Semua Bab Aegis Group Task Force: Bab 171 - Bab 180

Sunday. London, United Kingdom.THE SOUND OF THE city woke Ramon by small degrees. The tiny room was poorly insulated and the walls paper thin. He might as well have slept outside. But there was some sense of security behind having a door with a lock on it.Not that it would protect him if he failed this job.He'd had Valentino, the real Valentino, right in front of him.And he'd been right.The hacker was a woman. Not a man.At least he was fairly certain that was who he'd chased yesterday.How had she slipped away? Where had she gone?In the rush to flee, he'd abandoned all leads, and would now have to start over. But that was okay. He knew if he just bided his time, he would be led to her.***Sunday. London, United Kingdom.VALENTINO STARED AT THE image.Finding the woman gave her no joy. She wished it had been a man who found her. Not this woman."Still looking at her?" Viggo sat down on the bed behind her, the springs creaking under his weight."I know what

Monday. London, United Kingdom.VALENTINO STARED AT THE dark screen. It had long since timed out, but she'd memorized the words.Right now she had two enemies on her tail.The cops.And Skilton's assassin.The cops didn't worry her much. Most of the time they were annoying, nipping at her heels, but otherwise harmless. At least before Diha stepped into the picture.It was the assassin that worried her. If that shot had been better aimed, he could have killed Viggo. And now another one was on their tail. One who'd gotten within firing range of her.He hadn't even hesitated when he'd seen her.Was it possible Skilton had uncovered her secret? That Viggo wasn't actually her?That was concerning. She hadn't mentioned it to Viggo, and she wouldn't unless she had to. She didn't want him to worry.Valentino doubted she could trust Diha.Oh, the cops would honor the agreement in a way. They'd swap intel, maybe grease some gears to let her go, and then casually inform her destinati

Monday. London, United Kingdom.VIGGO HAD A SICK feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hated everything about this meeting, but there had been no talking Valentino out of it. Her mind was set on going forward.He strained to hear her next words.The woman, Diha, watched him with wide eyes.She made him think of a kitten with eyes that big. She wasn't harmless, but he doubted her bite was all that bad.What the hell should he say?Valentino's voice in his ear didn't come."Does that not work for you?" Diha asked.Shit.He had to say something.Valentino couldn't take forever to think things through.A bang from up above made him tense. Had something fallen over?Then the unmistakable shout, a single word, "Run!"Valentino.She was too far for him to get to her. They knew they would have to flee separately. It was part of the plan. The way it had to be.And yet, if someone was here, if Valentino had to run, chances were they also needed a way out.Viggo lunged while Dih

Wednesday. London, United Kingdom.MILES WOULD HAVE THOUGHT he'd have a greater sense of justice as he pushed into the swanky, downtown London office building. Instead, he just wanted this whole mess over with.Maybe then he'd actually get some sleep.The head of security for the building stood, looking nervously at Miles and the law enforcement flanking him."I'm here with a warrant," Miles announced and kept going.Hundreds of people were going to get the justice they deserved today. The world might not know that Valentino was dead, but they would know that George Ward was ultimately the person responsible for setting things in motion.The investment banker had wanted a competitor killed because of a debt he owed.The derailment had not only killed the competitor, but George Ward had received a hefty sum because of the destruction of one of his properties.By the time Miles and his people reached the top floor of the building, word had traveled ahead of them. He found Georg

Two weeks later. Logan Muller's Apartment. Washington, DC.LOGAN MULLER DRUMMED HIS fingers on the bar and watched Zora place a pitcher of water on the new dining table she'd bought for his place. If they were going to have to move to conducting meetings at his place to protect the secrecy of it all, he needed somewhere for people to sit.The thing that still galled him was that Zora was holding back intel. She wasn't telling him everything. Would he and his team ever earn her trust? What did they have to do?"Any final thoughts on the plan?" Zora prompted him.He'd let the silence go on for too long.Calling her on the omissions would only highlight the gap between them.It wasn't the mole or that his team was kept around specifically so they could skirt the law at times. It was that Logan still had no idea who or what they were after. For all he knew, they were running headlong into something far bigger than themselves."I think this is a crazy plan, but I already told you t