Page 29 of Rules of Engagement

"That's the only place I can think of, so, yes, but I don't think he'd ever get an email saying ‘Hey, how about that five hundred mill?.’ Check into that angle while you look for any other threats that might have been made to him. Delgado?" I asked, turning to him. "What about your history with Solomon?"

"Not much to tell. We're old friends. We met when we were in the Army. Solomon rose through the ranks and became a major by the time he left. I was just a captain."

"He was a major!" I gasped. "I didn't know that."

"He was probably cowed by your own illustrious Army career," said Delgado as he winked.

"Hah-hah." I laughed at his teasing. My career in the Army had been the very opposite of illustrious. In an impulsive move, I joined the Army as my ticket out of town after finding my ex-fiancé cheating with my former sister-in-law. All I wanted to do was get as far away as possible but I'd only made it a few weeks into boot camp when it was not-so-politely suggested that the Army and I weren't compatible in the short term, never mind the long term. I still kept in touch with a few people from back then and none of them ever regretted my leaving.

"Did you serve in the same division?" I asked Delgado.

"Yeah, for a while. We were in a war zone a long time back and things were... it was rough," he said, his eyes glazing over as he spoke. "Bad things happened over there. People got a little crazy. Some people became corrupt. There were rumors that financial aid wasn't making it to the right people. Some guys from our unit got implicated in a plan to steal a hundred million dollars. Solomon caught them. There was a shoot-out and he saved my life and those of several other men."

"What happened?"

"We were told to observe and collect data on where the money was going. One of the crooked guys from our unit got wind of what we were doing and tipped off the others. Solomon had an idea of who was involved but not how many, and these guys went to move the money before they could load it up and send it back to the US. We exchanged fire and caught them. It went to military court and after that, I don't know. It all got hushed up and, I gotta be honest, I didn't want to know the outcome."

"So that's another hundred million reasons why someone might want payback?" I asked.

Delgado shook his head. "This was years and years ago."

"But they might be out of jail now and looking for payback."

"I'll make some inquiries, but I don't like doing them for that."

"What happened after you got home?" I asked.

"After our tour? Thankfully, that was the last deployment for me. Solomon left the unit a couple months later."

"But not the Army?"

"No. They wanted him somewhere else, but he never said where. Even though we were friends, he was always cagey about whoever he worked for. I think he was in some specialist unit. I know he left a year later."

"That must have been when I met him," said Fletcher. "He joined the CIA directly after he left the Army. My boss recruited him and we..."

"Hold on," I said, putting up my hand for him to stop. "Solomon was in the CIA?"

"Yes. He was one of our best operatives. He worked financial and cyber crimes, amongst other things. You know I can't tell you anything about those cases but I can tell you that he definitely annoyed some very bad people."

"I'm going to need their names," I told him.

"I need to make some calls. Can you trust me to not give you the names, but still check into them?"

"Do I have a choice?" I asked.

"No," said Fletcher.

"Then do it, but don't expect MPD not to push," I warned. “What can you tell me?”

"You know I can't tell you much, but I can tell you that Solomon worked all over the world as well as from our bases on American soil. That’s a lot of ground to cover. It might take some time, but I'll call in any favors wherever I can. Solomon managed to create a lot of goodwill when he left the agency."

"You worked with him until he left?"

"No, but I saw him here and there. He left my division after a few years and I know he was working on something covert. I can't tell you about that because it was a mystery."

"Do you know anything? How long this covert op was? Or where?"

"I think six months but I don't know where. I know he got vaccinated around that time so it had to be somewhere exotic but I can't be more specific. I do know when I next saw him, Solomon was very unhappy. He said he didn't like what he was doing and he was thinking of leaving. I told him to follow his heart and he wouldn't make a wrong choice. He did leave and I know he freelanced a little while before he set up the agency. That was a few years ago."

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