Page 38 of Skin In the Game (The BlackWater)

Maddie felt her jaw drop as she took in all the information.

“So you’re saying that this system has been specifically designed too…”

“Exactly.” Cole Black replied walking into the room and before she could finish her sentence.

She narrowed her eyes slightly before reminding herself that even though he was an arsehole, even though she hated him, she was on his side now.

Cole sat down next to Brandon, grabbing a bottle and motioning for Douglas to continue on. Either he hadn’t noticed her look or he didn’t care.

Douglas then explained about the data leak, about the first breach two years ago where some of the older prototype had been leaked and why BlackWater had been brought in and the subsequent, albeit smaller, breeches since as well as the six agents that had been murdered and various other incidents that had been reported officially as localised domestic murders.

“And then you came into it.” He said with a smile and she felt them all glancing at her. She met Cole’s look and then looked away back at Douglas.

She sighed clenching her teeth because she still didn’t get how the hell she’d got herself tangled up in all this.

“Did you track the guy McCullough was following?” Maddie asked.

“We’ll come to that.” Douglas said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that we need to park that and come back to it. There’s more to explain first before we can come to him.” He replied.

“Okay.” Maddie said.

“So what you need to understand is this missile system isn’t only just unique but it’s been designed by us, by Black Tech so…” Douglas started to explain.

“So you have someone leaking information on the inside?” Maddie gasped and then saw the looks from everyone.

“Not necessarily.” Cole said and she forced herself to look at him again.

“What else could it be?” She asked and saw the flash of something in his eyes at the tone of her voice. Fuck him, she thought, she wasn’t here to make friends, to be friends, she needed to figure out how she was involved, how the target had made her involved.

“We used third part contractors, highly skilled, with high security clearance and that’s where we suspect the leak is coming from.” Cole answered.

“What makes you say that?” She replied.

“That’s what the intel suggest. What our investigation is showing.” He said.

“Isn’t there some sort of conflict of interest here, that details from a Black Tech missile system are stolen and yet BlackWater is investigating it?” Maddie asked.

“There’s no conflict. We operate independently from all other Black Company subsidiaries and we’ve done similar investigations before. Besides we are the best at what we do, who else would we get in?” Brandon replied and she noted the tone in his voice then.

“So you’ve had leaks before then?” Maddie asked.

“Not leaks within a Black Company, but leaks with outsiders.” Brandon stated.

Maddie nodded trying to process it. It felt like they were blinded, operating under the assumption of their innocence but she didn’t want to point that out and especially not on her first day.

“Okay so what were the items you found at mine?” She asked wondering how it even connected to her.

“The USB containing one set of the codes for the missile system, a list of key test sites in the U.S, a gun that is linked to the murder of Yousef Mohammed, the third victim…”

“Why didn’t you mention that back when you were interrogating me?”

“It was still going through ballistics then.”

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