Bucked (The Invincibles 6)

I saw it the minute Ali realized that it might, in fact, be related.

“We all received the brief,” said Cope. “Including you, Decker?”

“Affirmative.” Decker was studying something on his own computer. “You know what I want to know? How in the hell did Byrne get elected as Interpol president?” he muttered.

“The way it works is the delegates nominate and vote. There are only nine, eleven if you count the two nominated,” said Irish.

“Twelve if you include the secretary-general,” I added.

“Does he vote?” Ali asked.

“Affirmative,” answered Irish.

“It wouldn’t be hard to figure out who voted for him. Who are the current delegates?” I opened my laptop to look. “France, Scotland, UAE, Netherlands, Angola, Brazil, Jordan, Czech Republic, and…drumroll, please…China.”

“While Byrne’s election makes sense, how did Antonov get elected, given that lineup?” said Cope.

I had to agree, it was surprising.

“Maybe Byrne had a hand in it, or even Kerr. We need to research all the delegates too,” said Stella.

“On it,” said Irish.

“I can help,” offered Ali.

23

Buck

The six of us—myself, Stella, Irish, Ali, Cope, and Decker—spent the next few hours silently staring at our laptops. We’d divided Barb’s emails and were studying each, trying again to link them to Interpol, the CIA, other intelligence organizations, or Operation Argead.

Periodically, someone would sigh or get up to stretch.

“I do think it’s time to engage Money,” said Cope.

“Agreed,” answered Decker. “I’d like to get Casper in place at Interpol before their quarterly meetings. There’s an open position as the secretary-general’s administrative assistant. Once she’s in place, we can determine what other support we’ll need.”

Cope laughed. “Just as long as we’re going through K19 on this one.”

“Fuck off,” Decker said under his breath.

“What other kind of support do you need?”

“We’ll leave that to Doc.”

“What about Smoke?” I asked, remembering that Decker had recently installed a security system at his ranch.

“We’ll see. There are some extenuating circumstances with his partner on his last op.”

I figured if Decker wanted to tell us what that meant, he would have. “Have Casper search La Chapelle-Saint-Maurice,” I suggested.

“I already did,” said Irish. All eyes turned to him. “A murder took place there ten years ago. It involved the deaths of three members of a French family, one Brit, and one American citizen. There were two survivors.”

I immediately knew where Irish was going with this and dreaded hearing it.

“The Brit was with Irish Military Intelligence. The American and one member of the French family, Pierre Martin, were CIA operatives.”

I felt sick to my stomach but listened as Irish continued, his voice heavy with the pain of knowing the agents’ deaths were most likely committed at the hand of their own employers.