Search and Destroy by JT Sawyer (top non fiction books of all time .TXT) 📗

“Enough. It’s over. Vogel matched your identity on the dark web with a cloud-based account that Hunley kept on the computer at his home in Georgia. He evidently had contingencies drawn up in case he was double-crossed.”

Patterson stood up, slowly walking forward. “If you were still with the agency then you’d be facing a lengthy prison sentence, which brings me to why I’m here.”

She flailed her arms, her lips trembling. “I can explain. Please don’t shoot.”

He leveled the gun at her head. “Do you know how many other agents you’ve put at risk around the world? Your actions didn’t just destroy one man’s life. You should be grateful that I’m here and not Shepard, or you’d enter a world of pain you never knew existed.”

She flung her hands up further, her face growing ashen. “Please, I was only…”

The hollowpoint round punched through her forehead, spraying bone splinters and red mist out the back onto a painting on the wall. The woman’s mouth was agape as she slid to the floor, slumping into a heap.

Patterson removed the suppressor then rehosltered his pistol. He bent over, pulling out Henderson’s cellphone from her pocket and tucking it into his trench coat beside her laptop.

He turned off the lights then stepped around the pooling blood on the tile and quietly exited the suite.

63

Baltimore, Maryland

Cal stepped out from the back door of the closed pawn shop, placing his lock-picking tools into their leather case. He took a circuitous path along the back alleys, arriving four blocks later at a black Tacoma. He got inside the passenger’s seat then pulled back his hoodie.

Viper glanced over at him. “The plane is waiting for us. The pilot said we need to be wheels-up in an hour if we want to make it to Mumbai by tomorrow night.”

He nodded in the affirmative.

“I wasn’t able to locate anything on a Terry Zemenova, though,” she said. “He’s either someone with our ability to stay off the grid or it’s a codename.”

“Who knows—this is Burke we’re talking about, and he liked shrouding things in mystery at times. We’ll delve into it further once we’re in India.”

She held up her iPhone, showing a news headline with Ernesto Rimaldi’s name.

“Damn, looks like Venezuela may have a chance at climbing out of the dark ages with their new president.”

“It’ll be interesting to see what springs of that seed in the years to come.”

She pulled into traffic, heading west, looking in her rearview mirror. “Get what you came for?”

“I did.” Cal reached into his pocket, sliding out the gold Rolex. He glided his fingers along the edge then turned it over to read the inscription, feeling like he was standing in Burke’s office all over again.

It was the best of times.

It was the worst of times.

He sighed then forced his head up, staring at the distant skyline. Right now, he felt like he couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t numb. He tried to mentally weave his way beyond the horrors of the past few weeks, searching for traces on his scarred soul of the best of times in his life as he thought of his wife and working for Burke. But all he could see was the blurred images of their faces like he was a distant explorer peering through the window of a time capsule.

Cal fought to keep his senses in the present before a tidal wave of anguish swept over him.

I can’t go down that road again…not now.

He leaned forward, pulling his shoulder bag from under the seat then removing the black box inside containing Perseus’ source code, turning it over in his hands as if it were a mystical talisman.

“You sure you want to push forward with what Burke started?” she said. “That could lead down a path the likes of which neither of us can predict.”

Cal looked at the growing line of gray clouds along the horizon, uncertain of whether a storm was coming and trying to focus on the sliver of sunlight piercing through the mass of stratocumulus formation.

“Mumbai first, then we’ll see what exactly that path looks like.” He swiveled in his seat towards her. “You could just walk away. Head out on your own. Coming with me is only going to tie you to a life on the run.”

“I already told you, you’re family—probably the only family I’ll ever have—though you’re more of the misguided black sheep in the family.” She glanced down at the lacerations on his arms from the battle in Texas. “Besides, I know you’re a lone-wolf type, but you look like you could use someone watching your back right now. We both could.”

He muffled out an exhale. And then there’s the part about you being the only friend I have left.

Shepard nodded, fixing his eyes on the open road ahead. “Just watch how you’re driving. This is a rental, so try not to scratch it.”

Viper narrowed her eyes. “Bullshit—you stole it. I was there.”

He shrugged his shoulder, struggling to remember what it was like to smile but only managing to force out a faint grin. Trying to find humor in the small things and focusing solely on his life in this moment was the only way he’d survive and move forward now.

Today was the only thing within his grasp.

He stared up at a cottony row of cumulus clouds drifting across the sky.

And tomorrow…who knows what the sunrise will bring.

64

Two Days Later

Undisclosed Black Site, United States East Coast

Colonel Ryan Foley strode through the warehouse, his weathered boots quickly becoming covered with dust. He saw Patterson standing in the far corner of the building, dressed in a trench coat and his usual black suit and tie.

As Foley walked up, he shook his head. “With you resigned from the agency, I figured you’d be in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts.”

“Soon enough.”

Patterson motioned him towards a stairwell door. “This is the last time we’ll be able to communicate on this matter again—you know that. I’ve covered everything on my end,