Page 134 of Ricochet

“Like a vigilante? Then why hasn’t she?” Jared asked. “She’s hoping for a reprieve from Mayhem and doesn’t want to commit murder.”

“Monsterhunting versus murder,” Lenora said. “I see a difference.”

“If your final act is to hurt the trafficking system,” Jared offered. “You take out the framework. She’s not done that.”

“Not yet,” Lenora snipped.

Parker’s brows lifted, mouthing, “Not yet,” and picked up a pen to fidget with. “Why hasn’t she?” He tapped it on his knee.Still planning, not enough resources or intel, the opportunityhad presented itself. “What kind of framework would she know about?”

Jared shook his head, unsure. They didn’t even know what she had been doing. How the hell would they know how extensive her reach was?

Lenora hummed. “Think big, my friends.”

“We are,” Parker snapped.

“You aren’t. Her target is mind boggling. Not only because of its size but because some ideas have to be discovered to bebelievable.”

Big trafficking networks? The biggest ones weren’t based in North America, but there were thousands of small networks around the country. Even today, Delta couldn’t get away from their container ship nightmare from weeks ago. One came into Newark, only to be caught, and the entire crew killed themselves, leaving containers with terrified people.

How big could Adelia go?

Javier’snotification pinged on screen. Delta team was in place, and Gloria Astor was on the hotel grounds.

“We gotta go, Lenora,” Jared interrupted and signaled to Parker.

He cut the call and switched the central sound into Delta’s feeds for the night’s event.

“What’s so improbable that it is unimaginable?” Jared asked.

“That’s not how probability works.”

Weary-eyed, Jared waved his hand. “Do somethingmathematical.”

Delta’s monotone voice played in the background and Parker laughed quietly. He knew what Boss Man meant, but what the shit.

Parker’s hand hovered over the keyboard, trying to decide what data sets might be of value. Instead, he reversed hacked his answer. Delta was at the Humanitarian dinner. Colin and Deacon appeared to be headed there. Maybe Adelia too? The answer was in NewYork, and he layered data sets of patterns and recent intel, from the day’s news to the Indian ocean job with ACES.

After he put in the data and rubbed his eyes, Parker leaned back to check the screen above. One word stood out above the rest. “Boss, we’ve got a problem.”

Jared glanced over, taking in the word ASTOR, and moving on. “What’s up?”

“That’s our answer.”

Jared’s eyes narrowed, andslowly, he went turned back to the screen. “The answer to what question?”

Parker rolled his lips together, knowing that he’d put in raw data and didn’t expect one clear word to jump so brilliantly. “The question was, ‘who is the monster that Adelia is hunting?’”

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