“I know a place we can go, off the grid. Safe for at least a few hours,” Karen said, limping toward him. “I’m not meeting anyone but Wesley at this point. We had a mole in the NSA not that long ago. I don’t think it was my people, but . . .” She looked at the truck again and gave a slight shake of her head. “I’m not staying here like a sitting duck.” There was determination in her voice as she spoke.
He knew he should tell her to stay put, to wait for her people, but . . . he needed to keep her safe. The desire to do so ran deeper than he’d imagined. He nodded at the driver’s SUV. “Come on.” He just needed to get them away from this intersection before stealing another vehicle. He hated that he might be dragging her into the line of fire again, but at the moment neither of them had a choice.
Chapter 10
Bravo sierra: slang for the word bullshit.
Selene barely reined in her temper as she exited the armored van with Ortiz keeping pace. Yellow tape sectioned off an entire intersection and she counted a dozen black-and-whites in addition to some unmarked police vehicles. There was also a fire truck and a county morgue van. Someone was gonna be pissed at her, but she wasn’t letting anyone else take the dead body. She was going to find out who the asshole was who’d tried to kill Tucker and Karen.
“Karen was in there,” Ortiz said, more a growl of anger than a question, his gaze on the bullet-riddled truck—which was thankfully armored or they would likely have been removing her body. Whoever had come after her was clearly not a pro.
“According to her and a scared soccer-mom witness, yeah.” Selene had gotten a call from Karen and had seen the visual of the vehicle on their satellite feed, but the sight of the truck this up close and personal pissed her off.
Karen was an intrinsic member of their team and on top of that, she was a sweet person. She was often that voice on the other end of the comm when they were running ops, keeping everyone sane. Everyone loved her, and Selene knew Wesley was grooming her for a promotion in the next year or so. The woman remained calm under the direst circumstances.
“You sure she’s not under duress?” Ortiz kept his voice low as they moved through a growing crowd of onlookers.
Why the hell hadn’t the locals gotten these civilians out of the way? Selene frowned at the sight, then quickly dismissed it. Not her problem.
Ortiz continued, his expression dark. “I remember Grisha—uh, Tucker—and that guy is seriously trained.”
He’d have to be to go undercover with a monster like Tasev and survive. But Selene didn’t comment on that. “As sure as I can be. Karen’s smart, and if she was under threat she’d have slipped in her code word. I’m going with my gut on this.”
“Your gut tell you he’s not involved in the bombings?” he murmured, his voice even lower as they approached the crime scene tape.
“Pretty much.” From their analysis and other evidence, it didn’t make sense.
“Yeah. Same here.” Ortiz had read the files too.
Selene flipped her badge out to a young female cop. “NSA. We need to speak to Detective Portillo.”
Before the woman could respond, a man with black hair peppered with gray nodded at them. “Let them through.” He had on black slacks, a thick black coat, and a scarf and knit cap in the same color. His nose was red and his eyes puffy. He clearly had a bad cold but had come in to work anyway. The only thing that gave away that he was a cop was the badge slung around his neck on a silver chain. That and his world-weary expression.
“Agent Marks?”
Selene nodded at the use of one of her cover names and held out a hand. “Detective Portillo, this is Agent Garcia.” For now they were both using aliases, even with the locals.
The detective nodded, his expression grim. “You feel like telling me what the fuck is going on?” he asked after they shook hands. “Some asshole opens fire on an armored truck two blocks from an elementary school—one my niece goes to. And my witness said there was a woman matching the description of your missing girl, with a guy with a gun.”
So they didn’t know it was Tucker Pankov yet. “As of right now I’m not sure what’s going on myself,” Selene said. “First, Karen isn’t a missing person anymore. She’s fine and being debriefed with us as we speak.” A tiny lie Selene didn’t feel bad telling. “I need you to send out a bulletin to your people asap. And second, we’ve gotta take the body.” When Portillo opened his mouth to protest, Selene reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
“Look,” she said, handing it to him. “This is just a jurisdictional thing. I’m not trying to step on your toes, but it’s about national security. You did us a solid today and we’re not going to forget it. I don’t have a choice in taking this body, so before you get pissed at me, remember I’m simply the messenger.” She kept her voice soft and hoped her young appearance would help her. It usually did and she took full advantage of it.
There could be serious animosity between federal and state agencies and she’d always thought the tension was bullshit. In her opinion, they were all on the same side in the end and she didn’t give a crap who closed a case. “You know this isn’t about getting our faces in the paper. We’re not the FBI.” She murmured the last part, not surprised when it earned her the ghost of a smile. His jaw was set as he finished reading the warrant, so she continued. “No one’s gonna know we were here except you.” Meaning it would never leak to the media.
It was clear he wanted to argue, but in the end it would be pointless, and she was glad he realized that because she didn’t have time for that kind of crap today.
“This connected to the bombing today?” he asked as he handed the paper back to her.
Surprised that he’d made the connection, she nodded. “We think so. And we’re just trying to make sure this doesn’t happen again. If there’s anything I can tell you, I will.” As her weapons mentor, a former USMC sniper instructor, would have said: bravo sierra. Complete bullshit, because she couldn’t even tell this guy her real last name, but she was all about keeping the peace between her people and his.
“Boss, there are two tow trucks here, both drivers saying they’re supposed to take the truck,” a fresh-faced man who looked as if he’d just graduated from the academy said as he approached them.
Portillo sighed, his jaw tightening again. Yeah, they’d be taking the truck too.
“Excuse me, I need to take this,” Selene murmured, pulling her buzzing cell phone out of her pocket.
She nodded at Ortiz as she did, silently telling him to start the process of loading the body. They’d come with a team of people but hadn’t wanted to intrude on the scene with everyone until after she’d talked to Portillo. He deserved that respect.
“Done,” Ortiz said quietly, pulling out his own cell as she answered hers.
It was Elliott. “Yeah.”
“I lost them.” More than frustration, there was a note of surprise in his voice.
Selene wasn’t surprised, though. Tucker was trained, and when it came to avoiding being tracked, Karen would know more than anyone how to stay off the grid. The two of them working together could disappear if they wanted to. “Don’t sweat it. I’m pulling the missing person report on her. Finding her isn’t our focus now.” Because Karen had made it clear she’d come in when she was ready. “We’re bringing the dead body in, but I’ll scan the prints and send them to you. Anyone get a hit off his face yet?” Karen had texted them a picture of the dead guy before she went dark again.
“Not yet.”
“Run it against the group of guys from earlier. See if there’s a link. You might get a faster hit on him. And we need his ID,” she stressed even though Elliott knew how important this was. Once they disconnected she looked up to find Ortiz helping to bag the body. They weren’t going to worry about an autopsy. Not when they knew how he’d died. Nope, they needed to find out who he was and who’d hired him.
And why.