Merciless (Option Zero 1)

Jules listened as Ash described the care he’d taken in creating Humphrey, fascinated by the intricate details. She had a lot of experience with creating a false identity, but OZ had taken this to a completely different level. Breathing life into a nonexistent person was one thing. Faking identifications and past history were done all the time for various reasons. Creating a man with Humphrey’s reputation was an undertaking few could carry off.

“Through Humphrey, we’ve been able to apprehend some low-level arms dealers and one terrorist wannabe. Taking Carl Lang down will be our most ambitious project so far.”

“Will you retire Humphrey after this?”

“Hard to say. Hate to lose what we’ve built. We’ve put so much work into him. But if by sacrificing Humphrey, we successfully take Lang, it’ll be worth it.”

“When do you think the auction will take place?”

“Within the next couple of weeks. Even though he’s injured, Omar won’t put it off. He takes pride in his negotiations, and since his latest one was an abysmal failure, he’ll want to put it behind him as soon as possible.”

“Will this op involve the whole team?”

“Yeah. All hands on deck.”

“You’re Navy?”

“Marine.”

“For how long?”

“Eight years active.”

“Once a Marine, always a Marine?”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t want to make it a career?”

“Thought long and hard about it, but—” A shadow crossed his face, and he shrugged. “I was married then. Meg and I wanted kids, but we both wanted to be there for them. We decided to wait until I got out to start a family.”

“That didn’t work out.”

“No. We had trouble conceiving…then trouble elsewhere. It wasn’t in the cards.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I guess you know what happened.”

“Some of it.”

“Never saw it coming.”

“How could you? You’d caught the monster. How could you know he would escape?”

“It was my job to know. I failed at both.”

“Both?”

“My job as a husband was to protect my wife. My job as an agent was to expect shit like that to happen and be prepared to handle it.”

Insisting that Meg’s death wasn’t his fault would do no good. She knew more than her share about that kind of guilt. No matter what you did, no matter how hard you tried, it clung to you like a leech. Eventually, that guilt became embedded inside you, became a part of who you were, what decisions you made.

“You managed to catch him again.”

“Yeah.” His disgust evident. “I did do that.”

Unable to stop herself, Jules reached for his hand and squeezed it gently. It wasn’t much…it wasn’t anything, really. Right now, this was all she had.