morgan Grady, his boss at the Special Operations Group at the CIA. Come to my office when you’re back in town. He tucked the phone back in his pocket and considered what Morgan might have in store for him. He’d flown to Minnesota for the weekend to see his best friend and fellow operations officer, Tyler Scott, get married. Tyler’s new wife, Dani, leaned her head on his shoulder while cameras around them clicked. Tyler had met Dani when she helped them stop a plot to release a bioweapon, and their relationship had quickly blossomed into the kind that would very likely last a lifetime.

  It was possible Morgan had questions about the report he submitted about his trip to Moscow. He’d written it in his hotel room, just after his plane landed in the States and a few hours before the rehearsal dinner. He’d flown to Russia to meet with local sources to see if the politician behind the bioweapon had anything else up his sleeve, but Dmitri was nothing if not careful. Cam’s report didn’t have much useful information in it. However, it was unusual for Morgan to reach out on a weekend for something that could afford to wait. If it had anything to do with Tyler and Dani, he should probably check on it before they were out of the country on their honeymoon. It wasn’t long ago that Dmitri had orchestrated Dani’s kidnapping when she traveled to Europe for a conference. Cam slipped away through a side door and pressed Morgan’s name.

  Morgan answered on the first ring. “Good evening, Cameron. How are Dani and Tyler?”

  “Happily married. I think Dani will really like it in D.C. She’s pretty excited she landed a job at the National Institutes of Health.”

  “I bet. They didn’t waste any time getting married.”

  “Well, her parents are pretty conservative and they wanted them married before they moved in together. Tyler said he didn’t need any more time to decide.”

  “That’s sweet. I told him to take a few weeks off. After everything they’ve been through, they deserve it.”

  Cam checked his surroundings. All of the partygoers were still inside. “My flight is tomorrow morning, but I can get back sooner if it’s urgent. Is this about my trip?”

  “No, it’s something new. I’d rather not go into details over the phone. We have a situation we’d like you to look into. Dan is managing this one personally. Can I tell him you’re in?”

  Cam raised his eyebrows. The Director of Special Operations usually left the running of operations to the people who worked for him. “Always, ma’am.”

  “Thanks, Cam. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

  Cam ended the call and returned to the celebration. Tyler eyed him and Cam returned an easy smile. Tyler had a honeymoon to go on – he didn’t need the stress of the next op weighing on him. And if Dan was in charge, he probably couldn’t talk to Tyler about it anyway. With any luck, Cam would be flying solo on this one. Their last op had included people from both the CIA and FBI. While it had been a productive cross-agency collaboration, it had gotten a little crowded for his taste. A little quiet time on a solo operation would be just what he needed to recharge.

  * * *

  After an early flight to Washington Dulles, Cam drove directly to Langley without stopping at his apartment. Morgan’s door was cracked open a fraction and Cam tapped on it before he walked in. She looked up at him and smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes. “Great. You’re here. How was the wedding?”

  “Good. Tyler and Dani are on a plane headed to an island in the Pacific.”

  “Sounds nice. And how was Moscow?”

  “Uneventful. Dmitri has been laying low. None of our sources know anything.”

  “We’ll get someone to keep monitoring our sources over there in case something pops. Right now, I need to move you to something more urgent. Would you mind shutting the door?” While Morgan Grady was just over five feet tall, her presence was commanding. Her short hair was styled to perfection and she wore her trademark, impeccably-tailored navy suit.

  Cam closed the door and took his seat across from Morgan. He raised an eyebrow. “How bad is it?”

  “We added another star to the Memorial Wall.”

  Cam was a polyglot, an officer valued for his fluency in multiple languages and dialects. However, there was only one word in his arsenal appropriate for the situation. “Fuck.”

  “Agreed, Cameron.”

  “Please tell me I get to go rain hell on whoever did this.”

  “That’s the idea. Quietly, of course. We need you to help find the person behind our officer’s death. It goes without saying that this will be a tightly controlled operation. Dan reached out to me and he’ll be heavily involved, along with one of his operations officers. Technically, since I report to him, it’s reasonable for me to be involved. Practically, he asked me because he trusts me. We don’t know why or how this individual was targeted. In fact, it’s still possible her death was an accident and that we are overreacting.”

  “Yeah, it’s technically possible, but you don’t believe it or I wouldn’t be here.” Morgan nodded and Cam crossed his arms. “Tell me about the officer who was killed.” Morgan didn’t make a big deal out of every operation. There was real work to do here.

  “The operations officer’s name was Rory Flanagan.” Morgan slid a folder across her desk and Cam flipped it open to a standard CIA employee photo. Rory had strawberry blonde hair, freckles, and an easy smile – she looked like the quintessential girl next door. “She was a natural at recruiting assets and had a good sense for people. She had as perfect of a record as you can in this business. No indication she’d ever been burned. She was working a case at a rocket company in Victoria, Washington, called Innovative Rocket Technologies. The house she was staying in exploded.”

  “On its own? Or did it have help?”

  “Non-CIA accident investigators have pointed to a natural gas leak. Our people haven’t been able to prove otherwise yet, which could just mean our criminal knows what they’re doing.”

  “IRT is the company that just lost a rocket, right?”

  “Yes, their most recent launch explode
d shortly after liftoff.” Morgan looked down at her notes. “Just over two months ago.”

  “Is that related to the officer’s death?”

  “That’s one of the things we need you to find out. Rory was sent to get a closer look at the company because the failed rocket was carrying a government payload. IRT’s track record up to that point was excellent, and the circumstances of the failure had some of our people asking questions. Rory was just poking around the edges. Given what we know about her death, we have better than even odds that a criminal secured a position at IRT through legitimate channels. As you know, this occasionally happens.” Morgan raised her eyebrows. Cam’s collaboration with the FBI had started with just such a situation at a university. Their criminal did a good job covering his tracks, and if Cam hadn’t had an inside source at the university, they might never have known what he was up to.

  “So, our perp is someone working at the company and Rory got too close?”

  “That’s our working theory, but we have no way to be sure. Still, you and I both know that most criminals aren’t going to take someone out on a hunch they’re working for the CIA. It would draw more attention to them versus just getting out of Dodge.”

  “So, they must have something else planned.”

  Morgan nodded. “Rory’s partner thinks the criminal is still at IRT, waiting to execute whatever plan Rory uncovered. She wants to get a closer look.”

  “I’ll bet she does. I would too. Do I know her partner?”

  “Unlikely. Dan is holding on real tight to her identity.” Interesting. The CIA was notoriously secretive with last names and scrubbed most of the intelligence they collected, but Morgan’s tone suggested something more. He crossed his arms and waited. Morgan folded her hands on her desk. “She’s an operations officer with very few paper records. They recruited her as a college student when she was having some trouble with her university’s paperwork. Found out her information wasn’t entered correctly in the government’s electronic systems and she’s incredibly intelligent. She’s quite good with a number of languages but not a polyglot. Understandably, they created records for her and quietly paid for her college. She’s been with us ever since. I only know her by the code name they gave her for this operation. And I know the additional facts only because I’ve been read in on this. Please consider even that top secret. Her code name for this operation is Falcon. Dan or Falcon will provide you more information at their discretion.”

  Cam let out a low whistle. He’d heard of these people but always thought they were more legend than anything else. Apparently not. “Who else are we bringing in on this?”

  “No one. The analysts who investigated Rory’s death will not know of your involvement. Even Tyler can’t hear about this one.”

  Cam crossed his arms. “And the CIA is still claiming they believe her death was an accident?”

  “No, I’m saying we don’t have the evidence to prove it was intentional yet.”

  Cam’s eyes narrowed. If the CIA was keeping it this compartmentalized, they’d already concluded the operations officer’s death was intentional. Worse, the Agency was treating this like it could have been an inside job. Of course, they wouldn’t come out and say it. They’d give him the spiel that Morgan just gave him. He nodded. “So, what are our next steps?”

  “We wait. The Director is calling the shots on this one. Falcon will make contact sometime in the next two weeks. Call me, verify everything checks out, and then it’s off to the races.”

  “So our new ally is a control freak.”

  Morgan smiled wryly and leaned back in her chair. Silence filled the room.

  “Yeah, I know. Pot to the kettle. So I jump when I get a call?”

  “Or an email. I’ll let you know if they send me any more information I can share.”

  Cam nodded and put his hands on his knees, ready to stand. Morgan raised her index finger and took a moment to choose her words. “One more thing. I need you to tell me if Falcon isn’t up for this. Dan wants her on the op, but we don’t usually let partners get involved after something like this.”

  “Why are they letting her in, then?”

  “Apparently she’s one of Dan’s best people. And she threatened to investigate without us if they didn’t put her in charge.”

  Cam chuckled, then turned serious. “I’d do the same for Tyler.”

  Morgan nodded. “I expect you would. That’s why I didn’t challenge Dan too hard on it yet. Watch your six, Cam. You’ll be in the crosshairs of someone who already killed one of our people.”

  “Well, thanks for not insulting me by asking if I mind.”

  Morgan smiled. “I wouldn’t think of it. Oh, Falcon will be bringing along a surveillance camera to install near the gas line where you’ll be staying, along with all the normal equipment. Check it before you get home. Every night.”

  “Will do. That’s smart.”

  “Careful out there, Cameron. That’s an order.”

  Calculated Sabotage is available now at your favorite book retailer!

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to all of my family and friends. Your encouragement and kind words mean the world!

  A few special shout outs: to my mom, for her incredible support and for answering questions like “how long can someone stay knocked out when they get hit over the head?” without getting concerned about her daughter’s hobbies. Thank you also to Darcy for her helpful feedback, eager early reads, and encouragement. Thank you very much to my husband and family for supporting me on this crazy publishing journey. Thank you to Emily for being an amazing friend and for all your support to help make this book happen. Also, huge thank yous to Dad, Granny, Justin, Liz, Ellen, Julie, Anna, and Jenn. You guys rock.

  Last but not least, big thank yous to Laura Anderson and Bridget Fryman, two fabulous editors who helped make this book a reality.

  About the Author

  K.T. Lee is a writer, mom, and engineer who grew up on a steady diet of books from a wide variety of genres. When K.T. began to write the kind of books she wanted to read, she mixed clever women and the sciences with elements from thrillers (and a dash of romance) to create The Calculated Series.