Page 9 of Ashfall
That sounds like Graves to be honest, if he thinks someone is suspected of wrong doing, he’ll be on your case forever. If he’s right, he would get the glory for weeding them out. Again, goes back to that impeccable career and climbing the ladder. “Do you think Ashley would tell you anything about this?” Adam asks, I turn my body to the side so I'm fully facing him, considering his question for a minute “I think so. She was great friends with my mom, I’m sure she wouldn't mind helping me out.”
He looks back at the screen, contemplating our actions here - we don’t really have much else to go on, and this could be a total waste of time, but better safe than sorry. “Okay, I'll have a look around and see where she’s currently stationed. If I can find a way for you to speak to her - I'll let you know when I getthe update.” I nod “Thanks.” Getting up from the bed, heading for the door when I turn to stop, waiting for Adam to check the cameras and get a thumbs up as he puts his laptop on charge and under his bed.
When I’m back in my room, I get out of my comfortable clothes and throw an oversized t-shirt on for bed. Hopeful, as always, I'll make it through a full night's sleep. My body and eyes feel heavy, and it’s a promising sign - so long as I don't get another memory hijacking my dreams tonight. But strangely, I don't think about Noc when my head hits the pillow. Instead, my mind goes back to a gathering my mother had at our house, one her military friends attended. It was the first time I met Ashley, and my mother’s words echo loudly in my head.
“If you ever need to find someone Brodie, Mrs. Trace is your woman.”
CHAPTER NINE
nyx
Adam and I decided to go out for a walk this afternoon to loosen off from training. We now have a makeshift assault course at the base. It’s horrible and I hate it. The team had been cutting down the huge pine trees around us, and what better way to recycle the wood than to build a course for us to train on?Not. Hawk thinks it’s one of the best ideas he's ever had. A‘mini home away from home’ were his words.
I could hear the pleasure in his voice when he was roaring at us from the sidelines. When we were clambering over containers, and jumping through the tires in dirty brown water - he was enjoying the hell out of our struggle. We only did this stuff at initiation, so it was a shock to the system to do it again. Although, we did make a bet with him that if one of us beat him up the rope we tied to the tree - he'd have to do the course twice. I beat him. Three times. Each time he asked for a redraw, I was happy to oblige.
I toss the coffee out the cup I'm holding onto at the side of the road. “After three weeks, you'd really think my taste buds would adjust to this.”
Adam laughs. “I don’t think any amount of time would help us get used to it, Nyx.” Once we get to our usual spot, that we'venow turned to for having secret conversations, he faces me and does a scope around the area. “I looked up Ashley and she's registered as no longer on active duty.”
I swing my head around, my ponytail whipping him in the face. “What? On what grounds?”
“She’s retired, completed thirty years' service. The mission she went on with you was one of her last.”
I sigh. Well, that’s not great, if she were still active we could have easily gotten a hold of her, we'll need to track her down now. Well, Adam will. It might be riskier doing it this way though. I don’t even know what kind of information she has; she could've been telling the truth in her statement when she said she couldn't remember what Noc had asked for.
“Are you able to reach out to her in any way? She’s just as good at you with tech. Hell, if not better! She might be impossible to find.”
Adams' glare would turn me into a gargoyle if it could. “I’m not sure whether you’re being serious, or it’s just the lack of sleep messing with your head.” I let out a weighted laugh; I know I look like shit with the bags under my eyes. He dips his hand into his pockets. “And just to prove it to you, I've already located where she is: she's got a website where she offers computer repairs. Her bio says she's retired and just doing it to keep her days busy. It was the easiest find I've ever done.” Well, I suppose that’s good he's managed to find her. I refrain from commenting that she does have about twenty-five years of experience on him, and she’s made herself available to be found.
“Does she have an email we can reach?” I ask Adam. It's best we get the ball rolling with this and find out whether this is worth our time.
“Already drafted. Here, take a look. Let me know if you’re happy with it and I'll send it.” My eyes scan over the wording, it's basic. He's made up a scenario about a computer he needs fixed,but he's on vacation right now and wants to chat it through so he can arrange it to be delivered when he gets home. “Sounds good. Make her think you're just a normal customer and don't have any ulterior motives?” Adam smiles, clearly proud of himself. “Correct, I'll send it now. Then maybe she'll get back to us in a day or so and we can take it from there...” Just as pockets his phone, it rings.
“Blocked number?” He asks me, as if I'm supposed to know what he means - technology is his area of expertise. “Could it be Ashley?” He hesitates for a while and then it cuts off, but immediately rings again, and he finally decides to answer. “Hel-” the woman on the other end of the phone cuts him off. “Who the hell is this? Do you know I can see your location, and it’s a bit suspicious to me that someone takes a holiday right in the middle of bumfuck nowhere at the tri border? You have no idea who you're messing with you little...”
I decide to save Adam who's staring at the phone with his mouth wide open as I recognize the voice. “Ashley! It’s Brodie Voss, Vanessa Voss’s daughter?” I hope that diffuses her and doesn’t raise any suspicions. I don't want her to be spooked by the fact two special operations operators - who are currently in a hidden base in Russia - have just sent her a random email about a computer needing to be fixed.
“Brodie? Are you out on deployment?” Her tone immediately changes to something laced with a hint of fear. “Are you okay?”
“Sorry for the incognito email. And sort of, I really need to talk to you about something private.”
Silence drowns out on the other end of the phone for a couple of seconds. “Sorry, I was just making sure you had security on your phone before we went any further, but I couldn't infiltrate it, so whatever you have is damn good.” Adam smiles like a Cheshire cat as he mouths 'told you I'm good' and I roll my eyes.
“I know this is really unexpected and shifty, but I wasn't sure if I could ask you about ... Nocturne?” I hear what sounds like a sharp inhale of breath from Ashley before I'm once again met with silence. “Ashley, are you there?”
“I’m here, what do you want to know?” I panic. I can't skip round this, or she might think something is up, and I've already cloaked this whole thing in mystery from the outset. I take a deep breath, and decide the truth is the best thing here, I'll deal with any consequences later.
“So, we were ... Kinda together?” The last part comes out high pitched, like I’m about to be scolded for doing something stupid. “Jesus Christ,” her voice comes out breathless at my confession, and that’s all I get for a few beats before I jump in again, seemingly having no issues with talking about the past now.
“I know this might sound crazy, but I think. No,I know, I saw him. Here, in Russia. He's not dead and I need answers from him. Adam and I recently found a document we dug up that mentioned before he ‘died’, that you two got in trouble? Something about him asking for your help? I know it says you can't remember, but I just need to know if it has anything to do with why he left.” She sighs and lets out a curse.
“I assume the owner of this phone had something to do with how you managed to uncover confidential documents?” She sounds pissed.
Adam shakes his head, but she'll know damn well it wasn't me “Yeah, Adam.” His eyes widen whilst he throws his hands in the air. Her voice lowers, “Who else knows about this?” and my attention goes back to her. “Just Adam and I, but we're not sure what we're looking at here. So, I don’t think it’s wise for us to share it when we're not even sure what this is.”
Ashley takes a few minutes to go over my words before she responds, and it makes goosebumps travel up my arm with her constant pauses. “Does Commander Graves know about this?”“No!” Adam and I shout at the same time “God no, he'd have a fit if he thought we were off doing this,” I laugh, but my nerves are evident in the edges of my words.
Even though Graves is a good guy, the fact two people in his chain of command are looking into a supposed dead person, and somehow managed to get into a load of classified documents, would send him into a spiral. We'd be dismissed and likely put on trial for gross misconduct. Not to mention the lies we told him when he first asked about the footage.
