The only way to be sure there was no information leak was to have no communication at all.
Diaz nodded. “You know our schedule. Make contact if anything goes out of the ordinary.”
“It’s what I do.”
“Yes.” She’d tossed it out as an old joke. Diaz was serious though. “It is. For a few hours or a night. You excel at the short solo missions, even have issues with authority. It’s time to quit thinking of those points as badges of honor.”
She bristled, defensive. “Don’t go all big brother on me.”
“Consider it constructive feedback from your commander,” Diaz shot back. “We’ve worked together a long time. If there’s anyone I can send out solo, it’s you. If you can manage a mission in three or four hours, you can do the same over longer assignments. We both know it. But it’s time to acknowledge the fact that you don’t like taking responsibility for other people. You won’t take a team for longer than a few hours.”
“I can work in a fire team long-term.” Well, she’d done well in Diaz’s fire team. There’d been plenty of others where they could function but they’d never gelled as a group.
“And you used to be able to lead one.” Diaz had access to her file. He also knew her background. “Lead and pair with a spotter within the same team.”
She ground her teeth and didn’t respond.
“Most shooters work with a spotter.” He stood after a moment and walked over to his desk. “Whether you go back to the main Centurion Corporation with another fire team or stay here, it’d be optimal for you to be willing to partner up again, Lizzy.”
“Victoria and Marc are partnered. You lead.” She counted out her team members on the fingers of one hand. “Me as a solo distance shooter worked fine. It could in another fire team too.”
There was a chance. A small one. Theirs had been a particularly good combination. It’d take a long while to grow into the same sort of comfortable rapport with a new team.
“Or we could continue to give you specific contracts.” Diaz leaned against his desk. “There are good lead positions where you could provide cover from a distance and have eyes on the site without being down on the ground. Harte has several contracts where you’d come in handy.”
They didn’t just want surveillance. The Centurion Corporation followed a particular moral code, but it didn’t mean all the work they did was particularly virtuous. Taking on more jobs as a lone sniper meant she would be further focusing her skill set toward a narrower field. Eliminating specified targets.
Assassinations.
“This is a good time to decide where you want your career to go, Lizzy.” Diaz had lowered his voice to a quieter tone. “You’re good at what you do now.”
“I can be good at anything I decide to do.” It came out before she had the chance to consider. It was an automatic defensive response. Because Diaz wasn’t quite right about something he’d mentioned earlier. She still had a point to prove.
It might not be to him. Definitely wasn’t anything she needed to demonstrate to Victoria or Marc or any of the people currently with Safeguard.
No. She’d just spent so long proving to anyone who came anywhere within her sphere of influence that she was who she was, she wasn’t exactly sure what to do now.
Diaz was right. It was time to move on to the next step. She had no idea what direction it would be in. So she did what came easy.
“First things first.” She rose from the armchair. “I’ve got a job to do.”
Chapter Five
“You can’t be serious.”
Isabelle hustled Kyle Yeun into the small apartment when he stopped in his tracks at the door.
Over the past couple of hours, they’d taken a circuitous route out of Seattle before swapping cars and coming back into the city. It might’ve seemed ridiculous to some but if Yeun was being followed, convincing anyone watching him that he’d left the city for a few days was ideal. Officers Austin and Weaver had followed in a separate car at a distance along the same route while Marshal Decker had made visual contact at preplanned touch points along the way.
One big, coordinated road trip.
In the meantime, one of the Centurion Corporation trainees had already cleared the apartment and prepped it. Marshal Decker had also come ahead to clear it and gone to his unmarked vehicle out on the street to take up a stationary position a few blocks up Pike Street.
Officers Austin and Weaver would remain mobile, driving a circuit of the streets around the location watching for unusual activity.
The trainee remained waiting in the apartment for their arrival. She nodded to him as he passed them to leave, handing her the keys to the apartment. She pocketed those and locked the door, throwing the two dead bolts.