Deep Cover (The Extractor Series Book 4), Mike Ryan [e ink epub reader .TXT] 📗

already into it.”

“But not so far where we can’t go back. I mean, it’s not like we’ve got some pivotal information that we’re not acting on. We still don’t know much.”

“But we know enough,” Bridge said. “We know things don’t add up. And we know there’s a brother out there who wants answers. And he’s not gonna give up until he gets them. And if he keeps on, without our help, he has no idea what he’s dealing with. You know as well as I do what’s likely to happen to him and whoever else he brings in if it’s not us.”

“There’s gonna be more dead bodies.”

Bridge nodded.

“If we keep going… I just hope we’re not joining them.”

Bridge took a deep breath, then flipped his lips together and blew air through his mouth. “Yeah.”

“Where do we go from here?”

Bridge took a few seconds to think about it. “We need to dig deep. Deep into Gary Abbott’s background. If he really wasn’t an agent and they were just using him to facilitate information quietly, there should be some trails we can follow. He wouldn’t be good enough to cover everything up.”

“Unless they wiped everything away.”

“Let’s get Eric in on this. Maybe he can tell us something.”

“What about Chris?” Nicole asked. “Should we tell him his brother was involved with the CIA or wait?”

“I think the sooner we tell him what’s going on the better it’ll be. For him.”

Nicole agreed. “Yeah. If he knows what he’s up against, maybe he’ll be a little more cautious about what he does. Like breaking into houses.”

“That’s the hope. If not… if not, he’ll end up where his brother is.”

6

With Bridge and Nicole back at the hotel, he immediately called Chris Abbott to let him know his brother was into some other things, things he couldn’t explain, and things Abbott wouldn’t understand. While Bridge was on the phone with him, Nicole called their trusty FBI friend Eric Happ, putting him on the video line.

“Oh no, it’s been a few weeks,” Happ said. “What do you want?”

“Can’t a girl just call to say hi to her friend?”

“I think you used that line on me for the model kidnapping case.”

“I did?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Oh. I’m gonna have to start working on new material.”

Happ laughed. “Probably would be a good idea. ‘Cause every time you come at me with the same line, I automatically know what you want.”

“I’ll work on it.”

“At least keep me guessing for a few minutes.”

“Noted.”

“So what do you want? Luke making you do his dirty work? Figured I’d have a harder time saying no to you?”

Nicole looked toward the hallway, but Bridge was in the bedroom and out of sight. “Uh, no, he’s just… busy with someone else.”

“Oh, you have competition now?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. He knows I would kill anyone else who even looked at him.”

Happ laughed again. “So what’s up?”

“We caught… something. It’s a big one.”

“Uh oh.”

“Yeah. I think we might be dealing with some… agencies on this one.”

“As in ours?”

“Or those similar to yours.”

“You talking about your former friends and colleagues?”

Nicole nodded. “Yeah.”

“So what are you coming to me for? You guys are still tight with them, aren’t you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say tight. It’s not adversarial. Even so, what can I do?”

“We would like to know if you have anything on a guy named Gary Abbott,” Nicole said.

“Agent?”

“Well, he’s dead now. Been that way for a year.”

“I don’t understand.”

Nicole then went over the entire case with him to catch him up. After getting the full rundown, Happ sighed and shook his head.

“I don’t know if I wanna be messing around with this thing.”

“C’mon, Eric, he’s not an agent. At least as far as we know. He’s a dead U.S. citizen who has a brother that wants answers. I mean, he’s been gone for a year and the police have nothing.”

“You think they got pressured not to look into it?”

Nicole shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they really had no leads and had nowhere to go. But if that’s the case, that points to people even higher up who know how to avoid these kinds of things.”

“Nic, I know you and Luke mean well with these things, and I’m usually always right there to support you…”

“But?”

“But if this thing leads up to somewhere that it shouldn’t… you could be walking into you don’t even know what.”

“I know.”

“If, just for the sake of argument, this guy really was killed by the CIA, in this country, you know what kind of shit-storm you’re going to create?”

Nicole sighed. “I know. But if he wasn’t, then we’ll have let a killer go scot-free.”

“You guys are just compelled to look into this, aren’t you?”

Nicole nodded. “We are.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Me too.”

“And I hope you’re prepared for whatever happens as a result of it.”

“We are.”

“All right. Well, I guess give me some time to look into it, and I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks, Eric. You’re the best.”

“I know. It’s nice hearing you say it though.”

After getting off the line with Happ, Nicole went back to work on the computer, trying to dig up as much information as she could on Abbott. Then, whenever Happ got back to her, she could compare what he had against what she had and see if there were any discrepancies or something new that she either overlooked or didn’t have access to, which was always possible when looking into someone who had done business with the government. About twenty minutes later, she looked over and saw Bridge coming out of the bedroom. He had his hands on his head, puffing air through his lips, and he looked stressed..

“Didn’t go so well?” Nicole asked.

Bridge came into the living room, plopped down in a chair, and rubbed the top of his head. “Uh, well, I guess it went OK.”

“Doesn’t look it.”

“Well, explaining that your brother was secretly doing business with the CIA has a tendency to… uh, well… it tends to be hard to understand and accept.”

“I can understand that.”

“And when everything you say tends to