How ironic. The man he’d spent millions of dollars trying to apprehend was standing in his office. Yet he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. He could hardly call for his security to capture Winchester with Embray and his bodyguards in the room.
“I didn’t realize you were bringing a guest.” Clark turned back to Embray, plastering a charming smile on his face.
“This is Aiden Winchester.” Embray turned, gesturing at the SEAL. “He’s a special operator with the Navy SEALs. He has questions about the continuous stream cameras you recently sold to SOCM.”
The cameras? They’re here about the cameras?
Without thinking, Clark shook his head. Then froze, afraid he’d given himself away. But surely, he was allowed some confusion under the circumstances. Who would expect to be interrogated about a bunch of cameras so unexpectedly?
“The cameras? You mean the new ones I sold to Hurley? What about them?” He didn’t have to fake his confusion. He’d expected bot-related questions. Not camera-related ones.
“Yeah. Those cameras.” Winchester’s voice cut through the room with steely suspicion. He’d sounded the same on the video though, so Clark shrugged off his hostility. “We were ordered to run the cameras from the moment we boarded the chopper, to exfil. Those were our orders. What was the purpose behind the continuous feed?”
Ahhhh, that’s what this was about. At least he had a plausible answer to that question.
“Hurley wanted to evaluate the batteries and video quality during a full mission, one with strenuous activity and harsh weather conditions.” He paused and arranged his face into what he hoped was a thoughtful expression. “I believe the cameras were scheduled for testing during an earlier mission, but his boys misplaced the battery packs, so the test was postponed. The second batch of batteries coincided with the mission you spoke of, so that operation was given the green light to assess the cameras.”
It sounded like a plausible explanation.
His smugness lasted less than five seconds.
“Did you watch the video feed?”
Winchester’s voice was flat. His eyes were not. Hell, his eyes looked murderous. As if he knew...he knew Clark was behind what happened to his teammates. And he knew Clark had watched his team slaughter each other through the camera feeds.
Clark coughed and tried for a sick look. “Yes, I saw the footage. I don’t like to think about it. All those poor people. What those SEALs did to each other...” He glanced between the two men, checking for reactions to his performance. Both men stared back with blank faces and poker eyes. “It was terrible. Horrific even.Hurley told me the footage was classified, and I shouldn’t speak of it.”
Their faces were still flat. He couldn’t tell whether they believed him or not.
“What caused the violent behavior?”
Winchester infused enough sharpness in the question to turn it into an accusation. But if the SEAL was basing his suspicion specifically on the cameras, then Clark was safe. He’d covered his ass there.
“I never heard what caused the aberrant behavior. If I had to guess, I’d say it was some type of environmental agent, maybe mold. Or someone could have laced the well with amphetamines. Both are known to cause violent behavior.”
Winchester looked like he was chewing on nails and breaking his teeth.
“This is all just supposition, of course.” Clark offered a small shrug.
“My team didn’t touch Karaveht’s water supply,” Winchester ground out.
“Oh!” Clark tried to sound startled. “You were there? I didn’t realize anyone survived.”
“I was there,” Winchester confirmed flatly.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize this subject was personal and painful for you.” Clark hesitated, before asking, because he really needed to know, “How did you survive? Hurley said the fatality rate was nearly a hundred percent.”
“That’s classified,” Winchester drawled, a definite smirk curling his mouth.
“Of course...” Clark forced a pleasant smile, fighting the urge to smash his fist into the bastard’s smug face. “Anyway, I hate to rush things, but I’m booked with back-to-back meetings, so if that’s all…”
Winchester opened his mouth, but Embray touched his arm and shook his head. Snapping his jaw shut, the combative SEAL pinned Clark with a volcanic look and turned around, stalking out of the office.
Embray, on the other hand, stepped forward to clasp Clark’s hand. “We appreciate your time.”
After a few seconds of small talk, which unfortunately did not include any offers to discuss co-projects, Embray left the room. Clark watched the door close behind him. At least some of his questions concerning Aiden Winchester had been answered by this visit.
The SEAL was alive. He hadn’t succumbed to the bots. He was healthy. And he’d hooked up with one of the most powerful men on earth. One capable of making planes disappear. Leonard Embray had the power and financial resources to swoop in undetected and whisk Winchester out of Tajikistan. He also had the capability to keep the SEAL hidden indefinitely.
