Page 77 of Spy With Me
“Is it experimental because they’re married?” Parker asked.“They are married, right? I think he’s referred to the redhead as his wifebefore.”
It was as close to the truth as he wanted to get. “Yes,though there are other ways the team bucks Agency traditions. Operatives don’twork with the same teams. It tends to lead to drama.”
“It leads to us caring about the people around us,” Louhuffed. “And not sacrificing them for an op. Which is why they think we’llfail.”
Henry’s brow rose. “I’ve heard you don’t have that problem,Mr. Parker.”
That caught Zach’s attention. A few months back Parker hadallowed Lou to be in a dangerous position in order to confirm his theory thatHuisman was working with a German mercenary. Oh, he saved her after he got thebad guy to fess up, but it had been a close thing.
If Henry knew that, he was talking to Ian far more often andwith more frankness than Zach had imagined. If Ian told him, then Ian trustedHenry.
Ian knew. Oh, he might not have known all of it, but he’dknown. Zach hadn’t fooled him, and he’d likely wrecked his whole fucking lifefor nothing. He could have taken it all to Ian and maybe he would have come outof it with his career and freedom intact.
Or Ian would have tossed him to the wolves, and he wouldalready be in jail.
“I’ve explained how badly I feel about what happened inDallas. I would never put Lou in danger again. I was…desperate,” Parker saidwith a long sigh. “Believe me, Maggie and I have had this conversation, and Ihave apologized to Lou. That day taught me a lot about who I am and who I wantto be, who I’ve allowed Manny to turn me into.”
“From what I understand, you were childhood friends with Dr.Huisman,” Henry began.
If he was this close to Ian, he would already know thestory, but Zach knew a lot of operatives would rather hear the story from theperson than read a report. There were so many things that couldn’t be put intoreports. Body language. The way a person spoke. How his eyes tightened beforehe started, as though he knew this would be painful.
Parker nodded. “We were good friends when we were young.Then his father was killed and he went to live in Montreal with hisgrandfather. When we met up again, he was different, but I didn’t know howdifferent.”
“He blames Ian for his father’s death,” Kala explained, hereyes on where Lucy had a hand on Cooper’s arm. “We believe his grandfathertaught him this despite the fact that it’s verifiable Ian was not working forthe Agency at the time and was not in Canada. It was a rogue CIA operative whokilled the elder Dr. Huisman.”
“He wasn’t rogue at the time,” Cooper corrected. “But that’snot the point. What Kara is trying to say is Huisman is a dangerous nut bagwith a delusional complex when it comes to our handlers.”
“He’s beyond dangerous,” Parker interrupted. “Don’t dismisshim as crazy. He’s very functional and knows how to bring people to his side.There’s a reason he hasn’t been arrested yet. I feel certain Ian had enough onhim after what happened in Winchester.”
Kala nodded. “The Agency wants to wait and see whathappens.”
“Huisman bad.” Zach was tired of waiting. “We got it. How ishe connected to my father? And how did he find me?”
“We believe he had someone follow you from the house whereMiss Magenta and Miss Taggart were held,” Parker explained. “We tracked yougoing to a small private airfield, and we also have evidence of a vehiclefollowing you. From there he would have had a tech monitor the flights going inand out. I’m sure you tried to cover your tracks, but he has billions ofdollars to play with, and he doesn’t mind spending them.”
Henry’s expression went dark. “Then my operative’s cover isblown.”
Lucy cursed under her breath. “I got called into a meeting.They want me in London the day after tomorrow. I wasn’t supposed to meet withmy Disrupt Europe contacts for another month, but yesterday they set up ameeting saying it was urgent.”
He’d fucked everything up. “Lacey, I’m so sorry.”
She sighed, and at least her hand wasn’t on Cooper anymore.She held them together as though she needed to make sure she didn’t punchanything.
“I’m sorry as well,” Parker said solicitously. The man knewhow to look sympathetic. “If I realized you were Agency, I certainly would havegiven Maggie and her team a heads-up.”
“Well, next time I’ll have you take pictures of who I needyou to follow. I would have recognized them,” Kala replied. “And taken a stepback. The truth is I have to call my handler now. I thought I could take Deviout of here, but I suspect that’s going to be hard at this point.”
“She needs protection.” Whether she cared about him or not,he wasn’t going to leave her alone. “And she needs to take that protectionseriously. She had a bodyguard.”
“Apparently, I had more than a bodyguard. You had someonewatching me, too, didn’t you, Zach?” Devi accused, but her expression was moresweetly bratty than pissed off. Something about her family showing up had puther in a good mood. Despite her telling her brother she wasn’t serious abouthim, Zach liked how comfortable she was.
“It wasn’t an intelligence person.” He would tell her thewhole truth whenever he could. “I hired an old Army friend of mine to keep tabson you. That was all. I think it scared the shit out of him when he caught youshimmying out of that bathroom window and walking into a trap. He has someexcellent pictures of Lena escorting you into the club. The trouble was hecouldn’t see the gun at your back, so he wasn’t sure until they dragged you outthat something had gone wrong.”
Kala nodded as though he explained something important. “Ah,well, there’s the secondary 911 call. He didn’t stick around though, did he?”
Zach shrugged. “He called me after he called the cops, andthat’s when I used a friend’s login to follow Miss Magenta’s tracker.”
“But I thought he was using something to negate ourtrackers,” Tim pointed out. “I’ve been trying to find a solution because if Ican’t keep up with Ben in the field, I’m useless.”
