Page 58 of Wed
"Then I guess we better get planning. Carter, learn where those cameras are. Matt, you catch up on what Carter's been doing on your dark web profile. Find out where we send the money. Once we know that, we can clean out the accounts before we go in. Try and find out the names of the others invited. The more we know going in the easier this will be. The rest of you, make sure we have enough supplies. Check that Beau sent us enough medication. Geo, I want you to keep an eye on the internet news. Look for anything mentioning your foster home, the cop we took down, or CPS and child trafficking in this area. If you need help with learning how to use the computer let one of us know. I can't believe there hasn't been a single mention of any of this yet." Bryon took a deep breath. "If any of you feel we shouldn't be doing this, if anything feels off, say something. We'll back out. Keeping you all safe is more important than anything. Got it?"
Everyone nodded.
"Good. Then let's finish dinner and get to work." He picked up his plate, ignoring the fact it was now cold, and dug in.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
After days of planning, Bryon's nerves had eased. Carter was able to work miracles on the computer, and he was convinced he could get them in and out of the hotel without being seen on the known cameras they would encounter. That didn't mean there weren't other cameras they didn't know about, but it would do. Their faces weren't known to authorities in Las Vegas and using sunglasses and simple masks as if they were worried about Covid would make it hard to use facial recognition software. No one questioned anyone wearing a mask anymore. They'd use that to their advantage.
Bryon glanced up as Geo walked into the room. "Hey, what's up?" He smiled at the young boy. Geo had been a huge help over the last few days, digging up articles and information on the Wagstaff brothers and also watching for reports on any of the stings the team had done since landing in Vegas. There had been nothing. Whether it was a cover-up or just to keep the population from fear, Bryon wasn't sure. It didn't matter. They'd sent enough evidence to the right people he was sure if the police were trying to cover it up, it wouldn't stay that way for long. Once the team was back home in California safe, they'd send even more stuff out, alerting other lawmakers and possibly even some of the media to things.
"You guys are going in tonight, right?" Geo sat down in an oversized chair.
"Yep, Matt checks in around four this afternoon. We'll sneak in once he's there and wait in the hotel room until the party starts." Bryon saw the worry in Geo's eyes but decided not to comment on it. He'd let Geo take this conversation where he wanted.
"Are you sure it's safe?" Geo asked.
"It's never completely safe to do what we do, but I do promise you that we have done and will do everything to make sure no one gets hurt. We've run through this in every way we can think of and have made plans for any situation we can see might arise. If anything goes wrong, we won't go in." Bryon was sure Geo was worried about Xander. He'd just found a family he could claim and tonight put one of those parents in danger. If Geo was going to be part of Xander and Matt's family, he needed to get used to this kind of stuff. While Xander didn't go out as often as he used to, the team still did a few stings every month. "We're trained for this. It's what the team does. I know you're worried. I promise you, if anyone is in danger, we'll get out of there."
Geo nodded. "That's what Matt said too, but I can't help worrying."
"When we care about people it's impossible not to worry about them. I can't promise you there won't be times Xander isn't in danger, but I can promise you that I will do everything possible to keep him safe. The whole team will work to make sure everyone is safe. We've been doing this for over twenty years. We are careful. No one on the team has ever been severely hurt." He wasn't going to bring up the shootings. He had no idea if Geo had noticed the scars Xander and Kacey both had or talked about what caused them. It wasn't his place to bring it up. Especially right now when Geo was already scared for them.
"What time will you guys be back?" Geo asked.
"I'm not sure. I hope we won't take too long, but we aren't going in until around ten, so it could be late. I want you to make sure there's coffee made when we get home. I always like a cup after I go out. If you want to make pizza or something else we have around here, go ahead. Xander will be hungry."
"Xander's always hungry." Geo laughed.
"Very true. We all will be since we're skipping dinner. We don't want to call room service or go out for food once we're in the hotel room. So if you have stuff waiting for us, we'll be grateful." He hoped giving Geo a job would help ease his mind and keep him from worrying too much about them. "You know Carter will be watching things as closely as he can. They'll know if anything happens. We'll call them the moment we are safe and able to."
"I can have food and coffee ready, but you don't know what time." Geo raised a brow.
"Have it ready by one. If it sits for a while, we can microwave it. We aren't picky. If you haven't noticed, we eat anything." Bryon reached for his coffee cup. "Are you okay? I know you're nervous, but other than that, will you be able to handle this?"
Geo nodded. "I'm just worried about what will happen to me if something happens to Xander and Matt."
"Well, then you'll go with Carter. He'd step up and take you. But nothing bad is going to happen. We have too much training to let anything go wrong." He prayed he was telling the truth. He knew all too well that training didn't mean shit when something got out of their control. He hated that Matt had to go with them. He wasn't trained, but it was his face linked to the profile on the dark web. He had to be there.
Carter walked into the office. "We got the names of the others attending the party tonight." He handed a paper over to Bryon.
Bryon took it and read the names, then looked up at Carter. "This is confirmed?"
"They sent a group message through a dark web email server and didn't block out the other recipients. I'm sure it was a mistake on their part, but there are four emails on this. We tracked the emails and came up with four names. Considering the Wagstaff brothers wouldn't email themselves, we have Matt's email and three others," Carter explained. "The sender's email is Jason Wagstaff's."
"So the others belong to Chris Watson, Faried Al Bakari, and Thomas Jenson. Please tell me that isn't Congressman Jenson out of Illinois." Bryon's head was starting to hurt.
"The same it seems. We're still trying to confirm, but so far, it looks like it is him. Matt is working with the Denver team to run the email used against other information from the dark web we have in the database. The Denver team sent us three images linked to the email that contain images of the congressman. Two of those images show him with young boys under the age of ten. And I mean literally when I say with." Carter sighed.
"Holy shit." This information wasn't shocking. It was well known that several high up political officials were involved in pedophilia. There had been evidence of it for years going as far back as the sixties and seventies. More recently, the rumors flying around Jeffery Epstein and his island had been linked back to several big names in politics. What bothered Bryon was the fact that if he sent his team in tonight, they would be castrating someone with a lot of power. The man deserved it if he was raping children, but the backlash meant this would spur a much larger investigation than normal. "We need to vote on this." Bryon refused to make the decision on his own. This had to be a team effort. "Tell everyone to meet here A.S.A.P.."
Carter pulled out his phone and sent a text to everyone in the house. "Done."
Bryon stared at the names. "What do we know about the others?"
"Faried is a rich businessman from Morocco. Nothing important about him other than the fact that he has money he inherited from his grandfather. The man is the sole survivor in his family and inherited a tech company which he pays very little attention to other than to make sure he's hired the best to run it. He spends almost all his time gambling. He has homes here in Vegas, Monaco, and Macau. He isn't a problem for us," Carter informed him. "Chris Watson is a local business owner. He grew up with the Wagstaff brothers. He owns a local construction company. Again, not a worry for us."
Bryon nodded as the others started to walk into the office. They all found seats and sat silently. Bryon tried to think of everything they would need to consider. "Guys, Carter has informed me that one of the men attending the party tonight is Congressman Thomas Jenson out of Illinois. This changes the risk factors for us. I feel it's only fair to discuss this and put it to a vote. I won't ask any of you to go in if you're not completely comfortable going after such a prominent name."
