Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“No one needs a checklist. I think Mr. Parker knows what he wants,” Kenzie replied. “Whether or not he’ll get it is a question we can answer later.”
“Oh, I’ll get it,” Parker promised.
“I’ll get something. I’ll get nauseous,” his uncle said.
“Do you want a cookie?” Lou offered.
“I want some answers,” his uncle replied and then frowned. “And a cookie.”
It was a good thing he’d gotten two dozen. He knew his family’s habit of stealing treats. TJ passed the plate around. “Now I personally would like someone to tell me how Jimmy Bond down there got involved with The Jester. I know why Tim Horton did. He sees Huismans everywhere.”
His uncle and Zach snorted in perfect time, but Parker shook his head and looked almost human for a moment. He so often resembled a well-sculpted statue. “That’s not the insult you think it is. Tim Horton’s is delicious. It’s a Canadian treasure. What do you have, Dunkin’?”
Lou laughed. “No. You have to call him Taco Bell. He doesn’t eat donuts, but he will chow down on a quesadilla.”
He loved it when she teased him, but he would use that as an excuse to play with her. He leaned over, whispering. “You’re going to pay for that, baby.”
He would have sworn she shuddered, and not in distaste.
Oliver leaned forward, his expression turning serious. “Roughly five years ago MI6 became aware of a new player in the arms dealing industry. He started, as many of them do, on the Deep Web offering small arms. At some point he got his hands on some well-made bombs. Very well made. When he started selling those, he became extremely popular in certain circles.”
“In terrorist circles,” Parker added. “Oliver and Samantha were working on this before I was. I became involved when the terrorist attacks in Jakarta took place.”
“Because you believe Emmanuel Huisman is behind those attacks.” Despite the super-tight corset, Kenzie looked somewhat professional as she glanced down at her notes. “You think Huisman, in conjunction with the group known as Disrupt Australia, coordinated the attacks. At least that was what we talked about in Sydney. I know Disrupt has groups all across the globe.”
Lou opened her laptop, her hands flying across the keys. “It makes sense that it would be the Australian group. They’re closest to Indonesia, but we can’t substantiate those claims. As far as the Agency is concerned, Disrupt is nothing more than a think tank that attempts to solve the world’s problems.”
“There is a part of the group that does just that,” Samantha explained. “We now believe that roughly ninety-five percent of the members do nothing illegal and are not involved in any of the planning of recent attacks. I know the Agency isn’t particularly worried because so far the group hasn’t touched American interests, so no real manpower has been used.”
“Is that what MI6 thinks?” Zach asked. “Or do they think there are powerful Americans in the group they don’t want to piss off?”
Oliver shrugged. “Either way, from what we can tell, the higher-ups at the Agency are not acting on the intel they’ve been given.”
“I will admit that we were interested in Huisman when we first formed this group,” Kenzie said slowly as though weighing her words. “There was a file on him being circulated, but we couldn’t verify the information.”
“There was?” Tasha had been silent up until now, sitting near Parker, taking notes. “Because I’d never heard his name before the Sydney operation. It would have been nice if someone had informed me.”
“Me as well.” Zach looked to the end of the table where Big Tag and Charlotte sat.
“It was a minor piece of intel someone who is no longer on the team was interested in,” his uncle said. “She filed a report and the Agency closed it. We moved on to bigger cases.”
Lou’s hand brushed over his thigh and his cock jumped.
But she wasn’t offering a repeat of the German meeting. She’d typed a single word on her screen.
Kala.
So Kala had investigated and hadn’t found anything.
That didn’t mean there wasn’t something there.
“Why would Disrupt want to attack Indonesia?” He knew a bit about this, though he’d been left out of most of the meetings with Parker. His old CO hadn’t liked him, and the Agency operative they’d been backing had problems with his last name.
Lou shifted in her seat, her sweet face turning up his way. “I think Agent Parker believes that chaos is the point. It’s right there in the name. Disrupt. Though in their mission statement, that word refers to disrupting the social systems that cause human suffering and discrimination. What the inner circle wants is complete disruption of what are essentially the pillars of civilization. The attack on Jakarta’s public transportation system could be seen as a trial run. If you take out public transport, make people afraid to use it, the economy of the city will suffer, and if the cities suffer, everyone does. Jakarta is an industrial hub for Southeast Asia and it’s a port as well, so trade would be disrupted. That would cause potential dips in stock markets around the globe, starting with China’s big three. One would assume it would affect Japan and Korea, and then it would reach outward.”