Page 40 of Reverence

“What about the driver, what did he look like?”

“I don’t know.” He sounded scared, his voice cracking. “I didn’t see their faces, it was dark.”

“What about accents? Did they sound like they were from this area?” They clearly used someone innocent to do their dirty work.

“T-the one in the passenger seat had a Russian accent.” Asher and I looked at each other for a few seconds. “The driver never spoke. The curly-haired guy sounded Hispanic.”

“Doesn’t explain what you were doing here and where you got that uniform. What did they send you to the Bureau for? What were you supposed to retrieve, Eric?”

Ares locked in, a sliver away from becoming a drill sergeant who expected to see results from his soldiers.

“Files. Camera footage. Access cards.” He blabbered. Spilling the truth like hot tea. “They gave me the uniform, the card, even showed me the layout of the Bureau.”

Who the hell were these people?

“Why you? You’ve got a clear criminal record.”

“I don’t know.” He lowered his head. “I don’t know. I just did what they asked of me. I didn’t want to do this you have to believe me.”

Ares glanced into the two-way mirror and even though he couldn’t see me it felt like his gaze pierced right through me. He shrugged and then turned his attention back to Eric.

“You were supposed to retrieve access cards but you already had one that got you into the CCTV room. That’s quite the conundrum.”

Ares laughed but clearly the situation didn’t amuse him. It happened to be a classic tactic and always threw the suspect off course.

“T-the card they gave me only had access to the CCTV room and entry into the building. From there on I should’ve retrieved everything else. I-I was informed that there wouldn’t be any agents present and if they were, they wouldn’t be on the ground floor.”

“Ah.” Ares nodded.

“What happened here was a case of wrong place, wrong time and you my friend were definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time. You also confessed to multiple different crimes. Even if you didn’t want to commit them, you were still complicit.”

“No!” Eric stood up but his hands were cuffed to the desk. “No! Please, man. Please you’ve got to help me. I told you everything I know.”

He pleaded, while Asher and I exchanged looks.

“Turn it off,” Asher instructed and I clicked the button next to the little window, which meant we could no longer hear them. “Do you understand what this means, Rivera?”

I turned my back on Ares and the suspect, focusing solely on the SAC. “This is extremely malicious,” I confirmed. “Something tells me this is connected to the case Nicolas worked on. How were they always one step ahead? They must have an accomplice on the inside.”

“You’re saying it could be a mole?” I pursed my lips, trying to avoid thinking negatively of my colleagues.

“Yes, sir. It’s the only explanation.”

I said, tucking my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket.

“The motive is unclear but from my observations I can tell whoever this mystery man is, obviously wants to infiltrate the Bureau and destroy it from the inside or perhaps he could be leading us elsewhere while he does whatever illegal activity is on his agenda.”

The door swung open and Ares stepped inside, I didn’t look at him but could see him in my peripheral vision. “There’s only one man who matches the description he gave me but that’s a dead end.”

“Why?” Asher asked, turning to face him.

“Went off the grid over two decades ago but used to cause a lot of chaos. Only problem is, we don’t have a name. Only a call sign.”

“Military?”

“Something like that.” I silently scrutinised the conversation, making mental notes. “A lieutenant. The issue is, everyone who knew his real name is either dead or missing. Case files have been erased.”

“So the man clearly doesn’t want to be found.” That’s when I finally spoke.