Page 79 of Agent's Integrity

“Is that what he said?” Emerson turned his sharp eyes to me.

“No. He attacked us before we could get any details from him. But he was definitely involved.”

“Was anyone else from my crew involved?”

“Not that I believe. He seemed genuinely confused when we said someone else told us he was involved. I think he was working alone, at least as far as anyone on your crew goes.”

Emerson ran a hand through his hair and turned away from us. Steel frowned at his back, catching onto his abnormal demeanor. “What’s got you so angry?”

“None of your business,” Emerson snapped.

Ethan cleared his throat. “One of the fences we went to see pulled out a shotgun and nearly killed a couple of bystanders. They’re okay though.”

I swallowed, hearing what Ethan wasn’t saying. The situation had rattled them both. “I’m glad no one was hurt.”

Steel pursed his lips for a moment before relaxing his face and turning to Ethan. “What did you guys turn up?”

Ethan produced a piece of paper and handed it to him. “This fence I know named Tyrone—the one with the happy trigger finger—was contacted online by someone looking to offload some merchandise of the same kind as our missing guns. Tyrone agreed to look for someone interested in purchasing the guns. The plan was for Tyrone to contact him when he found someone. Bad news, everything is anonymously done over a discussion board on the net. No way to trace our thief.”

I frowned. “We could still send whoever it is a message and set up a meeting, right?”

Emerson spoke again, though his back was still towards us. “Yes. Hopefully it won’t come to that. Now that we have the traitor among my men, we should be able to use him to find whoever paid him off. We can find the guns that way. That’s the better play.”

I had to agree with him. Setting up a meeting with an unknown party was risky, and there was no guarantee that whoever was responsible would show up. I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “Agreed. He should be able to give us a name or some kind of lead.”

Emerson turned around at that. He looked at me for a long time while he puzzled out something in his head. “Carter, you and Ethan go to my quarters and take a break.”

Ethan blinked at him, surprised. “What?”

I knew what he wasn’t saying, and my eyes dropped to the floor. “Come on, Ethan.”

He frowned at both of us. “Aren’t we going to make a plan?”

Steel grunted. “Can’t make a plan until we have the information.” He looked long and hard at Bozeman’s cell. “So right now, we’re going togetthat information.”

I saw when his brain connected the dots. “Oh.” He nodded but didn’t say more. I pulled on his arm until he turned and followed me out of the room. I led him down to the lift, and we stepped inside.

“They’re going to interrogate him.” Ethan said it matter-of-factly, but I felt like there was a question under it. It was a mild way of putting it, but it was still true.

“Yes.”

“Are you okay with that?”

I closed my eyes and shrugged. “No. But what am I going to do about it? If I wasn’t here, he would still do it.” I cracked one eye open to peer at him. “Did you ever do that when you were with Goliath?”

His face didn’t change much, though it did tighten somewhat. “No. Goliath didn’t like torture. Occasionally he would rough someone up to get a message across, but not straight torture.”

“They may not need to use torture. Bozeman has no reason to keep quiet that I can think of. He knows what’ll happen if he doesn’t talk.”

The lift opened, and I led the way to Emerson’s personal quarters. After putting in the pin code, the door popped open. I stepped inside and Ethan followed, giving me a questioning look. “How did you know his code?”

“He gave it to me last time I was on board.” I dropped into the closest chair, leaned my head back, and closed my eyes. “He made me stay here with him, because he said it was the only way he could ensure my safety. I thought it was because he wanted to keep me under watch. He didn’t want me on his ship at all, and he didn’t trust me. But now I think it was probably for both reasons.”

Ethan walked around the room, not quite pacing, but obviously unable to stand still. “He does seem to be a good guy.”

I couldn’t help but snort. “Don’t say that in front of him. He’ll hit you for it.”

“Yeah, but he is. He may be a mercenary, but he has a sense of justice. He was really upset when Tyrone fired his gun while there were innocent people around. And he didn’t kill you when he had the chance.”

---