CHAPTER25
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE
JACE
Iblow into the folded leaf, but it just makes a sound like a two-year-old failing his attempt at blowing a raspberry.
Mackenzielaughs and says, “No, you’ve got to hold it more like this,” and demonstrates with the other leaf that fell onto our table in this outdoor café, making a perfect whistling sound.Sheeven shows off by making it play a couple of different notes.
Itry again with my leaf, but still— toddler not in control of his lips.I’mglad thatMackenziealready got a picture of us on this date so she isn’t as tempted to take one of us now, with me not being able to blow into a leaf properly.
Charlieis in my ear because of everything that has gone down over the past few days.Andwith how active the situation is, we have to be in contact.Ihear her giggling before she says, “Theman can disarm a bomb set to take out a bridge inMariborusing only a car key, a roll of duct tape, and aTaser, yet he can’t make a leaf whistle?”
Ieasily ignore her because all of my focus is onMackenzie, who scoots her chair closer to me as we wait for our food to be brought out.Thenshe leans in, threading her arms in the space between mine. “Thesefingers need to lightly pinch it a bit further down.Yeah, right there.Andthen pinch this part.No, toward the outside of the leaf a bit.”
Thefeel of her fingers brushing over my skin sends currents of thrills up my arms and settles somewhere in my chest.I’mglad thatCharliecan only hear whatIsay and not whatIthink, because havingMackenzienear enough to smell her raspberry sorbet shampoo is taking me right back to last night at the gala.I’vebeen to many black-tie events over the course of my years at theClandestineServicesAgency.I’vedanced at most of them.Atone,Ieven used the cable in my belt to rappel down the side of a building.
ButI’venever enjoyed one of them likeIdid last night.Noteven close.Therewas just something about being so close toMackenzieall night, dancing with her, laughing with her, and just enjoying being with her that fired up more senses thanI’veever experienced.Whichis impressive, considering how many sensesInormally have fired up on a mission.
Ithink it is because the connection between the two of us is so strong.Ihave strong connections in my life— like with my family and with some of my coworkers.ButInever could’ve guessed how muchIhave actually been longing for…this.Thisperson who makes me feel like everything in life is just more vibrant, more important.
“Nowgently tug,”Mackenziesays, still so close thatIcan feel her breath on my arm, “but not enough to tear the leaf.Allright, now blow into the gap between the two sides of the leaf.”
Iblow, and it actually makes a sound.Nota pretty sound, but it is vaguely whistle-like.I’mgrinning likeIjust decoded and translated a secret message written inFarsiwithout so much as using a pen and paper.Mackenzieis grinning, too.
I’mnot quite sure when it happened, butI’vefallen hard forMackenzie.Fora million reasons.Oneof them is how much she’s helped me notice the beauty in regular things in life.Itshouldn’t take a genius to realize that only focusing on the craft of covert operations would cause one to not notice life outside of threat actors, yet thereI’vebeen.
Mackenziesits up straight, butI’mglad she doesn’t scoot her chair back to where it was. “I’msorry your meeting last night didn’t go according to plan.Wereyou able to get that resolved?”
Oncewe got on the helicopter last night, we didn’t talk about what precipitated the need to leave quickly.It’salways hard to hear over the sounds of the chopper, and when we did talk, we mostly talked about the ball.Whichwas good, because what wasIsupposed to tell her?Wewere trying to intercept a package fromTeamBadGuyAwhenTeamBadGuyBcompletely blindsided us.Idon’t think so.
Everyoneon my team has spent the past week tracking down all of the entities thatHendricksonsold the package to, eliminating each of the threats precisely so we wouldn’t be blindsided last night by another party showing up.Thebest we can guess is thatHendrickson’sstill missing partner,Finley, lined up the surprise buyer after we capturedHendricksonbecause theFBIis convinced thatHendricksontold them about every buyer he knew of.
Finleymay not have been smart enough to keep himself from selling to multiple buyers, but he did manage to get himself out of the country.We’repretty sure he’s inBuenosAires, though, andI’msure he’ll be caught before he drinks too many more margaritas on the beach.
Wedidn’t capture the surprise buyer last night, butCharliewas able to get enough images through my camera of both the buyer we were trying to draw out and the surprise buyer for us to work with.
Tryingto keep things vague,Isay, “Yeah, we thought we were meeting with just one other company, but then a surprise third party showed up and kind of threw a monkey wrench in the negotiations.Wewere able to get things resolved with that third company this morning.”
Asit turns out, the surprise buyer,AugustusBowden, was someone theCIAhas already been trying to capture, so the director assigned both me andLedgerto work with theCIAon bringing him in this morning.Andthat, of course, skyrocketed the chances of theCIAassigningZoeSteeleto the same mission, because fate— forLedger, at least— has a sense of humor.
There’sa reason bothLedgerandZoeget assigned to missions like this.Idon’t know whatZoeis like outside of a mission withLedgerand me, but on a mission, she andLedgercould turn a game ofRock,Paper,Scissorsinto theOlympics.Andthe key to unlockingLedger’sfull abilities is to trigger his competitiveness.WehadAugustusBowdencaptured by ten o’clock this morning.
Thisjust leaves us with the original buyer still loose, who we now know is a company calledCryptexEndeavor.They’rethe ones we’ve been after sinceMackenzieaccidentally got the brush pass.Theones we were trying to lure out at the gala.
AsifMackenzieis following my train of thought, she asks, “Didyou get things worked out with the company you were supposed to meet with?”
“Notyet, butI’msure we will soon.We’vegot all our best people on it.”
Andwe definitely do.Charliepulled some great images of a handful of people on their payroll, including the woman who was supposed to receive the brush pass.Weknow now that they are based in theU.S., so we’ve been working non-stop sinceIdroppedMackenzieoff last night in a joint mission with theFBIto bringCryptexEndeavordown.
Ihate thatIhad to turn over the responsibility of protectingMackenzieto theFBIlast night.Thereis just so much that needs to be done to get this fully wrapped up and to get her safe, andI’mrunning on such a small amount of sleep.Emersonand his team are the best there is, though, and they’ve been pulling on every thread they can.He’sbeen getting us a lot of intel, but none of it is actionable yet.
Whichis whyIwas able to tellMackenzieyes when she asked if we could meet for a late lunch at this café.Aftereverything that has gone down over the past few days,Ihad to see her.Toverify with my own two eyes that she is still safe and okay and not traumatized by having to make a quick escape at the end of our date last night.Ifnothing else, sitting with her here is helping to calm my nerves and my heart.
Mackenzieis playing with the stem of her leaf, twisting it around and around absently asImemorize the way the sun is hitting the tops of her cheekbones, giving her face an almost golden glow. “Youknow,” she says, “it’s impressive how well you seem to know just whatIneed.Andthen, so quickly, you fill that need.”
Ihave no idea what she’s talking about, yet it still makes my chest puff out a bit. “Oh, yeah?Likewhat?”
