Page 77 of A Touch of Treachery
“Yes, sir.”I’d learned a long time ago there was no use arguing with the General when he was in one of his moods.
My father cleared his throat again.“Be careful, and stay safe, son.”
“Yes, sir.”Once again, that was all I could say.
My father hit a button and ended the video call.I stared at my phone, wondering at the General’s cryptic words—and exactly why he wanted Henrika Hyde dead so badly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHARLOTTE
AftermymeetingwithHenrika, I returned to the honeymoon suite.
The first thing I did was kick off my stilettoes, fish my laptop out of my suitcase, and check the flash drive.Henrika had kept her word, and the drive contained the list of undercover Section agents.Even better, the files were still encrypted and hadn’t been copied, as far as I could tell.I sighed with relief and sagged back against the couch cushions.At least something had gone right tonight.
I basked in my relief for a few seconds, then prowled around the suite, opening one cabinet after another, until I discovered a printer tucked away in a credenza.I flipped it on and printed out several documents related to the Mexico mission, along with dozens of maps and satellite images of the Glittertop Resort.
Even though I’d reviewed the information at Section headquarters, I wanted to look at everything again.Now that I’d seen the resort grounds in person, maybe I would have a better idea of where Henrika might be hiding her lab.Plus, I could always absorb, understand, analyze, and retain information much better if I looked at paper printouts rather than surfing through electronic documents.
I’d been looking through the files, maps, and photos for about ten minutes when an electronic beep sounded, and the door opened.I scrambled to my feet and whirled around, and Desmond stepped into the living room.
I hurried around the end of the couch, went over to him, and hugged him.Desmond wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my neck, his stubble tickling my skin.We held on to each other for the better part of a minute, just soaking up the comfort of each other’s presence.
I shuddered out a breath, then drew back and pushed a rumpled lock of dark blond hair back over his forehead.“What did you find in the woods?”
“Nothing,” Desmond muttered.“No buildings, no structures, not even the smallest hint about where Henrika’s lab might be located.Please tell me you had better luck with the UC list.”
I gestured over at my laptop on the low table in front of the couch.“Henrika honored our bet and gave me the list.She said she hadn’t even opened the files or tried to make any copies.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I do.According to my synesthesia, she wasn’t lying or parsing her words.”
Desmond frowned.“Why would Henrika just hand over the list?Especially when she went to so much trouble to hire Bryce to steal it in the first place?”
The same questions had been rattling around my mind ever since I’d left Henrika’s penthouse, and I kept coming back to the same alarming answers.“I think she just used the UC list as bait.To get us to show up in person at the resort.”
His frown deepened.“Why would she do that?Henrika knows how much you despise her.Me too.”
“I haven’t figured out her motives yet, but Henrika doled out a few more clues.”
I told Desmond everything Henrika had said in her library, including her business arrangement and personal relationship with Feliciano Salvador.
“That’s how she knows so much about the Mexico mission,” I said.“She wasthere, on-site, when it all went down.”
Desmond crossed his arms over his chest, his right index finger tapping on his left elbow.“Maybe that’s why the General wants her dead.Maybe Henrika knows something about the Mexico mission that would reflect badly on Section, on him.”
“The General doesn’t strike me as someone who cares about a little spy scandal.Besides, everyone at Section 47 knows the Mexico mission was a disaster.The General survived the initial fallout back then, so why would he suddenly be worried about it fifteen years later?”
Desmond shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
I gestured over at the papers I’d printed out.“I’ve been going back through all the files related to the Mexico mission.We know that Henrika has sold weapons to General Percy and Section 47 over the years.”
That’s what Henrika had claimed when Desmond and I confronted her at the Halstead Hotel a few months ago, and I had no reason to doubt her.Section 47 might ostensibly be the good guys, but the higher-ups did some pretty dark things from time to time, like buy weapons from criminals and use them to eliminate even more dangerous criminals.
“Sounds like there’s abutcoming,” Desmond said.
I sighed.“But according to all my research, Henrika and General Percy have never crossed paths.So why his sudden interest in neutralizing her?”
