It’d be enough to recharge him. Cruz, Rojas, and even Sa nodded in understanding.
“It’s going to be tough for you to get her out of town if there are eyes on her,” Sa ventured slowly. “You have anyone who can play decoy?”
Forte stared at Sa. “All of our contacts in the area are civilians.”
“The person of interest is the young Asian lady in the kitchen earlier today, right?” Sa’s tone was matter of fact. “I saw her come out a couple of times.”
“Okay.” Forte squelched his irritation for a moment to hear Sa out. The man was former military, and if it’d been any of the men of Hope’s Crossing, they’d have taken notice of everyone moving around the immediate vicinity in the same way.
“I have a colleague in my new squad,” Sa continued, pulling out his smartphone. “She’s also Asian, not the same region, but close enough to pass with makeup. Similar height, basically same hair color and style. She’s got the experience to watch out for herself and avoid potential issues. It’d be safer to have her act as decoy than trying to involve another civilian.”
The man had a point there. It hadn’t even been an option in Forte’s mind to endanger another civilian. Though hiring an actor to pose as Sophie and lead whoever was after her away was a good plan.
Forte rubbed his jaw, considering. “Having a skilled resource as a decoy makes the idea much more feasible. If the opportunity arises—and I hope it doesn’t—maybe your resource could gain additional intelligence if a hostile makes contact with her.”
Sa shrugged noncommittally. “Hard to say. She’s sharp, and she’ll pass on any information worth sharing.”
But they had no idea whether she’d be contacted at all before the hostiles made a move.
“Full disclosure, the first incident was a car bomb.” Forte wanted to be sure Sa and his teammate were making an informed decision. “The apartment incursion was the second. Based on what we’ve seen, they don’t plan to acquire their target. They plan to eliminate her. Tossing the apartment was just for shock factor, maybe to make it look like an interrupted robbery.”
Sa nodded. “I appreciate the clarification. I can relay the proposal to Arin and see what she has to say. We’ll need to take a couple of current pictures of your friend, though.”
Sa had paused on the word “friend.” Forte half started to correct him, but what could any of them call her? Sophie was…Sophie. He’d never put a definition on what she was to him because she’d simply been a singular part of his consciousness. What he’d done over the years and why he’d done anything could be attributed to the thought of her if not directly to something she’d said. Forte wouldn’t hold Sophie accountable for who he was or the things he’d done. That was a fool’s mistake. He’d own his decisions and the actions resulting from them himself. But he wasn’t going to deny the influence she had on how he reacted to the world.
“We’ll take a few pictures tonight and get Arin a passport.” Forte added those tasks to his mental list.
Cruz sighed. “This will work better if I work some magic with the passports. If we finalize this agreement, I’ll need a current photo of your teammate.”
They weren’t going to clarify what sort of magic. It wasn’t exactly legal, what they were about to do. Call it a gray area.
“Is there anything else the team can help you with?” Sa was texting on his smartphone.
Cruz crossed his arms. “Your team in a lull for contracts?”
Forte had been wondering the same thing. “How many people in your organization?”
Sa held up his hands. “It’s a small organization, just our squad. We’ve got half a dozen permanent resources, and I’m the newest to the team. A couple of us are still in the DC area for the immediate future before we fly out to Oahu. We’re willing to help and, to be honest, you all are valuable contacts. My team lead asked me to build connections where I could here. This seems like an excellent situation for that sort of thing.”
True. Forte, Cruz, and Rojas were retired. They were done with the action. But they’d been finding themselves neck-deep in odd circumstances. It was advisable to keep a live network in place in case life continued to be as interesting as it had been over the past year.
“We’re in between contracts for the next couple of weeks, but we won’t be for much longer.” Sa sounded confident. “Mostly, they took some time off to settle in at the new headquarters and integrate me into the team. Part of that is going to be a new canine if we finalize an agreement here. The situation you’ve got is one where we can provide support.”