Keeping Secrets (An Anonymous Novella)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The next morning, Jackson sipped at his third cup of coffee. He'd spent most of the night awake, waiting to hear the phone ring. His retrieval team touched down in Rinamda late last night. He'd had to make quite a few phone calls with the Rinamdian embassy and military personnel so that his men could even go there in the first place. Lucky for him, Columbine was native to Sarias. Convincing the Rinamdian government to let his men and him run a retrieval and arrest mission went over a lot better when the individual was from Sarias instead of Rinamda.

Every half an hour, his team reported in with updates. Right now they were still tracking the Columbine, but with slow success.

"Sir, would you like something to eat?" Avery stood in front of his desk. She had a focused look on her face—one she often gave him right before she demanded he drink, eat, or go outside.

Having worked with her long enough, he could take a hint. "A protein bar or a bagel would be nice."

Right answer. She left with a gentle smile, one that soothed his twitchy insides just a little. Between the lack of sleep and coffee, he'd been twitchy all morning.

Avery came back with a bagel and cream cheese and a glass of orange juice, which she sat down in front of him.

"Sir, I've been thinking..." She sat down in the chair in front of his desk. Today her hair was down, the dark tresses brushing her shoulders. He loved when she wore her hair down. It was silky and smooth and matched her thick framed glasses nicely. "Something here doesn't quite add up for me."

He'd had the same feeling all morning. That was partially why he was so twitchy. Everything seemed to fall right into place—something his instincts never liked. Until the confession sprouted from Columbine's lips, that feeling would not go away. He'd had a few cases that easy, for sure, like the vandalism case off the East River—some kid with a hatred for the military kept spray painting his men's vehicles. They caught him, and that was the end of that. But this one...

"If this man is smart enough to block his number, and make his cell phone untraceable, he's got enough smarts with technology to be aware of a few cameras." Avery bit at her bottom lip in that way she did when she was nervous.

Jackson frowned. "This guy has been documented stealing the clothes. If it's not him, we can at least get information out of him."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Avery admitted. So did he. "What do we do?"

Jackson snatched up his landline and stabbed at the numbers. "For now? We wait for the retrieval team to bring Columbine in. Hopefully that'll be the end of it." He set the cold phone to his ear. "Darius? Yes, I..."

***

Later. Around 7pm.

Hours passed. When the sun had slid all the way past the horizon and the sky had begun to darken, Jackson's satellite phone beeped.

He was on it within seconds, punching in the numbers. "Jackson. Go."

"Commander, this is Agent Ronsby checking in for report."

"What took you so long?" He growled. "This check-in is an hour past its scheduled time."

"I understand, Sir." Ronsby said. "We had to go dark much longer than anticipated."

"And?"

"Subject is in custody. Two men were injured—flesh wounds, both quick in-and-out shots."