Page 43 of Acting on Instinct
“Yeah, well, if you do feel like jumping hurdles, I’m just going to watch from the sidelines,” Jeopardy said, lifting his hands toward the fire. “I’ve seen you parkour your ass up the side of a building and dive off a cliff. It’s like watching a sci-fi movie with some extraterrestrial trying to fit in amongst humans.”
“Are you saying that I’m out of this world, Jeopardy?” White asked.
“Absolutely, ma’am.”
T-Rex crossed his arms over his chest and stretched a foot out long. “From what Nomad said in his debrief, there was neither hide nor hair of these men. If you’re chasing a guy with gravel for a jaw, then he’s unique. You’re sure you’ve wrapped up his team, no stragglers?”
“Phossy jaw is in modern life so rare that I was able to track our guy to Paris, where he’s been undergoing treatment at a hospital that specializes in toxicity reconstruction. And while Phossy Jaw and the Boys—”
“Sounds like a garage band,” Nitro said.
T-Rex leaned forward. “Let’s hear about the mission.”
“While Phossy Jaw and the Boys were hanging out in beautiful Paris for the last few months,” White finished, “his cellmates—terror cell, not prison cell, though a girl can dream.”
“Go back to your Lynx story for a minute, please, White. Is Phossy Jaw from Germany, or was he just in Germany looking for the ring?” Ty asked.
“They’re all from the Eastern Bloc,” White said. “Phossy Jaw was searching the toxic cave in Germany. They were all in the area, staying in cabins at a campsite, saying they were nomad tech bros.” White scuffed her foot into the ground.
“My takeaway,” T-Rex said. “Is that you’re once again honoring us with an opportunity to complete a mission that was started by an Echo brother. We accept. Now, what is it you need from us, and how fast can you get us into play?”
“Before I tell you that, I’m going to give you this part of the information, as it will impact your planning and mission execution. There were four known men in a terrorist cell. Since December, my team has added two others to their working group. I have a couple of pots coming to a boil with my own case load, so I had to hand off surveillance to a colleague. Each of our targets is living in a different place. They come together to work on a project. The project is being packed into boxes.”
“Send a French bomb squad in,” Ty said.
“If they’re not living in the same place, they can scatter,” T-Rex said. “Once in the wind, they’ll start up again.”
“They didn’t stop when half their team was gunned down in a German street. It made them grip tighter,” White said.
“You must have permission from the French government for us to be operating on their soil. Why didn’t France dive in?” T-Rex asked.
“France doesn’t know what’s up,” White said. “They know the U.S. State Department has been looking at a group of men that needs to sit down for atete-a-tete.They know we have a special forces operator and a CIA field officer injured in an attack that ended their careers.” White sniffed. “We are not inFrance’s good graces. They’ll do this for us if we go in on cats’ paws. Our ability to stay silent has big implications.”
“Got it,” T-rex said. “Do you know anything about the boxes?”
“The contents? No,” White said. “They are piling boxes that have some heft to them in what we’ve labeled their production apartment. We believe they will move those boxes to a boat on the Seine. The boat will meet with a tanker flying a false flag as part of the shadow fleet to take oil from Russia to Cuba. Meanwhile, their friends in the USA, whom we have not identified, will rent a fishing boat and meet them. The boxes will be transferred onto the fishing boat, and the boat will go up the East Coast.”
“Where will they land?” T-Rex asked.
“We don’t know. We’re not involved in that part. We’re not going to let it get to that part. These men will be in our custody and unable to follow through. Once we know what the product is in the boxes, we’ll give the French intelligence—the DGSE—a call, and they can handle it from there.”
“The product, they aren’t talking about it in the apartment?” Ty asked.
“Cone of silence,” White said. “Radio music, streaming services. In their own homes, ‘What do you want for dinner?’ ‘Did you see that cute girl?’ Absolutely nothing of interest comes out of their mouths.”
“How do you think they’re communicating about the project?” Nitro asked.
“Out in public in the park?” White shifted around. “In their local dialect in ride-share cars? I don’t know.”
“But you landed on therightgroup,” T-Rex said.
“Let’s just say that phossy jaw is a highly unique marker and the photos we have computer match to the men walking around the street.”
“But they took an international flight. They have to have passports,” Havoc pointed out.
“They do. We found their credentials after we found the men’s names.”
“But to fly—" Havoc started.
