Page 52 of Dublin Debacle

Emily’s uncle met his niece’s stare and held it, his brow furrowing. “You might be angry when you hear it.”

“Angry or not,” Emily said, “let’s hear it.”

“You know that automobile crash that supposedly took your father?”

Emily’s eyes narrowed. “Supposedly?”

“Well,” her uncle said, “it might not have been your father in that vehicle.” He grimaced. “In fact, the body in the vehicle might already have been dead when the vehicle went up in flames.”

“Uncle Paddy,” Emily said, “you need to stop beating around the bush and tell it to me straight.”

Paddy shook his head and winced. “Damned headache.” He sighed. “Anyway, that wasn’t your father’s charred remains in his vehicle.”

Emily glared at the old man. “What are you saying?” she asked, her voice low and intense.

“Seamus O’Brien didn’t die in the crash. He’s alive and well, and hiding in Dublin.”

Emily gasped. “He isn’t? That’s wonderful!” Her eyes widened, and joy spread across her lips for a brief moment before her frown returned. “But the body... Who was it?”

“They borrowed an unclaimed body from the morgue,” her Uncle Paddy said.

“They?” Jack asked.

Paddy looked left, then right, before meeting Jack’s gaze. “The J2, also known as the DMI.”

Emily frowned. “J2? DMI? As in Ireland’s Directorate of Military Intelligence?”

Her uncle nodded.

“Why would they do that?” Jack asked.

“Seriously?” Atkins said. “Government entities don’t normally ‘borrow’ bodies from morgues.”

“Since his cover was blown,” Paddy said, “I suppose it doesn’t matter if I tell you what I know.”

Emily shook her head. “What cover? What are you talking about?”

“Your father, Seamus O’Brien.” Her uncle spoke to her as if she were a thick-headed child. “He was an undercover informant to J2 in a special peacekeeping effort created shortly after the Troubles ended.”

Emily shoved a hand through her hair. “How did I not know this?”

Her uncle’s brow rose. “If everyone had known, he wouldn’t have been undercover.”

“But he’s my father.” She waved her hand in the air. “We’re family.” Her eyes narrowed. “But he told you. Does anyone else know?”

Paddy grimaced. “I think Finn suspects as much.”

Emily drew in a breath and let it out in a huff. “Am I the only one in the dark about my father?”

“Apparently not,” her uncle said. “As I was sayin’, his cover was blown while he was searching for the source of the propaganda pitting the Radical Nationalists against the Travellers and vice versa.

“Fortunately, he found the explosives attached to his car before it was too late. He contacted his handler in J2. They immediately commandeered a body from the morgue, placed it in Seamus’s car and remotely triggered the explosion, making certain the body inside burned past recognition.” Paddy touched his niece’s hand. “He hated doing that to you and Finn, what with the funeral and all. But he had been discovered. He wasn’t safe, and he wasn’t sure you and Finn would be safe unless he died or disappeared.”

Emily’s brow dipped low. “You knew all this time?”

Paddy shrugged. “Not all that time.”

“Did you know at the funeral?”

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