Page 13 of One Cry Too Loud
“You don’t need to be sorry,” Kat answered, slinging an arm over the smaller woman’s shoulder. “He should be about the awful reaction he just had.”
“I know,” she said. “I know Charlie. He’s not like that. I just-I don’t understand it.”
“Neither do I, but whatever it was, it isn’t important,” Kat said. Her eyes turned to me. “What’s important is what happens next. Jackson, we need to go find that little girl.”
CHAPTER 9
“Are you absolutely sure this is necessary?” Sarah Jane asked me, rolling her eyes as she handed her cellphone to me. I plucked it out of her hand and tossed it into the metal box with the others. I shut it and sat the box on the ground, standing back up as she continued. “It seems like overkill.”
Looking around, I understood what my daughter meant. There she was, standing there with my granddaughter on her hip, in a field on the outskirts of town. There was an old bus sitting a few hundred feet away from us with the engine running, and a couple of people scattered around, all talking amongst themselves. She had no idea where she was headed and neither did I. That was the point.
“It’s necessary,” I said, nodding at the woman who I’d loved more than anything in the world since the instant she came into existence. “If you knew what we were up against, you’d agree with me.”
“I don’t like hearing stuff like that,” Sarah Jane said, her forehead wrinkling with a mixture of worry and anger. “If something is so dangerous that you’re afraid about me and the baby even being in town, then I don’t want you dealing with it.”
“I get that, Sweetheart, and there was a time when I’d have lied to you to protect you from it, but that time has passed. You’ve seen too much. You’ve been a part of too much.” I looked at the toddler sleeping against her shoulder. “And you’ve got too much to lose and too much at stake for me to keep you in the dark.”
“But you are keeping me in the dark. Just tell me what it is,” she said.
“You know I can’t do that,” I answered, shaking my head.
“Why not? You don’t even have the government to worry about anymore?” She balked. “So why can’t you tell me/ Because your billionaire boss will be pissed if you do?”
“Because doing so will put you, your daughter, and everyone else who is about to be on that bus in danger,” I said. “What we’re going up against has a big reach. He’s got big eyes, and he has fingers that are capable of getting into anything. It’s the reason we’re taking all of your phones. So they can't be tracked or hacked. It’s the reason you’re going on that relic of a bus, because it can’t be remotely tampered with, and it’s the reason that I don’t have any idea where you’re going to be. We don’t know what can be heard. We don’t know what can be seen. We do know that our systems have been compromised. We known that the intelligence that we’ve worked with for years has been exposed and studied. This person knows our playbook. He knows that we’re usually successful, and he knows what we do in order to be successful. We have to assume he’s prepared himself for that. So, we have to-”
“Try a different playbook.” she said, reading my mind. “Start all over.”
“Start from the start. That’s what your mother used to say,” I said, smiling at my daughter, seeing Denise’s eyes looking back at me.
“Is he dangerous, Dad?” She asked, blinking as her voice broke.
“They’re always dangerous, Sweetheart,” I answered. “But so am I.”
“And you can’t tell me more than that?” Sarah Jane asked.
“I can tell you one other thing,” I said. “He did the one thing he shouldn’t have done, the one thing no one in their right mind should ever do.” I put my hand on my daughter’s shoulders. “He threatened you and he threatened Denise Katrina. He threatened the people we care about.” I looked around. “That’s why all of these people are here. It’s why Kat’s cousin is here. It’s why Nate’s manager, who apparently is also his best friend, is here. That's why Kyle is here.”
“Isn’t Kyle part of the team, though?” Sarah Jane asked. “Shouldn’t he be going with you instead of getting on this bus?”
“Kyle is still healing up,” I said, remembering the way he had been injured during our last mission. “And more than that, I want someone on the team there with you guys.”
“In case things go South?” Sarah Jane asked.
“They won’t go South,” I said.
“You said you wouldn’t hide things from me anymore,” she reminded me.
“Theywon’tgo South,” I repeated. “But yes. In case they do, I want Kyle with you. He’ll keep you safe. He’ll keep you all safe.”
She blinked hard and looked away from me for a second. “And what about-what about Tex?”
“Taylor is out of state,” I said, mentioning the last name of her former fiance, the father of her child, and my current teammate. “He is working a different mission. He has been briefed, though, and he’ll keep himself safe.”
“Right,” she said. “I just ask because of the baby.” Her voice was cold.
“I know,” I answered. “But if it wasn’tjustfor the baby, that would be okay too.”
“Dad, I-”
