Special Forces_Operation Alpha_Redeeming Violet Read online

  “We should be landing in less than thirty minutes. Tex has a man named Faheem Wadood meeting us. Tex has worked with him before and says he’s the best. He’ll be our guide. Hopefully he’ll be able to lead us to the men.”

  “We won’t need Faheem.” I hope I wasn’t making a mistake but letting the guide take us around Juba would be a waste of time. Time the team didn’t have.

  “Why is that?” Jaxon asked.

  “Because I can track them once we’re on the ground.”

  “Come again?” Zane was going to need dental implants soon the way he ground his teeth together.

  “Why did we fly all the fucking way to Africa if you could track their location. There are boots on the ground in the area that could’ve been sent in,” Eric added.

  “I swear to God, if you do not start talking, I’ll have your ass locked up in a prison that makes Iceland look like Club Med. Whomever you think you’re protecting will never see you again, and whatever you’re protecting them from will no longer matter. Either you trust us with what you have, or you have nothing.” Zane was no longer angry and that scared me more; he was flat out done.

  Shit.

  “I’m being blackmailed.”

  “No shit, really?” Zane cocked his head to the side and looked at me like I was stupid.

  I didn’t care. It felt good to say it out loud. To finally admit the truth.

  “It started with Timothy Clark.”

  “I hate to be a dick, but we land in less than thirty minutes. Why don’t we hit the high points for now?” Eric made a move-a-long gesture.

  “Timothy had a list of covert operatives that were embedded all over the world. Long cover CIA agents. He told me he would release the list if I didn’t help him find something to use against the Attorney General Peter Newton.”

  “That’s impossible. We stopped Louis Clark, aka Deepweb336, from completing the hack.” Zane told me. “He played you. His brother never got the names.”

  “He has the list,” I insisted.

  “How do you know the list he gave you was real? You’d have no way to authenticate the names – once the agent is under, the CIA no longer keeps records.”

  “Trust me, it was real.”

  “Sorry to tell you, you’ve been duped. I personally put the bullet in Louis’ forehead before he completed the hack. We had Garrett, our technical analyst, in the CIA’s database watching what Louis was doing. Deputy Director Banning instructed us not to shut down the system and watch if Louis could breach. He couldn’t. He didn’t, Violet. He never got the list.”

  “He did get the list. While all of you were playing cyber war games to see who could hack whom, did you ever stop to think who was watching Timothy?”

  “How do you know?” Jaxon narrowed his eyes.

  “I know they have the names because it was my job to scrub the agent’s files when they went under.”

  “Timothy is dead. Who the fuck has the list now?” Jasmin asked.

  “Timothy was working with a man named Manuel Ortega,” I told them.

  “Manuel Ortega? I know that name,” Jasmin commented.

  “You should. Manuel Ortega is ex Bolivian Special Forces turned rogue,” Eric seethed. “I thought that asshole was dead.”

  “Why are the Chinese after you?” Zane asked.

  “I assume they know about the list,” I told them. “MSS has to know they have American agents in their ranks. I think Timothy tried to double-cross Manuel.”

  “I hate spy bullshit,” Jaxon grouched.

  God, did I hate it too. I wasn’t cut out for this shit. I was in so deep I needed note cards to keep everyone straight. Bolivians. Chinese. CIA double-agents. People hacking into databases. I just wanted my old life back. My boring nondescript life. I went to work, came home, ate dinner by myself, watched TV, and went to bed.

  Simple.

  Dull.

  Lonely.

  Chapter Four

  Jaxon

  I doubted Violet realized she was shaking. I didn’t know if it was from fear, relief, or a mixture of both, but the woman was trembling. It took all my willpower not to reach my hand over and stop her knee from bouncing. Now that she’d completely dropped the pretense of being in control, I could tell how terrified she was. I wasn’t stupid. There was more she wasn’t telling us. However, it was a start. It would take time, something that was in short supply, before she would tell us the rest.

  Or she could just blurt it out and shock the fuck out of me. “I need the guidance chip out of the drone to give to Manuel or he will sell the names to the Russians.”

  Eric’s eyes zeroed in on the tears that were now falling down Violet’s cheeks. We’d lost any rational thoughts from him as soon as the Russians were mentioned. He’d been undercover for the CIA in a Russian prison called the Black Dolphin. He was reminded about his time in country any time someone saw his back. It was a mess of scars that crisscrossed from shoulder to shoulder. Russian prison guards had also branded a dolphin into his flesh. It wasn’t pretty. Anything and everything having to do with the Russians was a trigger for him. It was also a reminder that Jasmin and Zane had been taken and tortured as well. Eric had unnecessarily placed the blame of their capture on himself. It wasn’t his fault, yet he still carried the guilt.

  The pressure in the cabin changed and an announcement was made by the captain we were on final approach to the airfield. Eric and Jasmin made their way back to their seats while Zane stayed.

  “We’ll finish this when we land. I want a lock on Wolf ASAP. We’ll worry about the list after we get them out. What a goddamn cluster fuck. You got anything else you feel like getting off your chest?” he asked Violet.

  She shook her head no and looked out the window.

  “You better hope to God everything you’ve told us is the truth.” Zane turned and went back to his seat, leaving me alone with a crying Violet.

  I was supposed to hate this woman. She was wanted by the US Government on a variety of charges. Some of them were still punishable by death. She admitted she killed a man, though I couldn’t bring myself to condemn her for that; it was self-defense. She’d done the same thing I myself had done dozens of times – only I laid a trap and waited for my prey. The only difference was I was contracted by the government to kill. Though they would deny it and disavow my service if I was caught – but it didn’t make it any less true.

  I was a paid assassin, and she was a murderer.

  My gut was telling me she honestly believed she was doing the right thing, the lesser of two evils. She’d said it herself – the intel she’d given Timothy was for the greater good. I’d imagine there were hundreds of names on the list of agents. Hundreds of sons and daughters, their lives in Violet’s hands. She’d sacrificed her own freedom and morality to save people she didn’t know. Talk about a fucked up no-win situation.

  Her mistake was not finding someone she could trust when Timothy first approached. She could’ve stopped the ball from rolling and Olivia never would’ve been taken. For some reason, I hated this for her.

  “Everything is going to work out,” I told her. “Zane’s already working on the next step.”

  “How do you know?” She looked at me with tear-filled eyes and for the first time I noticed their color. Brown hued with red. I’d never seen anything like them before. “Jaxon?”

  “Sorry. Because I know Z. He’ll check in with his contact and check your story out. When it comes back as factual, he’ll hunt down Manuel Ortega and get the list.”

  “You believe me?”

  She looked shocked, and I felt bad for having to telling her, “I believe you, but I don’t trust you.”

  “I understand.”

  “No, Violet, I don’t think you do. I believe you thought you were doing the right thing. But you weren’t. You sold out your country. You may not have benefitted monetarily from it, however, you still did it. I believe there was still personal gain for you – you’re too emotional for this to be about the
greater good. Each of us goes into battle knowing we may never come home, every person on the list knew the risk. That’s a choice we make, a sacrifice we hold sacred. You took that honor and shit all over it by negotiating with a terrorist.”

  “Timothy would’ve sold the names,” she protested. “They all would’ve died. I saved their lives.”

  “No, you didn’t. What you did was get an innocent woman kidnapped and beaten. Then helped a warlord move drugs, weapons, and women. At best, you’ve prolonged the inevitable. Those agents are as good as dead. They were the minute Timothy Clark got his hands on the list. If you think Manuel Ortega hasn’t already dumped the list to the highest bidder you’re naïve. And you’re stupid if you think he’s going to trade you the list for the guidance system of a highly classified SPECOPS drone. He wants them both to sell. He played you.”

  “He can’t.”

  “He can, and he will. People like Timothy and Manuel? They have no country, they have no morals, and they have no value for human life. You cannot negotiate with someone who has nothing to lose. They don’t care who gets hurt, who dies, who benefits - all they care about is the almighty dollar and power. You’ve lost, Violet.”

  She didn’t seem to like my answer when she covered her face and sobbed into her hands.

  “This is all my fault.”

  She wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t entirely right either. Had she come clean sooner, something could’ve been done to get the names back, but they’d been in the wrong hands for too long.

  ***

  The plane landed, and we were met by Faheem. He’d escorted us to the hotel Tex had arranged. Again, he’d set us up nicely. We had a block of rooms on the top floor next to a stairwell exit and the hotel had Western amenities.

  Eric and Faheem were out of the room doing a sweep of the hotel. Eric was also setting up an EXFIL plan if the need arose. Jasmin was still pushing Violet and needling her whenever she could. Violet seemed to give up information when she was pushed into a corner or agitated, and there was no one better at pushing buttons than Jasmin. She was a five-foot-nothing hellcat, and when she wanted something there was no stopping her.

  Zane’s cellphone rang, and he swiped the screen, answering the call on speaker.

  “Zane.”

  “I have the rest of the intel you wanted,” Tex answered.

  Jasmin fell silent and all eyes turned to Violet.

  “Go on.” Zane didn’t bother taking the call off speaker, knowing whatever Tex was about to say was going to make Violet uncomfortable and possibly blow her story out of the water.

  “Violet Myers was born Violet Cranston. Her parents were killed in a home invasion. Violet and her twin brother Declan Cranston were put into the system and separated. Dave and Bonnie Myers adopted Violet months after she was placed in foster care.

  “Declan didn’t get so lucky. He bounced around from home to home until finally at age ten he was adopted by Bryan and Elizabeth Olson. He joined the Marines at eighteen and his time in service gets muddled shortly thereafter. It took a lot of digging to piece together his service record. Whoever tried to suppress the information did a good job.” Zane remained silent but lifted his brow in acknowledgement. We all knew who had changed Declan’s service record. “Anyway, I picked up his trail when he joined the CIA - Directorate of Operations case officer, now going by, Declan Crenshaw. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan until once again he becomes a ghost. Official records show he died in a skirmish in Kandahar. Only problem is, there’s no record of any battle with casualties on the day in which he died.”

  “He’s alive,” Zane surmised.

  “Absolutely. One other thing. Violet is right. Manuel Ortega, piece of shit extraordinaire, is all over the darkweb taking bids. He has something he’s eager to sell. I can’t get a lock on him, yet. Any luck tracking the team?”

  “Not yet. We’re going hunting.”

  “Fuck. Take me off speaker, would you?”

  Zane swiped the screen and brought the phone up to his ear as he walked into the adjoining room for privacy.

  “So, now we know the who,” I said. “Care to share where Declan is?”

  Violet sighed and sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her hands. All subterfuge was gone, leaving a sobbing broken woman. Jasmin’s gaze went from Violet’s crumbling form to me; I was surprised when I saw pity. Fuck. What were we supposed to do with her now? There was no excuse for what she’d done, yet I wanted to console her, help her protect her brother, and justify what she’d done. I couldn’t, could I? Were there allowances for a woman like her?

  Standing in a hotel room studying her wasn’t going to give me the answers I needed. The road she needed to travel to find redemption wasn’t my business or my concern. It was for her to find. But I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to make this right for her. Would I have done the same thing if I’d been in her shoes? Fuck no! But could I understand why she had? I was beginning to.

  Chapter Five

  Violet

  I didn’t know if it was good or bad they now all knew about Declan.

  My twin.

  The brother I didn’t know. After our parents died, I had a good life. I was adopted by a loving couple that gave me everything. Declan, not so much. He was left in the foster care system for a long time, and when he was adopted I believed the couple had tried to repair the damage that’d been done but he was rebellious and always in trouble.

  When he sat across from me while I was doing his final interview for Directorate of Operations or as it’s better known, Clandestine Services, he had no idea who I was. We were fraternal twins, but there was no bond like you hear about twins having; there was no recognition when he looked at me. He hadn’t felt what I had. But maybe I’d made it all up. I wondered if I hadn’t looked into his background and went through his adoption records before his interview if I would’ve felt anything towards the man that was nothing more than a stranger to me. Was my reaction to him solely because I knew? I wanted to tell him I was his sister, but I didn’t. Instead I conducted my interview, gave my approval, and sent him off to places unknown. And now, the brother I never got to know was as good as dead. Because of me. I was the weak link.

  I didn’t know how Timothy had found out we were siblings, only that he had. When he came to me with names, it was Declan’s he’d pointed out. He’d exploited the familial bond, and it worked. I didn’t want to see any of the men and women on the list exposed, but most importantly I didn’t want my brother’s cover blown. Not only was it certain death but whatever group he’d infiltrated would’ve tortured Declan, made an example out of him. I couldn’t bear to think about what would’ve happened to him if I hadn’t followed Timothy Clark’s directives.

  In short, I was fucked.

  “Violet. Where’s Declan?” Jaxon asked again.

  “I don’t know. I did his brief, expunged his records, and he went on his way. Clandestine Services is compartmentalized. I don’t know his new identity and the agent assigning it doesn’t know his past.”

  “He hasn’t contacted you since he’s been under? Before he left?” Jaxon didn’t look like he believed me, not that I blamed him.

  “I hadn’t seen my brother since we were separated,” I told him. “I didn’t even remember him.”

  Shame washed over me. What kind of person did that make me? I couldn’t remember what my parents looked like, what they sounded like. Had my birth mother lovingly tucked me into bed at night? Did she rock me and sing to me? I had a twin one I assumed I’d been close to for the first three years of my life. When had I forgotten about him? It knotted my stomach when I tried to remember if I’d ever cried for them, if I’d cried for Declan – at the loss of my family.

  “What do you mean, you didn’t remember?” Jasmin asked.

  “I was only three, I don’t remember anything from that time. I don’t remember my birth parents and didn’t remember Declan. My parents, Dave and Bonnie, never said anything about him.”


  “And you never looked into your past?” Jaxon asked, skepticism laced his tone.

  “No.”

  Thankfully, Zane had come back into the room and was done with his phone call, cutting off any further questioning about my adoption.

  “There’s been a change of plans. Jasmin, you and Violet are staying here,” he announced.

  “No way. I need to go with you,” I protested. “You need me in order to find Wolf’s team.”

  “I don’t need you for anything. Tex sent the software I need to track the guidance system on the drone. If the team activates it, I’ll have a lock on their location. You’re staying in this room.”

  “I have to go!”

  “You’re not going, Violet. End of story.”

  “If I don’t get the chip out of the drone, Manuel will sell the names. Hundreds of people will die. Everything I’ve done to keep them safe will be for naught. You don’t understand. I don’t have a choice. Please.” I wasn’t above begging. I’d given up everything to save my brother and the other operatives. I was so close. I never should’ve trusted Zane Lewis. I knew better. I’d learned some hard lessons over the last few months. There were no decent people left in this world. No one I could trust to help me.

  “Woman, did you really think I was going to let you get your hands on the chip, and be an accomplice to treason?” Zane asked.

  “What? Why did you bring me then?”

  “I’d tell you, but my answer will piss you off.” He smirked.

  “Since when do you care who you piss off?” I was already mad; there wasn’t much more Zane could do to me to anger me more.

  “I brought you along to keep an eye on you. Did you really think I trusted you enough to leave you behind? I’m sure there is more that you’re not telling us, and until I extract every last piece of intel from you, you’ll be glued to one of my men.” Zane stopped to smile. “Or Jasmin. Though I think you’ll find after today, you wished I’d left Jaxon or Eric behind. Their patience level far exceeds Jasmin’s.”

  “You’re unbelievable. I brought this to you. If I hadn’t, Wolf’s team would’ve been left to die. I’m not the enemy here.”