“I’ve got some e-mail exchanges, but it’s like one side of a conversation. The other party was good about trimming e-mail threads and hiding their tracks on their ends.” Ky sighed. “So this former employer is responsible for searching for a fix to his problem, but it looks like he contacted a vendor to design and execute the solution.”
“A vendor.” Forte heard the word “mercenary” even though it went unspoken. If Ky had intended to indicate hired muscle, he’d have just said so. But a vendor tended to respond to requests for proposal and work via contracted agreement.
For a few moments, Forte considered Raul Sa’s mercenary squad. The man had been very eager to help. But, no, mercenary teams tended to develop defining characteristics. Beckhorn would’ve sent Forte, Cruz, and Rojas a red flag instead of a recommendation if Sa’s mercenary squad was the type to take on shady jobs like eliminating a civilian like Sophie.
“Please let me know if you gather enough to identify the vendor.” Forte made the request pleasant, but he was already looking into Labs-Anders Corporation. The thing about his kinds of connections was that years could go by, but good friends never forgot. He’d be able to reconnect. And if he didn’t find what he was looking for, Cruz and Rojas had their networks, too.
The importance of Ky’s investigation was to cover the legal side of things.
“I’ll keep you up to date.” Ky paused. “Will you do the same, in a timely manner?”
Forte hesitated to answer. He wouldn’t lie to Ky, and he would’ve definitely shared any information he found eventually. But Ky’s definition of timely and his were almost assuredly not in alignment in this situation. “I hear Labs-Anders Corporation is a vendor that doesn’t like dogs. I’d have to think hard about working with them.”
A few months ago, Cruz had run across a military contract organization in the process of forming. The highest-ranking individuals were building their mercenary group carefully and taking steps to ensure they had potential international contracts in place when they eventually did establish the organization officially. At least one SEAL team, probably more, had found themselves in a questionable circumstance and pressured into committing to more than just their service in the military. At times like those, right and wrong weren’t easy to identify. They were hazy, gray areas. A man did his best to make a decision he could live with, even if that decision wasn’t ethically ideal.
Forte had been caught in several moments like that, when he’d had to make choices where there was no simple right or wrong. He could live with the decisions he’d made, but they definitively ensured he was going to hell.
If he’d chosen to go private after he’d retired from active duty, he’d have gone further down the rabbit hole. Decisions would’ve gotten easier because the darker it got, the less a person looked for the light of doing the right thing. It was easier to just complete the mission and let someone else decide if it was right or wrong.
He hadn’t wanted to take the easy route.
But that didn’t mean there weren’t a lot of other men out there who had chosen that path.
“Cruz should probably check and see if that vendor is involved in this particular project,” Forte said finally.
Chapter Seventeen
Let’s go for a walk.”
Sophie sat up as Brandon eased out from under her on the couch. They’d sat in silence for a few minutes after he’d ended the call with Ky. “Are you going to contact Alex and David?”
Brandon rose to his feet and held out a hand to her. “Yup. But we can do that as we walk. Then I’m going to need to leave you for a short while to ditch this phone.”
He had an almost expressionless look on his face. Only she noted the way his lips pressed together slightly and his eyes were narrowed just a bit more than his normal expression. He was thinking, hard.
“Things are getting more complicated, aren’t they?” She took his hand and let him pull her up to stand next to him.
“How’s the ankle?”
Oh, he could sidestep the conversation some, but she wouldn’t let him get away with it for long.
“Better. It didn’t hurt at all in the few minutes of stretching I just did, and I’ve got no problems standing.” She headed over to the door where her sneakers were waiting and slid her left foot into one. “Why?”
“Because we’ll be walking a short distance, and I want to be sure you’re up for it.” Brandon joined her.
She glanced at Haydn and his prosthetic left paw. “Where he can go, I can go.”
Brandon chuckled. “Probably not quite yet, but we can use that as a rule of thumb if you want.”
She didn’t respond as they headed outside.
It was a beautiful morning, actually. The sun was beginning to rise up over the trees and filter through the leaves. Brandon led her around to the back of the cabin and directly into the woods.