Page 20 of A Touch of Treachery
“Charlotte is the best analyst at Section,” Desmond said, anger seeping into his voice.“She knows more about Henrika Hyde than anyone, and she was right about today’s mission.Henrikadidtry to steal the Grunglass Necklace.”
“Yes, Henrika just didn’t do it in person, which means she is still free and plotting against Section,” Percy replied, his cold voice a sharp contrast to his son’s hot tone.“That alone would have made today’s mission a failure, but now it’s been compounded by the fact that Bryce Finkley breached our servers.Henrika is probably reviewing Section secrets at this very moment.”
A tense silence fell over the conference room.As much as I hated to admit it, he was right.Henrika had seen through my trap, and even worse, she’d turned it around and beaten me at my own spy game.
Desmond opened his mouth to keep defending me, but I touched his arm under the table out of sight of the others.Desmond hissed out a breath, and some of the tension trickled out of his body.Arguing with the General wouldn’t do him or me any good.
“As of this moment, I will be spearheading the efforts to find Henrika and make sure she pays for her many crimes against Section 47,” General Percy said, his voice booming out like thunder.
He looked at me, his pale blue eyes even frostier than before.“Ms.Locke will no longer have an active role in any missions regarding Henrika and her associates.”
His words slapped me across the face, but all I could do was sit there and take the brutal blow.
General Percy regarded me in stony silence.My heart dropped with every long, slow second, but I met his gaze with a steady one of my own and resisted the urge to wipe my cold, clammy palms on my legs.
“Ms.Locke will return to her previous duties as an analyst on level three,” Percy said.“She will forward any information related to the Hyde investigation to Ms.Samson, who will be Desmond’s liaison going forward.”
Being banished to level three was a clear, harsh demotion, like I was a broken, defective doll being stuffed back into a box and returned to the store.Frustration pounded through me at losing access to all the Section intelligence regarding Henrika, much of which I had painstakingly gathered myself, but I held my tongue.General Percy might use my arguing as an excuse to fire me outright.
Everyone stared at me.No one spoke, although Joan winced the faintest bit, as if she didn’t like this new development any more than I did.Curious.She should have beenthrilledto be Desmond’s liaison, especially since she had wanted the plum job all along.Given her relationship with Graham Walker, Joan had just as many reasons to want Henrika captured—or killed—as Desmond and I did.Being demoted was a bitter pill to swallow, but at least Joan would watch Desmond’s back.
“Do you understand your new assignment, Ms.Locke?”Percy asked in that same booming voice.
“Yes, sir,” I replied, careful to keep my tone calm and neutral.
My father had been one of the best cleaners Section ever had, and he had lost almost all his battles with the General.I might not be as deadly as the infamous Jack Locke, but I knew better than to repeat his mistakes.
Jethro Percy was not the kind of person you took on unless you were absolutely certain you could succeed.I would sacrifice this battle—and a large chunk of my pride—if it meant winning a long-term war, even if I still wasn’t exactly sure why the General had me in his crosshairs.
Percy must have thought I’d been sufficiently cowed because he snapped his fingers at Diego.“I want to know the second you figure out what Bryce Finkley accessed in our system.Then we can determine how to best mitigate the damage from this disastrous mission.That is all.Dismissed.”
Desmond, Evelyn, Gia, Diego, and Joan looked at me.Even General Percy stared at me, and his two bodyguards drifted forward, as if they thought I might throw myself along the length of the conference table and try to choke the life out of their boss with my bare hands.As difficult as it was, I squashed the tempting urge.I couldn’t outbrawn Percy, much less his bodyguards, so I would have to outthink them, even though my mind felt like it was mired in quicksand right now.
Several seconds ticked by.When it became apparent that I wasn’t going to make a scene, the others pushed their chairs back from the table and gathered up their things.I should have done the same, but I was frozen in place, as though a transmuter had turned the blood in my veins to ice and then glued my ass to my chair for good measure.
Beside me, Desmond got to his feet.He skimmed his fingers along my jacket sleeve, only touching the fabric and not my skin, but the small show of support cracked through the ice that encased my body.
I pushed my own chair back and slowly stood up.With every motion, more of that ice cracked away, replaced by hot, pounding fury.
General Percy wanted to demote me?Fine.I would return to level three like a good little analyst, put my head down, and get to work.But one way or another, Iwasgoing to find Henrika Hyde, and then she was going to pay for everything she’d done to me, and especially to Desmond.
No one was getting in the way of my mission, not even General Jethro Percy.
CHAPTER EIGHT
DESMOND
Besideme,Charlottegotto her feet.Her face was calm, serene even, but her aura exploded with color, burning like a sapphire sun over her heart.The light was so intense and bright it made me wince, and sensations burst off her one after another—red-hot anger, rock-hard stubbornness, and most of all, a razor-sharp spike of determination that slammed into my own chest like a spear.
Despite the General’s orders, Charlotte wasn’t giving up her quest to track down Henrika.Pride rippled through me, along with more than a little admiration.Most people folded in on themselves like a paper bag rather than go up against my father, but not Charlotte.Her inner strength was one of the things I respected about her the most.
Well, I wasn’t giving up either.I’d promised Graham to take down everyone responsible for his death, along with the other agents who had been killed on the Blacksea mission, and I would do anything to keep that vow, even defy my own father.
Then again, this would hardly be the first time I’d done that.More like the latest rebellious act in the never-ending game of tug-of-war between my father and me.
The General was practically vibrating with cold fury.Well, I was just as pissed.He might be one of the leaders of Section 47, but he had no right to speak to Charlotte that way.I’d gone on the mission too, and it was just as much my fault as it was Charlotte’s that we had failed, but my father had deliberately humiliated and demoted Charlotte in front of the others.He’d been nothing but a giant, egotistical bastard.The Jethro Percy special, in other words.
As far as I knew, my father had never met Charlotte before, and I was willing to bet his harshness had more to do with his dislike of Jack Locke than with Charlotte’s supposed failure.
