Again, they all nodded. “I thought the same thing about Max’s murder,” she continued. “All that intel the stations had about the Shia ties. We didn’t even have that intel.” So there was no way a news outlet got the drop on them. No, someone was feeding the media bullshit.
With the drone bombing at the Nelson fund-raiser, her team with the NSA had been so focused on security the last two days that she hadn’t thought much about the circumstances of Max’s murder since then, but it bothered her. She looked at Tucker again. “You guys are definitely being set up and they’ve got to have government ties. If what you’ve told me is true and your clearances have been revoked, it’s someone in the DEA. But this is bigger than one person. Planting bombs, sending out intel like this to news stations, sending a team of hit men after you guys . . .” She shook her head, trailing off.
She wasn’t certain she believed them, but . . . her gut told her they were telling the truth.
Chapter 7
Salad bar: an informal reference to the service ribbons found on a military uniform.
“Who at the DEA has the access to revoke your clearances before all this happened?” Karen asked, her green eyes focused and intense.
Tucker glanced at the others before looking back at her. It sounded as if she might believe them, but he wouldn’t bet on it just yet. “We’ve come up with a list of names.”
She nodded and he could practically see the gears turning in her head. It shouldn’t be so sexy, but she did this thing where she bit her bottom lip and concentrated so hard it was clear that no one else existed while she was deep in thought. She’d done it multiple times over the past hour when she was reading their files. He wondered what it would be like to gently sink his own teeth into that full lower lip. “That’s good. They’ll also have to have the sort of clearance to know who your team is. From what you’ve said, not many people have that kind of clearance, right?”
He nodded and the others murmured in agreement.
“Setting you guys up for treason is a huge undertaking, so whatever the reason behind all this is, there will be a personal thread. I’m guessing you guys were picked for a reason. That reason could be Max, so have you added anyone who might have a grudge against you or Max personally? Maybe one or all of you . . . I don’t know the complete scope of your job, but someone who got passed up for a promotion, someone who didn’t make your team, whatever. If not against you guys, then definitely Max. Wanted his job or maybe not something so obvious, but . . .” She made a frustrated sound. “There’s a reason you four were picked, and once I have all the names, we can run financials. Because something like this is always about money.” She snorted, the sound so irreverent it made him smile. “I might be wrong, but even when people try to dress up things under the guise of revenge or religion or whatever, the bottom line tends to be about money.”
“You believe us, then?” Cole asked before Tucker could.
She scrunched her nose, the action far too adorable and something he shouldn’t be noticing. But it was hard not to be aware of this woman on the most basic level. She’d been kidnapped but had remained cool under pressure. She’d been afraid but hadn’t let the reaction rule her. She’d been smart enough to escape, though only temporarily. And okay, yeah, she was gorgeous. Since they’d taken her when she was out jogging, she didn’t have a scrap of makeup on and she was stunning without any enhancements. Big green eyes dominated her face, and over the past hour while she’d been reading their files he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. Or stop fantasizing about what it would be like to run his hands through her long auburn hair—
“I’m not sure yet,” she said, her words cutting off his train of thought, which was just as well. “I mean, if you guys were terrorists I don’t know why you’d be sticking around the country or trying to get a phone conference with my boss. Well, there are reasons I could think of, but . . .” She shrugged. “From what the news has said so far, there was no loss of life at the Botanic Garden and something tells me that if you guys had set that place up to blow, there would be massive casualties.”
“That’s a fucked-up compliment,” Tucker said.
To his surprise the ghost of a smile teased her lips. “You know what I mean.”
Yeah, he did. “So you’ll call Burkhart for us?”
She nodded.
“After we talk to him we’ll let you go,” he said, the promise out before he could stop himself. “You can take all our information and run with it.”
The room went silent, Karen’s eyes widening and his team just watching him. He gave his men a hard look. “We took her to get Burkhart’s attention. He’ll answer when we call this time.” And if they set up a meeting with Burkhart, the guy would think it was a trap. Which meant there was a chance Karen might get hurt. That wasn’t acceptable.
“Works for me,” Kane said first with the others quickly agreeing. None of them had wanted to go this route in the first place, but they’d been backed into a corner.
Karen watched him as if she wasn’t sure she believed him but nodded. “So, what happens now?”
“We’re going to call Burkhart with your phone.” Her eyes widened but she didn’t respond. Probably because she was thinking the NSA would be able to trace them in seconds. Under normal circumstances they would, but not today. “I’m going to lay out everything that’s happened to us and ask for his help. We’ve got the fingerprints of the men who came after us and a list of potential corrupt DEA agents and employees. We haven’t been able to look at their financials, but that should be child’s play for the NSA. And all this should be enough for him to help us figure out who’s behind whatever this mess is.”
There was a trace of fear in Karen’s eyes that tore at him, but he ignored it. She was probably wondering if they planned to call Burkhart and hurt her with him listening in exchange for whatever demands she imagined they had.
When she didn’t respond, Tucker stood and headed for the back bedroom. They’d stored their electronics and unloaded weapons in the room, including a heavily encrypted laptop and her cell phone. He knew the second they put her battery back in they ran the risk of being tracked. Unlike on television where it took two minutes or some set amount of time to track a number as long as someone was on the line, that was bullshit.
If a phone had its battery in, the FBI or NSA or whoever could remotely route in to it and use it as a microphone. Theoretically, of course, since that was illegal as hell. As far as tracking her phone went, the NSA would be able to triangulate its location using nearby cell towers, since she’d turned off the internal locator—and he’d checked.
So they had to make that task, if not impossible, really difficult for the NSA. At least long enough to make the call and get the hell out of here undetected. His team was all former military and skilled when it came to infiltrating corrupt organizations and blending in to whatever surroundings they needed to. They wouldn’t have been part of Max’s team otherwise. And they were all more than competent when it came to technology, but none of them were hackers. Thankfully they’d learned enough over the years to block calls when they needed to.
He quickly turned on the computer, then activated the program necessary before plugging her phone into it with a USB cable. Finally he put the battery in and turned it on.
Back in the living room Karen was watching the news with the others. She stiffened when she saw him, her body pulling taut with apprehension as he set the computer and phone on the coffee table.