Page 74 of Jacqueline's Quest

Epilogue

Two days ago...

“There you are.” Asher motioned for Alex Schoell to enter his office. For the last several weeks, shit had been turned upside down in R.O.O.T between the trials for Lincoln and Mateo being kidnapped to the shit in Mexico with Murray and his sister, they hadn’t had a minute to breathe. The only upside, Schoell had plenty of downtime. However, it all came to an end when Asher called him. It was his turn to take on a mission.

“Traffic sucks here,” Alex grumbled.

“You should stay at the base more often then.” Asher shrugged.

"Yeah, not happening. I hate to say it, but women and kids running around here, rubs me wrong." He'd noticed it a couple of weeks ago. Jealousy had gripped his gut and wouldn't let go. He hated it, but he'd sacrificed as much as anyone on the team, and yet everything he wanted had been stripped from him.

It sucked.

“Yeah, well, you’re getting your wish. I have a job for you. You’re going back to Colombia.” Asher handed him the file. “Looks like Lincoln left some unfinished business down there.”

Alex paged through the report and frowned. “The assassination attempt?”

Asher nodded. “There were leads all of you found. It appears through a little more digging—”

“You mean your uncle?” He smirked, teasing Asher. Since they’d found out about their commander’s lineage, they’d given him as much shit as possible, to even the field.

“Look asshole...”

He held up his hands. “Sorry, habit.”

“How about I beat the habit out of you?” Asher cocked a brow. When Alex didn’t say anything, the leader of R.O.O.T continued. “As I was saying, the information we have is that Lincoln had several vested interests in Colombia. It wasn’t just the cocoa fields or the Aguila Cartel he’d been after, but the Uranium 243 had been the other honey pot the bastard was after.”

“Son of a bitch was stingy,” Alex muttered.

“He’d been getting away with taking what he saw for almost thirty years, why not expand his operation?” Asher had a point. From the minute they started digging into Lincoln, the dirtier the man became. What he’d done to Calvin and others seemed like child’s play in the grand scheme of things.

“So, what do you need?”

“I believe there is still an existing contract out on the President of Colombia. I also believe, even though Lincoln is sitting in solitary confinement, he’s still running his day to day dealings by a proxy. If I’m correct, Lincoln’s lackies will be going after that Uranium mine in Colombia. He’ll sell it to the highest bidder as well. If he does, we’re fucked. I need you to use your connections and find out who the fucking hitman or hitmen could be and eliminate them.”

"Can't the government stop him stateside?" Alex closed the file. "Wouldn't it be easier?"

“Had this been anyone else, I think Homeland would have already arrested the person working with Lincoln, but I don’t think he’s stateside.”

Now it made sense. When they were in Colombia the second time, they'd been preventing Calvin and his brothers from blowing up a Barclay building. Since they didn't investigate the rest of the building, and only grabbed the boxes of paperwork they could find, Alex had a feeling whoever was working with Lincoln could still be using the building as a base of operation. Maybe they should have blown up the building after all. It appears it would have been for the best after all. Because whoever was helping the good senator was back in there finishing the job.

“When do I leave?”

“I need you to get with yourpeople. You have three days. You'll be meeting up with them at Absolution. I'll also put you in contact with Luca and both of you can work out all the details. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go back to high school, for an impromptu meeting. Keep me posted on this."

Alex nodded. “Roger that.”

One week later...

Alex Schoell saddled up to the bar in Absolution and raised his hand, to get the bartender’s attention. The job seemed perfect for him. He had the connections to bring anyone down and over the years, Asher had used it to his benefit, more often than not. But, he also wasn’t a one-trick pony either. As the team’s EOD officer, he’d been trained to build, dismantle and set off any type of bomb or IED—Improvised Explosive Device. It also made him the most dangerous member of the team, with the exception being Noah.Thatbastard took pride in picking people off over a mile away.

Today, though, Alex was looking for someone in particular. A woman. Not just any woman though. This one, Maggie Jones aka Lady Absinthe aka Bloody Dawn, was ruthless. She took the jobs no one else wanted—wet work more specifically. She had no loyalties. And, the reason he'd come to Absolution. If Maggie knew it was Alex who'd put out the ad for a hit on the dark web, she'd never show up.

They had a history.

A long history.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked.

---