Bucked (The Invincibles 6)

“I located travel records indicating Kerr flew from London to New York City two days before the murder,” answered Irish.

“I’ve been watching facial recognition feeds,” added Decker. “So far, I haven’t gotten any hits, but Kerr would know how to avoid being picked up.”

“Are you saying we don’t presently know Kerr’s whereabouts?” Cope asked.

“That’s correct,” answered Decker. “Although we have reason to believe he hasn’t left the States.”

Cope looked at me and then at Stella and finally at Decker. “Unless anyone here objects, I’m going to go to Money McTiernan with this.” He turned to Irish. “That’s to say, I will if you’re able to establish enough of a connection to warrant it.” Cope cleared his throat. “One other thing, did Nancy have a computer?”

“Of course she did,” answered Stella.

“Where is it?”

I almost laughed out loud at the look on Stella’s face.

“Asshole,” Irish muttered under his breath. I doubted anyone else at the table heard him. I had to admit that, at the moment, I agreed with his assessment.

“Well?” Cope asked again.

“Whoever killed her, took it,” said Stella, who stood and walked over to the window.

Ali reached over and put her hand on her husband’s arm.

During Cope’s original investigation, it was Money who’d brought in Ali, a CIA internal affairs officer, to determine whether Cope was also a double agent working with Irish.

Once Money found out both men had created their own covert mission and suspected Fisk of leading a ring of double agents responsible for the deaths of some of the CIA’s best operatives, he backed them with the full force of the agency, all under the auspice of internal affairs. Not to mention with support from the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by none other than Cope’s father, Henry Clay Copeland, Senior Senator from the State of Louisiana.

If Cope planned to take this to Money, it also likely meant he hoped to secure funding to keep the mission going—something his Senator father would certainly approve.

Even if I’d asked Decker how all this was being funded, I doubted he’d tell me. I knew, though, that even if Decker had to pay for this out of his own pocket, he wouldn’t walk away from this mission for anything outside of his wife and soon-to-be-born baby.

“No objections?” Cope asked again. When no one spoke up, he continued. “Deck, err…and Stella, do you have the next steps determined?”

Stella looked at Cope, but didn’t respond. Instead, she focused on Irish.

“What?” he asked.

“What happened with China?”

“What about them?”

“You were on trial for spying for them. Was that part of the cover?”

Irish looked at Cope and then Deck. All three men were smiling. “They’re pretty easy to make a scapegoat for just about anything,” he said.

“To confirm, there was never an official connection to China?”

“Not anything we could confirm. That doesn’t mean they weren’t somehow involved.”

“I’ve been looking into the current executive committee and Interpol. Antonov is rumored to be next in line to take over when the current head of United Russia ‘retires,’” said Ali, looking up from her laptop. “According to the brief I received several months ago, he looks like a pretty bad dude.”

“Several months ago?” Stella asked.

Ali set her phone on the table. “Sorry. Unrelated.”

“What is it related to?” asked Irish.

“The poisoning of the Russian diplomat in London.”