But she had backup. Smith sat silently like a human lie detector watching every move while Brown took notes on his tablet, doing his standard gig calculating odds—the consummate professionals.
As much as she wanted to be a calm expert here, her stomach was still in knots just thinking of Jose standing in a decontamination booth, how things could have been so much worse. She could have been grieving over his body.
The thought of him dying…
She fought back the urge to scream and focused on her next tack for finagling a misstep from Harper.
“You and that teenager Ajaya really played us when the kid raced out of the woods.” She rolled the mango back and forth, steady pace, not giving anything away by pitching faster. “You two must have been laughing the whole time you were pretending to be held hostage. Did you two stage the meet up ahead of time? Or was it just dumb luck?”
“The boy didn’t know anything.” His hands cuffed, Harper forked his fingers through his blond curly hair, exhaustion straining the corners of his eyes. “Ajaya was too low level to be a part of the plans.”
“Plans?” She whipped the fruit from palm to palm. “That’s a mighty benign word for killing thousands of people with a bio toxin guaranteeing them a slow torturous death.”
“But it would make for great television, press… all those contorted bodies would create such dramatic images. People perk up for drama. They pay attention to drama.” His brown beady eyes followed the mango with an almost hypnotic regularity.
Good.
“What message did you want people to hear with your drama?”
He looked up sharply. “Like it would make any difference if I told you. You work for the government.”
“So that’s it? You’re… what? Antigovernment?”
“I’m protesting.”
“Easy to protest when you have chemical suits stored in the truck so you don’t have to suffer the fallout.” She raised an eyebrow. “Yes, our people found them.”
“Hey, Stella, don’t look at me that way. I’m not a total bad guy. I tried to help you get to that helicopter. I told you to go without me.”
And a piece of the puzzle slid into place. “When we were escaping, you fell and freaked out, tripping the land mines. You did that on purpose to slow us down, to make us miss the helicopter.”
Shrugging, he worked his wrists inside the cuffs. “I improvised. It all worked out in the end.”
He stared back without the least hint of guilt or shame. Damn sociopath.
She leaned closer, damn grateful there was a table between them or it might be impossible to resist the temptation to take him apart herself, piece by piece.
“Harper, you didn’t help me get to the helicopter when you tripped those mines. You cost us our flight out, risking a night in the jungle. And you turned in innocent students to be taken hostage.” To be tortured. To be murdered.
She pushed images of their faces, people she’d spent weeks with, getting to know them, sharing food and tents. She couldn’t let memories of them terrified and in pain distract her, not now. The best way to give them justice and honor the two who’d died? Do her job. Bring this traitor down.
He sneered at her. “Not so innocent after all since you were a plant, a spy. I knew there was a snitch in the group.”
No use debating with a mass murderer on the difference between international law enforcement agencies with rules of engagement and warlords slaughtering for profit. She just let him talk, knowing he would eventually dig himself a deep, deep hole.
“I have to give you credit, Stella…” He grinned. “You don’t mind if I still call you Stella, do you? Anyhow, I never thought it was you. I actually suspected that anthropology student from Maine. They thought he was just trained well at resistance. Sad to think the poor bastard died for nothing since he didn’t really know anything.”>Her voice pierced through his thoughts as they reached the mobile command center.
“I think he’s scared shitless and would do anything to stay safe. I think there are countries that use children as soldiers and weapons for the very reason that we’re vulnerable in that arena. We’re wired to back off when a kid’s involved.”
Great. He hitched his hands on his hips. Just f**king great. “I guess this is where we step off. Good luck with that second cloth.”
She winced. “Unless I’m about to lead us all on a wild goose chase.”
“Hey!” He caught her eyes with his and held firm. “You’re a rock star operative who got us here in time to avert a disaster of epic proportions. I have faith in you.”
She snorted on a laugh. “Just call me the JLo of Interpol.” Stella stepped back, looking at the whole team. “Glad you guys are okay. Good work out there. Jose, I’ll bring you in the loop if I can.”
Pivoting away, she flashed her badge to the guard, swiped it through the security lock, and disappeared inside. He watched the door close behind her, scratching along the tightness in his chest.