“You’re on that team?” Wyatt’s gulp was nearly as audible as A.J.’s own swallow at the news.
“Yes.” Natasha’s voice was pillow-soft as her eyes swept to her fiancé. “But I’ll also be the liaison between that department and you all.”
Wyatt immediately stood and turned his back to the room, his hands falling to his hips.
It was obvious it was taking Natasha every ounce of energy not to go to him. To remain professional, to prove she was up for the job.
But was she really ready to be not only a CIA officer on a new task force, but also an intermediary between the government and their team?
Bravo and Echo were a shadowy group of operatives that didn’t follow the same rules as the CIA. Of course, Natasha had practically gone rogue from the CIA when hunting down the elusive hacker and criminal The Knight. What was he thinking? Natasha would fit right in.
“We can’t risk anyone else on the task force knowing about you, and since Natasha is not only already aware of your operations but one of the best officers at the Agency, it was decided by the CIA director she was the right person for the position. And POTUS agrees. It wasn’t easy for me to come to this decision, but I trust her.” The admiral’s voice dipped low like a challenge to Wyatt and Wyatt alone, as in, Do you not trust her?
Wyatt got the message and pivoted around, his eyes going straight to the woman wearing his grandmother’s engagement ring.
“Are we okay with having these agents essentially spy on their own departments? I mean, that’s what you’re doing, right?” Chris asked before Wyatt had a chance to respond to the admiral’s unspoken question.
“It’s not so much about spying on our own people, but about having real-time access to all of the cases within each agency that may need an assist from you all,” Natasha explained. “Agents on my team will only flag potential issues from within their own agency and share the details with our task force. Not all situations will require your help, but in the cases that do, I’ll share that information with Secretary Chandler.”
Secretary Chandler? Not Dad. “And the other four agents won’t know you’re coming to us?” A.J. asked, a bit alarmed at all of this. “Who do they think will be helping?”
“It’s need-to-know, and well, they know they don’t need to know,” the admiral answered as if it were that simple.
Say that three times fast. A.J. resisted the urge to reach around for the knot at the back of his head. He was still off from that fall. He’d had a lot worse over the years, and for a rock to be the straw that broke the camel’s back—well, damn.
“Most cases, this task force will be used as a way to communicate and better collaborate with our colleagues across agencies and won’t involve you all,” Natasha added.
“Can we have a word in private?” Wyatt moved toward her, and she quickly nodded, then followed him out of the room.
A.J. opened the water bottle and nearly drained every last drop as he allowed his mind to circle around the idea they’d be working with Natasha as a liaison for a covert task force.
“We’re keeping this all a family affair, huh?” Owen directed his question to Secretary Chandler. “Jess and Luke co-run the teams. They’re brother and sister. Jess and Bravo Three are almost married. Bravo Five’s dad is POTUS. And now you, sir, well . . . you get the idea.”
It also made it easier when the guys fell in love with someone who already had access to additional high-level security clearance, such as Owen’s wife with ties to the Intelligence Committee before they married. And then there was Liam’s wife, who worked for the U.S. Attorney General.
“I take it you have a mission for us already as a result of this newly formed group?” Harper brought the focus back to the immediate reason they were all there: an operation.
Admiral Chandler’s attention turned to the stack of folders. “Yes, and unfortunately, this was not the way I wanted to kick things off, but for starters, we need to be certain we don’t have a mole or a leak at the Bureau.”
Yeah, and “for starters” means that’s the tip of the iceberg. And damn, the FBI? They’d encountered an issue with the FBI in the past, and they weren’t jonesing to do it again. The wounds were still fresh.
“I’ll let my daughter explain the case when she returns,” Admiral Chandler said as Finn reached for his phone. “You won’t get a signal. This place blocks all devices. Safety precaution.”
“Just gonna play some Candy Crush.” Finn was withholding a smirk, and A.J. could see it in the quiver of his lips.
The admiral rose at the sight of Natasha entering the room with Echo One a few minutes later. Neither looked pissed. That was good news. It couldn’t be easy for Wyatt to be in this position, but bright side? They’d get to spend more time together. Maybe fit in some last-minute wedding details.
“So,” Natasha began once Wyatt was seated, “we brought you all here to do something that frankly you’re probably not accustomed to doing, and I’m not comfortable asking.”
Well, shit, way to start.
“We need you to follow a select handful of FBI agents from the Counterintelligence Division of the Bureau.” Natasha passed out the gray file folders, ensuring everyone at the table received one. “Three, possibly more, confidential sources have gone off the grid. Any in the wrong hands would greatly threaten our national security.”
Natasha circled back around the table once the folders had been handed out and stood off to her father’s right. A.J. had to assume she was working harder than normal to remain business-like in the presence of her father, to prove she belonged in the room despite the fact she was marrying Echo One in July.
“So, are we assuming an FBI agent,” Wyatt began while pointing at the folder he’d been given, “is behind the disappearance of the sources?” He set a hand on the folder instead of opening it, eyes on his fiancée. “Why isn’t the FBI handling this internally? Or, I don’t know, one of those fancy internal government agencies sent in to deal with leaks like this?”
A.J. was with Wyatt on this.
“The agent on the newly formed task force is only asking for an assist as a precautionary measure. He also doesn’t want to tip off any agents to the fact that the FBI is onto the possible leak,” Natasha answered.
“If there’s a traitor in the Counterintelligence Division, we want to tie them to who they’re working with,” the admiral pointed out.
“And given our past experience with government corruption and betrayal, we didn’t want to hand off this case to just anyone else.” Natasha folded her arms. “So, as much as I hate requesting you to spy on agents, we need to find out what is going on. Clear the agents’ names.”
“Or find the traitor,” A.J. muttered under his breath.
Natasha gave a tight nod. “The Bureau cross-checked every badge and ID code to see which agents or analysts accessed the case files connected to the missing sources in the last few months. But no one outside the particular unit within the Counterintelligence Division, or the connected field offices working with them, opened the files related to the missing sources.”
“That doesn’t mean someone didn’t find a way around the system to get to the sources,” Harper commented. “But I’m assuming the names you’ve provided for us to surveil are on the Counterintelligence Division’s task force?”