Page 39 of A Touch of Treachery
Anger flared in my chest, and I opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, but Gia cut me off.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Jethro,” the cleaner supervisor snapped.“We all know Charlotte isn’t involved with Henrika.You’re just pissed because Henrika wormed her way into your private email.”
A muscle twitched in the General’s jaw, but he didn’t deny her accusation.
“The real question is what are we going to do about the situation?”Gia’s dark gaze flicked to me.“Charlotte, are you familiar with the Winterfest event?”
“Yes, I did a deep dive into the charity and its finances last year when I first started tracking Henrika.Winterfest is exactly what she said—a weekend of games, activities, and events at the Glittertop Resort in southwest Virginia.The resort is one of the crown jewels of Henrika’s empire, and it has ski slopes, a luxury spa, gourmet restaurants, a golf course, and other attractions.”
Diego hit some keys on his laptop, and more photos of the resort appeared on the screen.“The resort covers several thousand acres in the Appalachian Mountains.Not much else is around it.Lots of dirt roads and hiking trails, although the area is riddled with abandoned coal mines.”
“And the Winterfest event itself?”Joan asked in a skeptical voice.“Does it really raise money for charity?”
I nodded.“Yes.Every penny raised during the weekend goes to fund cancer research at legitimate companies, including Henrika’s.She even donates some of her own money.”
“Why would she do that?”Desmond asked.
I shrugged.“Henrika gets a lot of good press and a hefty tax write-off out of the event.Winterfest has become a hot ticket among the rich and wealthy, both mortal and paramortal.”
Evelyn tapped her pen on her notepad again.“And now Henrika is going to use all those people as cover to conduct her weapons auction,” she murmured, breaking out of her assistant role to make a rare comment.“You have to admire her audacity.”
“I don’t have to admire anything about that woman,” General Percy growled.“Now that we know where she’ll be, we’ll send in a strike team to capture her.The only thing Henrika will be enjoying this weekend are the dark confines of a Section black site.”
Gia shook her head.“You heard what Henrika said.If you go after her at the resort, she’ll turn on the guests.We all know about the horrific biomagical weapons Henrika has developed.If she has a big enough stockpile, especially of the Redburn explosive, she could kill every person at the resort.”
“She could do that anyway, just for spite,” General Percy growled again.
“Yes, she could,” I replied.“But Henrika also loves to play games.She is literally a genius, and one of her main pleasures in life is proving how smart she is and beating people at their own games.In this case, she’s decided to turn her attention to Section 47.”
“Are you suggesting we actually go along with her demands, Ms.Locke?”Percy turned his icy glower back to me.
“This is the closest we’ve been to Henrika inmonths,” I replied, struggling to keep my own voice calm in the face of his frosty anger.“She’s giving us a chance to play her game for a change.We can’t win if we don’t even sit down at the table.”
General Percy kept glaring at me, while everyone else glanced back and forth between us.
“Charlotte’s right,” Desmond chimed in.“Henrika blames Charlotte and me for keeping the Grunglass Necklace from her at the Halstead Hotel last year.And now she wants to get her revenge on us, along with the rest of Section 47.”
“But?”Percy demanded.
Desmond looked at his father.“But if there’s even the smallest chance we can recover the UC list before Henrika leaks it, then we have to take it.The lives of hundreds of Section agents are at stake, along with all the innocent civilians at the resort.”
Desmond glanced over at the film screen where Henrika’s face had been.Anger flared in his eyes, making them flash a bright silver-blue.“If Henrika wants to play a game, then I say we show her just how formidable Section 47 really is.”
“For Graham,” Joan added in a soft voice, her hand drifting up to the sword brooch pinned to her suit jacket.
Desmond nodded back at the liaison.“For Graham and all the other agents who died on the Blacksea mission.”
He looked over at his father.So did everyone else.General Percy drummed his fingers on the tabletop for several seconds, then his hand abruptly stilled and curled into a tight fist.
“Fine,” he growled again.“We’ll play her game—for now.But the second we get the chance, we’re taking down Henrika, along with everyone else who shows up for her auction.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DESMOND
Wespentthenextthirty minutes setting up mission parameters, reviewing procedures, and theorizing potential pitfalls.It was just before ten o’clock, which meant we had roughly seven hours to prep for the mission, pack our gear, and reach the resort.Henrika was putting us in scramble mode right from the beginning.
Gia did most of the talking, while my father sat back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest, glowering at nothing in particular.The General hated being outmaneuvered, and so far, Henrika was dancing around him like he was standing still.
