Shadow Rising (A Lacy Merrick Thriller Book 2) Read online

  “Seems strange for Celeste and the kids to not be here.” Aaron followed behind. “I guess it didn’t really hit me last night, but now, at the end of the day…”

  “I know. I keep telling myself that it’s only temporary.”

  “It is, Lacy.”

  “Let’s get set up before Will arrives. He’ll want to get down to business.”

  “Sure. Let me just get changed. I can’t stand wearing this tie.” He’d already begun pulling it away from his neck.

  Lacy retrieved her laptop and placed it on the kitchen table. “I’ll ask Will to pick up some food. I don’t have anything here.” She raised her voice for Aaron to hear as he continued through the family room and to the guest room.

  “Sounds good.”

  Her phone was still in her purse and she dug it out from the bottom where it inevitably lay. Using her work phone was out of the question, so she used the burner and requested pizza. His reply was gracious as always. “He’ll be here in thirty minutes,” she shouted across the room.

  Aaron returned in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Lacy had already poured two glasses of wine.

  “I don’t know about you, but I could use this.” She handed him his glass. “Okay,” her first sip went down smoothly, “let’s see what we’ve got. I’ll load this up.” She placed the mini card into the adapter and then into her laptop.

  “Are you online?”

  “No.”

  “Okay. And you’re scanning using the programs I installed?”

  “Yes, I am. I’ve done everything you’ve asked to make sure this computer isn’t compromised.”

  “Okay. Sorry. I’m just paranoid.”

  “Well, it’s not like you don’t have reason to be.” Headlights caught her attention. “That must be Will.” Already in socked feet, Lacy padded to the front door and pulled it open. “Pizza. Excellent.” She stepped aside to let him in.

  “Hope you don’t mind. You’re probably getting tired of junk food.”

  “Right now, my diet isn’t a top priority. Come into the kitchen. We’ve got everything set up.” Lacy shut the door and secured the deadbolt.

  “Hey, Aaron. How’s it going?”

  “Good. Thanks, man. How are you?”

  “Not bad, all things considered.” He set down the pizza. “Lacy says you two had some good luck today. Should we take a look?”

  As the three settled in, Lacy opened the files she’d copied. “Thanks to Aaron, I was able to get in and pull the personnel files on Kendrick and Deputy Turner.” She clicked on the first one. “I didn’t risk going through these at the office, so we’re all seeing this for the first time.”

  It took them a few files before reaching something that could prove useful. “What’s this?” Lacy leaned in for a better look. “Kendrick took a leave of absence three months prior to the attack.”

  “Does it say why?” Aaron asked.

  “Family leave. Doesn’t give anything more specific.”

  “Okay. I’ll look into where he was and what he was doing during that timeframe,” Will replied.

  “Does it matter?” Aaron asked. “He’s dead. What good will that do us?”

  “It’ll tell us to look for who he might have been in contact with during that time, apart from Lei Jian. If anyone else might have been involved or simply to know what he was up to. If any of it ties to Turner or anyone else at the State Department.”

  “Or any other agency,” Lacy added.

  “Yes. That too.” Will stopped for a moment. “Hang on. Before we go further, take a look at Turner’s file. See where he was during that time.”

  “Okay.” Lacy pulled up the other files and the time frame in question and shook her head. “Nothing. Don’t see anything unusual here.”

  “No? It was just a hunch,” Will said. “Go on back to...” His brow creased hard as he peered at the screen. “Hang on.” He pointed to a file. “Go here.”

  Lacy opened the file in question. “Oh my God. Turner was appointed to Deputy Secretary six months ahead of the attack.”

  “That’s right. And look at his title prior to that,” Will said.

  “Undersecretary of the Office of Political Affairs.” Aaron turned to them. “Kendrick’s position.”

  9

  An immediate hush fell upon the room. A revelation of this magnitude forced them to consider the implications. Who appointed Turner to the higher post and why? The timing was perilously close to the attack. However, this exploratory mission wasn’t yet complete as Aaron weighed in on its meaning.

  “What I came across is beginning to make sense.” Aaron handed the USB drive to Lacy. “Take a look at this.”

  She inserted the device and opened the files. “I don’t know what I’m looking at.”

  “They’re encrypted. Here, let me do it.” He pulled the laptop toward him and began to decode the information.

  “How did you manage to get this out?” Will asked.

  “Suffice it to say that if I told you, I doubt you’d want to finish your food.” Aaron continued to work to reveal the contents of what he’d retrieved from Langley. “Here we are.” He turned the laptop for them to see. “So this is a program called Sparrow. It essentially collects information on visa applications submitted to the US embassies worldwide. Most of the security checks are performed by NSA, Homeland Security, FBI, and CIA. Others, however, go up the chain farther and are reviewed by members of the State Department.”

  “Now you’ve got my interest,” Will replied.

  “Good. Take for example, this one here.” Aaron pointed to the screen. “This one was submitted to the US embassy in Baghdad. As a side note, that embassy happens to be the largest and most expensive US embassy in the world.”

  “Right. It’s been compared to Vatican City and cost the American taxpayers nearly a billion dollars,” Will added.

  “So this application was submitted by an Iraqi man who was employed by one of the embassy’s Kuwaiti contractors back in 2014. It was forwarded for final approval by the State Department, because get this. The contractor was known to have been involved in human trafficking and had several ethics violations that our government didn’t want exposed. So it was expedited for approval by State and any further investigations into the man’s background, or his family’s, by the intelligence community was halted.”

  “How does this help us now?” Will asked.

  Aaron began typing again and was silent until he retrieved the relevant information. “The purpose of my example was to show you how State can get involved, which was exactly what they did here.” He turned the monitor again. “For Ahsan Sajwani.”

  “His visa application was approved around the time Turner was promoted to Deputy Secretary,” Lacy began. “Is it possible the application was put on hold until Turner’s promotion? Is it reasonable to assume they were waiting it out? That maybe we’re still only looking at Kendrick? He could’ve known this was coming. This operation could’ve been in the works for a year or more.”

  Will regarded both with apprehension. “A more pressing concern now is knowing whether Turner is Jian’s next target. We don’t know without a doubt that these two are connected. But if they are, I wouldn’t put it past Jian to be setting his sights on the deputy secretary.”

  Lacy cast her gaze upward. “Who’s watching us right now?”

  “One of Colburn’s people,” Will replied.

  She closed the lid on the laptop. “It’s getting late. We should get some rest.” Lacy began to walk toward the front door.

  Will seemed to pick up on her sudden urgency to put an end to their expedition. He approached her while Aaron remained in the kitchen retrieving the storage device from Lacy’s laptop. He held her gaze, knowing she was keeping something from him. “Good night, Lacy.”

  “Good night. Thanks for coming by.”

  “I’ll be heading to the apartment for my shift.”

  “Okay.” Lacy held open the door.

  Upon Will’s departure, s
he locked the door and returned to the kitchen. Her phone buzzed in her sweater pocket. It was a text from Will on the burner.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She pursed her lips and began to type her reply. “Do we know for sure we can trust this person who’s supposed to be watching out for us?”

  “I trust Colburn. Don’t you?” he replied.

  “Right now, I don’t know if we can trust anyone. What we have in our possession is dangerous.”

  “We don’t have anything to worry about with Axell or Colburn. I trust them both with my life. And you should too.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. Good night.” And that was the end of it. She’d grown even more paranoid now because this didn’t stop at a mid-level government staffer. And the problem was, she didn’t know where it stopped. None of them did.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Within minutes, Will had arrived at the apartment where the surveillance had been set up. “Evening. How’s it going?”

  “Good. No concerns yet.” CIA Agent Jason Hicks rose from the chair and pulled on his jacket. “Looks like the three of you had a good meeting. Will you be briefing Agent Colburn?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay then. Good night.” Hicks took his leave.

  Will tossed his coat over the chair at the workstation and began to take inventory of the cameras, confirming they were functioning and nothing suspicious caught his eye. The final check was inside Lacy’s house. He understood why she was uncomfortable with this—he would have been too—but it had been her decision and this was the end result.

  He spotted the two of them in the living room watching television. They weren’t speaking, which seemed odd. It appeared intentional and this brought him concern. He had, quite suddenly, felt on the outside of this tight circle. It seemed Lacy was growing distrustful of those who were trying to help, possibly including himself. And that would make this much more complicated.

  After several minutes, he rose from the chair to use the restroom. On his return, he noticed they were no longer in the living room. Will searched the other cameras and as he peered at the monitors, eventually landing on the upstairs, he spotted Aaron following Lacy into her bedroom. “What the…?”

  Her door closed and that was it. He’d been shut out, unable to see what was happening behind that closed door. Certainly they weren’t sleeping together. It didn’t seem possible. Not when he knew how much she still mourned her husband.

  A wave of shame passed through him as he’d begun to feel like an intruder into her personal life. What business was it of his what she did and who she did it with? After all, those two had history and could offer one another comfort Will could not. Still, it felt off-putting and he sat down on the couch to take a moment and prioritize his thoughts. “None of my business.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Lacy sat on the edge of the bed next to Aaron. “What do you think?”

  “I think this is getting extremely dangerous. Even more so than what we’ve already been through and that’s saying something.”

  “I mean about Colburn’s guy. We don’t know anything about him.”

  “After what those guys have done for us? It’d be a disservice to them if we questioned their intentions. They both risked everything to help us. If Colburn trusts this person, then I think we should too.”

  “You’re probably right. I feel like I’m spiraling into this deep mistrust. And I made Will feel badly about it. I shut down and I know he felt it.” Lacy placed her hand on Aaron’s knee and revealed a rare smile. “At least I can talk to you in here without anyone watching. I know this was my decision, one which I’m beginning to regret.”

  “Your feelings are justified, Lacy. I don’t know what choice I would’ve made in your shoes. You don’t want them to control you and yet, that is exactly what it seems is happening.”

  “I just want them back. My kids—I miss them so much. I don’t know if I made the right choice—about any of this.” She held his gaze. “What if we got lucky the first time and our luck’s run out?”

  “The people who are helping us believe we’re doing the right thing and so should we. Look, why don’t you try to get some sleep. Just keep these files someplace safe until we know what to do with them.”

  She surveyed her room. “I’ll find a place to hide the USBs in here. Jay kept a box in the attic access in my closet. That’ll do for now. Just don’t tell anyone.”

  “Okay.” Aaron kissed her cheek. “Good night, Lacy. I’ll see you in the morning.” He stood up to leave.

  “Aaron?”

  He stopped and turned back to her. “Yes?”

  “Thank you. You’ve done more for me than I could ever repay.”

  “I love you, Lace. You know that.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  It took Will a moment to spot that the light in the downstairs hall burned. He stood from the futon sofa and approached the monitors once again. Aaron had returned to his room and Will couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. Why he cared perhaps bothered him more than what had actually happened inside Lacy’s bedroom.

  A knock on the door stirred him from his thoughts. He moved toward the entrance and revealed the visitor. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon.”

  “I got your message regarding the personnel files.” Axell walked past him and directly toward the monitors. “How’s everything else going?”

  “So far, nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “I wish I could’ve been there with you, but I can’t risk a personal association with Hunter or Merrick. I still can’t be sure of who’s watching us. What do we know right now? Anything that will help figure out what Jian’s next move will be?”

  “I don’t know about that. But Hunter discovered that Ahsan Sajwani received a visa that was approved directly by the State Department, months prior to the attack. And Lacy was able to retrieve the Office of Personnel information on Drew Kendrick and Deputy Secretary Turner. It seems there is reason to believe he, despite his best efforts, might have been involved at arm’s length with the cover-up, although we haven’t figured out just how yet.”

  “I’d hoped that wasn’t the case, but it was certainly in the back of my mind. Kendrick was an ambitious man, but his powers weren’t so great that he could’ve bent Jian’s will on his own.” Axell headed into the kitchen and reached for a glass. “This does present us with a fresh set of problems.”

  “Are we prepared to deal with them?” Will asked.

  “We’ll have to be.” He sipped on the bourbon that now swirled in his glass. “This doesn’t change our plan, though. We still need to keep track of Sajwani’s movements. When and where he will travel next. I’ll continue to guide Hunter on where to look.”

  “What else are you hoping to find? Don’t we need to push this along a little quicker? We can’t wait for Sajwani to arrive. We need to launch a preemptive strike.”

  “This isn’t Afghanistan, Caison. This is a political maneuver that we must navigate carefully and covertly.”

  “I’ll be honest. I don’t know how much longer Lacy will be able to hang on. She misses her kids and wants nothing more than for this to end as swiftly as possible.”

  “She’s refusing to leave her home and that leaves my hands tied to certain ideas. We’re diverting resources to ensure her safety rather than directing them toward solving the problem.” He tossed back the rest of his drink. “I’m sure she must feel very much intruded upon, but it was her decision. The only way we expedite this is to focus our efforts on pursuing Jian, Sajwani, and now, it seems, to pursue the deputy secretary in the wake of Kendrick’s death.”

  Will cast his gaze to the monitors, the darkened rooms inside, the murky streetscape in the subtle glow of a shrouded moon. He knew the risks of her staying in her home were growing by the day. None of them were truly safe so long as Ahsan Sajwani was still under Jian’s employ. And now that they had this new information, how long would it before their government came after them? “I’ll talk
to her in the morning. Get her to see reason. That things have changed and we need to adapt or risk the safety of everyone involved.”

  “I think you might be the only person who can convince her. Because as I see it, she and Hunter are playing off one another. Feeding off each other’s fears and while they are doing what needs to be done, I believe there’ll come a time when neither will be able to see the real dangers of what’s happening. Lacy thinks we can keep her safe with all of this.”

  “You don’t think so.”

  “It’s a Band-Aid and it could be ripped off at any moment.”

  10

  The visit to Director Mobley’s office was predicated upon the evidence obtained on Turner and whether it would nudge Mobley to offer guidance on a new direction for their mutual agenda. Will needed help from the director, knowing it could only come in the form of administrative support—for now.

  Mobley stood from behind his desk and offered a hand to Will. “It’s good to see you again, Agent Caison. Please, sit down.”

  The director had been forced to swallow the bitter pill shoved down his throat by the deputy secretary under the guise of national security. And so to begin this conversation, certain nuances would need to be considered. “Thank you for meeting with me, sir. It has been a long time.”

  “I understand you’re here in D.C. now, working for us at Headquarters.”

  “Yes, sir. I transferred a short time ago.”

  “Good. And how are you enjoying the city?”

  “It’s a beautiful and humbling place.”

  “That it is.” Mobley turned serious. “I understand the reason you’ve come to visit based on your call, and before we go any further, I need you to understand something. Regardless of our previous meetings, a new day has dawned here in Washington. The Administration has resumed control, which, as you know, means the number one priority is the safety of our fragile economy as well as to protect the American people.”