Mission: Impossible to Deny (The Impossible Mission Romantic Suspense Series Book 7) - Jacki Delecki (great novels of all time txt) 📗

to the use of the famous deceased mathematician’s alias to Charlie. The photo ID for Alan Turing was a match for Charlie.”

“Wainwright was working with the Charlie and the Sureños? Why? It doesn’t make any sense.” Reeves couldn’t accept what Izzy had discovered. There had to be a mistake … except Izzy didn’t make mistakes.

“From the pattern between Wainwright and Charlie’s calls, Charlie was the go-between with the Sureños until his death. Then Wainwright contacted the Sureños directly.”

Reeves jerked back as if Finn did deliver the sucker punch. “It can’t be true.”

It meant that his mentor had ordered his kidnapping, had overdosed him with cocaine. Wainwright was the boss that McDonald and Muscle referred to. The entire time he was in the cell, Reeves imagined “the boss” as either a cartel don or a mob boss. And it was the man with whom he spent hours as a young man. A mentor Reeves had admired for his interest in his students and brilliant mind. A brilliant mind that had been used to manipulate a vulnerable man and kill an innocent soul.

“He has quite a nest egg that doesn’t match a professor’s salary. It’s all hidden, but Molly and I were able to find it. He’s recently received large payments, for which we’re still working to trace the source, but the timing of the transfers fit with the attacks on the embassies. And the way the money has been moved globally smacks of the Russian connection we’ve been looking for.

“We’re not sure how the Sureños became involved with the Russians, but Charlie must have been behind the hacking of the embassies. The timing of Tex’s death after Charlie’s accidental death works with the gaps. Wainwright needed the codes for the game after Charlie’s death. Can you imagine his panic when he can’t provide it to the Russians? And with the help of the very accommodating Sureños, he planned to extract it from Tex.”

Darcy crossed the room and rested her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Reeves. I know what a shock it has to be.”

Reeves stepped away. He couldn’t pull it together. Not this second as he tried to grasp the evilness of a man he trusted.

“It adds up.” Reeves slammed down any painful reactions to the betrayal of the people he respected. He switched to his logical, deductive side. Lucky for him, he had an incredible facility to compartmentalize.

“Charlie would have listened to Wainwright. He used Charlie, who was vulnerable and easy to exploit, to sell Charlie’s skills to the Sureños, who went on to make a deal with the Russians.” He spoke dispassionately. Dissecting a problem required ignoring that it involved people he cared about, people he entrusted with his heart. It was simple to deduce how Wainwright could manipulate Charlie with the promise of more wealth and stature.

“But Charlie had made a great deal of money from the game, right?” Danni asked.

“Charlie would always need more money to bolster his self-esteem. You know, we’ve seen it over and over again. Criminals that can never have enough money and power. And having a drug habit to feed, he probably ran through the cash quickly,” Reeves said.

“If Wainwright was your mentor, why didn’t he have access to the game? Or why didn’t he write his own?” Sophie’s blonde curls bounced as she shook her head.

“I’m with Sophie,” Danni said. “What’s Wainwright’s motive? He could have developed his own game to sell to the Russians or do other lucrative schemes without involving Charlie.”

“Wainwright wasn’t involved in the development of the game. The three of us did all the work, and knowing it was a real breakthrough, we agreed never to share the game. Besides, Wainwright is brilliant theoretically but not in applied solutions. He was never interested in spending hours creating code. He liked developing theoretical models. And manipulating Charlie would be a quick way to make a lot of money. Charlie would have trusted him.”

“Let’s go get the bastard. Now. I wanted revenge on the fucker for hurting you and Darcy.” Danni lasered on Reeves. “But now knowing that he was someone you trusted …” Her voice was filled with outrage.

Reeves slung his arm over Danni’s shoulder and dragged her close. “Thank you. I appreciate your willingness to help. But I need to settle this myself.”

“That’s enough touching.” Lars grabbed Danni away.

“Don’t kill the guy … yet,” Izzy interjected. “We’re following the money, but we have no way to connect him to the sale of ransomware, and the phones are circumstantial. We need access to his computer. Then, I’m sure, Reeves or I can extract the evidence from his computer to convict him of treason for selling American secrets.”

“We’re on it, Izzy,” Nick said.

“Thanks, Izzy, especially since this isn’t your case,” Darcy added.

“Reeves is family. We geeks have to stick together to fight the evil powers. Danni and Sophie, you make sure he’s getting loads of love … until I get back to Seattle.”

Izzy clicked off before he could thank her. He replaced his phone in his pocket.

Everyone was waiting for him to say something. “Tomorrow, I’m going to visit Wainwright to see how he’s feeling after having been poisoned.” The pathetic thing was Reeves had already planned to check on him before he left Palo Alto.

“Don’t drink any of the fucking scotch.” Lars grinned.

Danni poked him in the ribs. “That’s not funny. Reeves could have died.”

“If he had died, I wouldn’t have made the joke.”

Finn and Nick, of course, cracked up.

Reeves would never be able to thank Lars for diverting everyone’s sympathetic looks. Wainwright had poured Reeves a large glass of the scotch, knowing it was laced with enough drug mixture to make him seize and possibly kill him as he had done to Tex.

“I’m going with you.” Darcy searched his face, trying to read his reactions.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from an outstanding CIA agent. You came to Seattle to find the perpetrators of the ransomware. It will seal the deal for Libya if you can bag Wainwright.”

“That