Brad Taylor - The Polaris Protocol

She began typing, and he went to the door. He opened it, said, “We’re closed for inventory,” then shut it in the man’s face before he could say a word.

He returned to the counter and she said, “Yes. An Arthur Booth received four thousand dollars from a Western Union in the United States. The transaction has already been completed.”

“Can you tell me where? What store did the transfer?”

Her lip quivering, she said, “No. It doesn’t show that. It just shows it was completed.”

“Who sent it?”

“I don’t know. Usually you don’t have to give any information like that. The only person who has to show identification would be the receiver. To prove he was who he said he was.”

She seemed to collapse in on herself, fearing what the sicario would do. He said, “He wouldn’t have to show identification even for that amount of money?”

Seeing a lifeline, her eyes lit up, and she said, “Yes, yes. Maybe. That would be considered a suspicious transfer in the United States.”

She began typing again, and he saw her exhale. “It’s here. The amount was flagged, and the sender had to provide his name and address.”

She wrote down the information and handed it to him. He read it, seeing he would be going deeper into America than he had intended. The address was for someone named Peter Scarborough in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.

He knew Booth was gone. Probably in the air, flying to America right this moment. The sicario had no idea where he would go or what he would do to hide.

But this Peter Scarborough did.

67

“What was the heat state when you left?” said Pike. “What’s our compromise status?”

Jennifer tried to turn her head, but Decoy held it in place, saying, “Stop moving. Look right at me and keep holding your hair back. I want you to follow this light with your eyes.”

She did so, then said, “We’re good at the museum. They have no idea what happened. They heard some noises, but when the policeman brought me around, I claimed I’d been mugged. He asked about explosions and I said I had no idea what he was talking about. He took a statement from me, so he’s got my name, but I used our cover of Grolier Recovery Services. Made absolute sense to be there. And I had the pocket litter and identification to back it up.”

Decoy said, “I don’t think she’s got a concussion, but we should get her checked out by someone who isn’t a witch doctor.”

Pike said, “You’re the best we’ve got right now. Put that med-lab training to good use. Patch her up.”

Decoy squatted down at her level and gingerly touched her scalp with an antiseptic. She gritted her teeth at the sting but said nothing, waiting on him to “accidentally” poke the wound in retaliation for her mistake.

After dealing with the police, she’d been allowed to go. Well, more precisely, they didn’t seem to have any overarching plan, and she’d wandered off. Knowing bad news never got better with age, she’d called Pike. And told him what had happened.

I had the Ghost and was escorting him out. Then I let him escape free and clear. By the way, he has my weapon as well.

She didn’t use those exact words, but it had been the toughest phone call she’d ever had to make. She knew full well what the impact would be. While they had been on a high-speed chase complete with a firefight, she’d let a captured terrorist shackled with a GPS locator escape. Not only that, she had facilitated it. She knew her reputation was done. Now she was simply waiting on the fallout.

Strangely enough, it hadn’t happened yet. The minute she’d walked in the room, everyone had taken one look at her and wanted to know if she was okay. At first she was convinced it was because she was female and they were showing a protective streak. But she knew the hotwash was coming. She’d seen them before as a bystander, brutal after-action reviews where they analyzed all mistakes to prevent future occurrences. Nobody was spared regardless of their position on the team, and that was where she would be fired.

Pike said, “I think we’re good at the market as well. Decoy managed to get our SUV out of the area before the police showed up, and we weren’t stopped getting back to the hotel with the computer.”

Decoy placed two butterfly bandages on her cut and said, “Amazing what a wad of cash will do for you in Mexico. Most expensive SUV I’ve ever purchased, but it was worth it. They even took out the registration history of the rental.”

He rose and said, “She’s good to go. She’s going to look like an abused wife for a couple of weeks, but she doesn’t need stitches. The shoulder wound is worse than the head one, but that’s just a puncture from shrapnel. It’ll heal on its own.”

Eyes downcast, she said, “Thanks.”

He nudged her. When she looked up he winked and said, “I see what you’re thinking. Don’t. That was a gutsy move.”

He went back to the anteroom of the suite with the rest of the team, leaving her alone with Pike.

Here it comes.

Pike said, “You got any ideas at all where the Ghost was headed? Did he say anything?”

“No. Nothing. He just begged for me to get the cuffs off. If I had done it sooner, I’d still have him. If I hadn’t waffled …”

He sat down facing her. “Cut that shit out. Look, this was my mistake, not yours. I never thought they’d initiate a long-term outage before making the sale. Never figured those cuffs would be something to worry about.”

“Pike, you don’t need to protect me. I know I screwed up. I know how much the Oversight Council thought this was a bad idea, and I proved them right.”

He glanced at the door, making sure it was closed, then leaned in and kissed her forehead, right next to her wound.

“You always think I’m protecting you because you don’t understand your own worth. You never have. What you did today earned the respect of every man on this team. They’re out there right now wondering what they would have done, and not all are sure they would have risked their lives to save the Ghost. They know it was the right call, but they’re wondering if they would have made it.”

Staring vacantly at the ground, she said, “Pike, he was screaming in the dirt. I felt the cuffs vibrating. I had to do it. I thought the things were going to go off while I was working the lock… . I don’t know what I could have … ”

He lightly punched her in the shoulder, knocking her back into the present. “Hey, you did good. Don’t dwell on it. Whatever you do, don’t let this action cloud something in the future. Keep your compass. It’s served you well in the past and will do so in the future. We’ll get him again. I told you, it was my mistake.”

She didn’t believe him. About whose mistake it was, anyway. She did believe that he thought she’d done the right thing, and that meant a great deal to her. Like it always did. She wasn’t so sure of the team. Although Decoy had winked at her, giving her encouragement.

But that guy is always trying to get in my pants. Would he have said it if he knew about Pike and me?

Blood opened the door and said, “VPN’s up. Kurt’s on the line. Time for a disaster report.”

Pike grinned at him and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever had a SITREP quite this bad where someone wasn’t KIA. This’ll be a record.”

68

I exited the bedroom with Jennifer in tow, wondering how I was going to spin this disaster. Well, that’s not true. There was no spin in our world. The facts spoke for themselves, and, unlike on the Sunday talk shows, the repercussions were for keeps. Whatever the reason, we had lost both the American and the Ghost. We’d captured the device, but it was apparently ticking down to a catastrophic GPS outage, and we couldn’t get into the computer to stop it.