Page 18 of Born for Starlight

Chapter Six

I had about three seconds to decide how much of the truth I could survive telling in front of Jase, while still maintaining credibility with Simon, a man I now seriously respected.

Three seconds wasn't much, but it was going to have to be enough.

"I used to do trafficking consulting," I said. "Before the general work. Networks, extraction, that end of things. It's part of why Bruno and I crossed paths in the first place, back when he was still working cases that touched mine."

"And the crash?" Simon hadn't moved from the window, but his voice had gone very still. He’d sat across from liars enough times to know exactly what one sounded like. "You've got an opinion on that too. I can see it on you."

"It's what brought you here, isn't it?" Jase said, putting the pieces together. Nobody in this crowd was slow. I'd been stupid to underestimate them.

I nodded. "I think it was too convenient." I kept my hands loose at my sides. Crossing my arms in a room like this one was asking to be read as defensive.

"You said you're doing trafficking consulting like it's a job title on a business card. What organization?" Simon asked.

"You want a business card, I don't have one.” I held his eyes. “I've spent most of my career being the man nobody can quite place, because that's the only way the work gets done."

"Bullshit, someone paid you. Someone signed your check, you didn't work for free. And you're old enough that you were getting paid before all this crypto shit started happening." Jase said crypto like it was something smeared on the bottom of his boot.

"Jase is right." Simon nodded. "I don't want to be making a dozen calls and endangering live operations, but I want some kind of references. Bruno doesn't have anything recent."

Something inside me eased. The man was professional down to his bone. But not some rule-following professional. No, someone who was smart and savvy, who would back you and make sure nothing would happen to you on his watch.

Hell, he could be somebody I would actually not mind working for, and that was saying something.

"Let me make two calls, then I'll have them call you. You'll recognize them. How does that sound?" I asked the former Lieutenant Commander. He paused as he considered what I offered. Then nodded.

"Simon, if Angelica’s a target, we need eyes on her. Real ones, not one of those dial-a-dates that Code has her hooked up with. I’m going to need time off so I can sit on her," Jase said.

Dial-a-date? Code? Code Drakos?

"I need to get her schedule. Flights, appearances, whatever Marty's got booked,” Jase said. He was talking to himself.

“We need a read on the trip to Brazil, timeline, contacts, who's supposedly meeting her down there. And we need it before she lands, not after,” Simon continued Jase’s train of thought.

Jase's jaw worked. His eyes came to me, and after a moment he looked settled. "You knew this was coming." It wasn't a question, either. "Before the podcast even aired. That's why you stayed."

"I suspected it. I didn't know the shape of it until I heard this latest episode, same as you."

"But you suspected she could be a target the second you heard about that orphanage interview weeks back." Jase's voice had gone low, dangerous in a different register than the shouting had been.

"Suspected is the right word. But not enough to do anything. It wasn't until the plane crash I thought to come find her. To pull the Bruno connection."

Jase came and stepped into my space, his finger at my chest. "You were so fucking out of line not to tell Bruno what was going on."

"There wasn't anything to say yet. A hunch isn't actionable." I held his stare, because to look away was tantamount to a confession. "If I'd walked up to Bruno six weeks ago and said I think your sister might be in danger because of a podcast interview and a mechanical failure, he'd have laughed me out of the state."

"Do you really think that? Is that what you've been telling yourself?"

Jase held up his hand. "Save it. I don't want to hear it. We're here now, that's all that matters. Apparently you're some sort of expert, so I for one want to use and abuse you to make sure not one hair on my baby sister's head gets harmed."

"Drakos, you've had your say. Grainger gets that you'll kill him if Angelica is harmed in any way, but we need to get to your other point."

Jase looked at Simon. There was a confused look on his face. Poor guy had lost the plot. Then his eyes narrowed and he looked back at me. "What can you do for us, smart guy?"

I gave them a lot of what I knew about operations in South America. There were many. Human trafficking had been going on since the slave trade, we just called it something else now, and it was slightly more sophisticated.

"There's a lot of black-market organ harvesting that goes on down in Brazil. We're seeing the human trafficking and the organ harvesting overlapping. Same routes, same people moving the product. A girl who's too damaged to sell one way is worth more broken down into parts, and they've got the surgeons on standby to do it."