Page 58 of Defenseless
“I know it wasn’t easy, but you make it sound easy,” Ethan said, his voice pitched with a hint of awe. Sabina didn’t miss Chad’s quirk of a smile. He’d always been vocal about how talented she was and for right or wrong, she knew he was pleased his cousin saw it, too.
“It got a little touch-and-go about a year and a half after he arrived. He changed his name, and that threw off my search. But while he may have changed his name, he did not change his habits. I was eventually able to track him through his movements and pin down his new name.”
“Which is?” Chad asked.
“Benicio Silva,” Sabina answered, bringing up a picture of the man neither she nor her sister had seen for twenty-four years.
Kara let out a wry chuckle. “Think he’s had a little work done?”
Sabina laughed. Benicio Silva looked remarkably like the man she remembered except for the slightly plasticky look to his skin.
“What do we do about this now?” Ethan asked.
Sabina looked to Chad, and she wasn’t disappointed. He knew what she wanted and looked ready to go along with it.
He grinned. “Now we take a little trip.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Chad closedthe email he’d been reading and relaxed back in his seat. They’d flown from Mystery Lake to Miami, where one of the larger, more luxurious HICC planes had picked them up for the nine-hour flight to São Paulo. Now they were somewhere over the Caribbean with eight hours left in the flight.
“Transport and hotel are booked,” he announced to everyone who could hear. Kara and Sabina were napping in one of the bedrooms, but Ethan sat across the table from him. Teague and Killian were also nearby. They’d be overseeing overall security during their time in São Paulo while Ethan and Chad focused on the sisters.
“What do we need to know?” Teague asked, looking up from the crossword he’d been working on. Chad wasn’t sure if crosswords and sudoku were just how he passed the time while flying, or if they were something he did regularly. Either way, he’d had one or the other in front of him since they’d taken off from California.
“All the details are in your emails,” he answered.
Without a word, Teague set his crossword book down and pulled his computer out. Killian had appeared to be dozing on one of the couches, but he, too, reached for the bag at his side and pulled out his computer, only opening his eyes once the device was sitting on his chest.
“Is travel always like this?” Ethan asked, nodding to their surroundings.
Chad chuckled. “Sometimes. Depends on the op. Stella and Hunter have a lot of resources and treat their employees well. They also know that arriving at a location exhausted isn’t optimal. If it were just us,” he said, gesturing to the four men, all of whom were ex-military, “we’d probably be on something a little less luxurious.”
“They did it for Sabina and Kara?”
Chad wagged his head. “Probably. But it’s more than that. Stella and Hunter do a lot of work that most people don’t know about. They get involved in everything from preventing human trafficking to ensuring affordable childcare. Having someone like Kevin Jacobs in a position of power—a man who made his money through illegal gambling, prostitution, and organized crime—isn’t something they’ll sit back and let happen. Not now that they know about it.”
“After all these years, do you think Benicio will still have evidence of Jacobs’s crimes?” Ethan asked.
“Who knows?” Chad answered. “Assuming he is the one who stole Jacobs’s money, it’s unlikely they’ve done any business together in the past eighteen years. Given that it was so long ago, if he does have something, though, he might be willing to turn it over.”
Ethan turned his head and looked out the window. Chad remained silent, giving him the space to think. As with his cousin, the military had taught Chad all about how to run ops, tactical assaults, and similar engagements. But it hadn’t been until he’d joined the FBI that he’d learned about the cat-and-mouse game that was the mainstay of investigatory and intelligence work. HICC’s business blended those aspects of security—they had the ability to strike, with guns and weapons, but also with knowledge. Ethan didn’t yet have the training that Chad had on what he often considered the more sinister side of things. He’d get there, though.
“You don’t think this is a fool’s errand?” Ethan asked, curiosity ringing true in his voice.
Chad shook his head. “Kevin wasn’t the head of the organization, we know that. So who was? And is he or she still in power? If so, who are they in bed with? These are the kinds of things Benicio might know. He might not be willing to share with us if he’s worried about coming back onto their radar after stealing that money. But ifwefound him, chances are he’ll realize others can, too. And if he’s worried about hislife, he might be willing to sing like a canary if he thinks it will keep him safe.”
Ethan considered the words. “And even if he’s not willing to talk about the organization he worked for, he might know something about other organizations. I doubt a man like Jacobs will change his spots, so to speak. If he stopped working with one conglomerate, I’d bet he took his business to another.”
“Exactly,” Chad said, the paused. “Stella and Hunter have another reason, though.” Ethan rolled his head against the back of the seat and looked at him. “The contact at the SEC that Tess spoke to yesterday?” Ethan nodded. “Well,shehas contacts with the CIA and FBI. Those agencies are also interested in Jacobs’s dealings. Not so much in him as an individual, but who he’s working with, how the business is working, and the flow of money. In the past few years, there’s been an increasing concern of foreign money making it into our election system enough so that the FEC isn’t the only agency interested. They’ve asked Stella and Hunter to help where they can.”
Ethan’s gaze never left his as the gears turned. “And it never hurts to have a marker to call in with the alphabet agencies. Not that they wouldn’t agree otherwise, but it helps.”
Chad inclined his head. “It does help, yes. Especially in our business.”
“How do you want to handle check-in?” Teague asked, ending their conversation.
“You and Killian in the lead,” Chad answered. “Check-in, get a feel for the lobby, then we’ll bring Sabina and Kara in. I’m not anticipating any problems since no one knows we’re coming, but I’d rather play it safe.”
