King and Maxwell (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 6)

She said gamely, “Then we just have to be better.”

“Easier said than done apparently. We almost bought it back there.”

“What if they already knew about this place and were waiting for us to arrive?”

Sean said, “You mean they knew about Jean Wingo’s involvement?”

“Maybe she was working with them, like we were saying before.”

“And they wanted to get rid of any trace of that place, along with us. Two birds with one pack of Semtex.”

She nodded. “Sounds pretty logical. And the motivation?”

“They have one billion reasons, Michelle.”

“But if they already have the money, what do they care about any of this? They’re long gone. Why come after us—or Dana, for that matter? Why not just disappear with the cash and go buy an island somewhere?”

“If they want to eliminate us, then they’re afraid we’re going to find out something with our investigation. Remember that Jean disappeared after Tyler told her we were back on the case.”

“Maybe they found out we know about the money?” suggested Michelle.

“The money disappeared in Afghanistan, Michelle. They can’t believe we’re going there to check things out. So they can’t be afraid we’d get a line on the cash.”

“Then it must be about more than the money.”

He rubbed his temples and gave another racking cough. “Why steal the money?”

“Obvious reason. To get rich.”

“There’s another reason.”

Michelle thought about this for a few seconds. “You need to buy something with it.”

“That’s right. And not an island or a fleet of Bentleys.”

“The cash went missing in the middle of Taliban land.” She glanced at him. “You think we’re talking terrorists?”

“Lots of cash has gone missing over there during the last ten years or so. They’d drive out with truckloads of it and who the hell knows where it ended up. Maybe our taxpayer money has been funding the bad guys for years.”

“Okay, but what about this money?”

He said, “The mission was to get it from point A to point B. Wingo knew what those points were. He knew what the money presumably was for.”

“Which makes him both valuable and a target.”

“If he’s innocent, he might want to clear his name. He wouldn’t have been attached to this thing unless he came highly recommended. Tyler said his dad could run circles around guys half his age. The special language training? The fake marriage with Jean a year ago? Him leaving the Army a year short of his full twenty? A lot of planning and time went into this.”

“Sean, if the mission went awry the government will obviously want to cover this up. Maybe years ago it wouldn’t have mattered so much, but the last thing they need with all the budget cuts is to lose over a billion dollars of taxpayer money. They’d get murdered on Capitol Hill. And if they were going to use the money for a reason that the public would find whacko, that’s even worse.”

“The military may see us as a problem, Michelle. The three guys at the mall were all formerly in uniform. Maybe they were called back into ‘duty’ to take care of a problem, meaning us. Black, black ops.”

“So our own guys are trying to put us in body bags?” she said incredulously.

“To them we’re not on the same team. We are a threat to them. Threats have to be eliminated.”

Michelle sat back with a look of despair. “So us against the Pentagon?

“It may not be the entire Pentagon. In fact, I’m sure it’s not. But it could be a small part of it looking to clean up this mess before it spreads.”