Badger Read online

  Badger watched how quickly she went out. He smiled. Like a child full of innocence, when the call for sleep sounded, she responded.

  He pulled up his laptop, sat down and fired off an email to Mason. He knew it was too much to hope there might be news, but, at the same time, how much work could anybody do on an audio file?

  Just as he sent off the email, he got one in. They crossed their communication lines. He read it and reached for his phone. Keeping his voice low, he said, “Mason, your email just came in. Are you sure about that information?”

  Mason said, “Yes. Tesla went over it, and there’s no way to do a voice recognition with the background noise, even when we took it off. But it definitely sounds like other voices. And little bits of conversation.”

  “So he was possibly in a group of people when he made the call?”

  Mason hesitated. “Tesla identified a truck engine in the background, leading us to believe the speaker was inside a vehicle.”

  “Well, that makes sense.”

  “How well do you know the men in all three vehicles?”

  “In the other two vehicles, as well as you probably do,” Badger said slowly. “The men in my truck, very well.” His voice took on an edge. “Is there any way to separate out background voices?”

  “That’s the thing. One of the voices in the background sounds like yours.”

  Silence. Badger thought his heart would stop. He closed his eyes and leaned against the headboard, his mind racing at the implications. “You think?”

  “Tesla identified your voice immediately. When I heard it for the first time, I did too.”

  “Any other voices identifiable?” he asked in a very controlled tone. He was trying hard to not slam the phone against the wall. This was too important. But the thought that any one of the men in his unit could have betrayed them made no sense.

  “I recognized Geir’s voice. I think Erick’s too. Definitely other men are speaking. And you might be able to identify them a little more yourself. But the caller, his voice, it’s almost as if he used a mechanical device to change his tone.”

  “How big would something like that have to be to change his voice?”

  “It could be installed on the phone itself. In fact, it could have been a typed text message sent as a voice message. So keep that in mind. You might not have heard the true voice making the call. We only have a copy of the audio file. We don’t have the original, and if, as you’re saying, it’s been deleted, chances are it’ll be impossible to trace.”

  “Right. That’s a hell of a bombshell.”

  “I know. But, if this is the audio file, and you’re sure of its source, and the voices we’re hearing in the background are as we suspect, somebody from your own vehicle, one of the men in your own unit, sent that message.”

  “But that would be suicidal,” he exclaimed. “That makes no sense. Seven of us were badly hurt. One dead.”

  “Any idea of the mental states of the men at the time?” Mason’s voice hardened. “Not to mention their allegiances?”

  A muscle worked hard in Badger’s jaw as he contemplated the thought. “I would have sworn on my life they were all patriots. And, if you were here in front of me right now, you know how close I would be to ringing your neck for even implying such a thing?”

  “I know,” Mason said with a note of humor. “It’s not very nice to have to bring it up either.”

  Badger winced. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. I did ask you to look into this. I just hadn’t expected it to come back around to my own men.”

  “Sometimes when you open Pandora’s box,” Mason said quietly, “the only thing you find is a bit of personal hell.”

  “There’s nothing small about this,” Badger said, hating that a tremor made his hand shake. “This is major. As in, this is so damn big …”

  “Sorry. I suggest you listen to it yourself. Put on a set of headphones, close your eyes and hear for yourself.” And Mason hung up.

  Badger put down the phone, brought up the audio file, and, using earbuds to not awake Kat sleeping beside him, he hit Play and settled back to listen.

  Chapter 13

  Kat woke up with an odd foreboding whispering across her shoulders. She rolled over on her back to see Badger sitting with his knees up to his chest, his arms crossed over top, staring off into the distance. The stony look on his face, the locked jaw … Something was wrong. Slowly she sat up. He made no move to look in her direction. She got up, wandered into the bathroom, used the facilities and washed her hands.

  As she walked back out, she realized he hadn’t moved. Knowing it wasn’t terribly wise, but not sure what else to do, she sat down beside him on his bed and hooked her arm through his. After a few moments she spoke in a low tone, her hand gently stroking up and down his arm. “What happened?”

  He dropped his head back and released a heavy sigh from deep in his chest. “The audio recording I received …” He let his head roll toward her. “There’s a strong possibility it came from inside the vehicle my team and I were riding in.”

  She stared at him, not comprehending for a long moment. “What?”

  He repeated slowly, “The call was made from inside the vehicle I was riding in myself.”

  She stared at him in horror, slowly sitting up, twisting to face him. She gripped his hands hard. “You’re saying one of the men you were with betrayed you all?” She searched his eyes, looking for any truth to this craziness. “How is that possible? He would have been blown up in the vehicle as well.”

  “I know.” His words so simple, his tone so clear, left no doubt he couldn’t believe it himself.

  She turned her gaze to stare out the window. “Any chance it was a miscommunication? Wasn’t intended to happen that way?” she asked, groping futilely for an answer. “Otherwise it suggests one of the men was looking to get killed.”

  “Or thought he could get away. And is even now covering his tracks.”

  She turned her gaze toward the door. “Surely you don’t suspect Erick, Cade or Talon?”

  He shrugged.

  She could feel the color drain away from her skin—a cold clamminess wrapping around her heart. She just couldn’t imagine how he felt. She pulled his arms apart and slid into them.

  Instantly his arms relaxed, and she cuddled against his chest. So much pain resided in his gaze. She didn’t know how to help him. The only thing she could do was offer what little comfort she could give him. Or what little comfort he would accept. He closed his arms around her and just held her close.

  She couldn’t fathom the sense of betrayal. “Is there any chance it’s a mistake?”

  “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I’ve been thinking about that nonstop since I listened to the recording. I called Mason, and Tesla had done some work to clean it up, and he sent it back to me. But not before Tesla and he had recognized my voice. And the engine of the truck driving in the background. Which means the caller wasn’t me.” He gave a half snort. “Obviously. But seven other men were in the truck. And you’ve met four of them.”

  “I have. On my desk are more files,” she admitted. “One I’ve turned down.”

  He twisted his head so he could look at her. But he didn’t question why she had turned whoever down.

  Maybe that was a good thing. Since being at the vet’s office this morning, she’d wondered if some that she had turned down previously could have been helped in a different way. But it certainly wasn’t today’s issue.

  “If it’s one of the six other men, then the outcome obviously wasn’t what he had expected. I don’t think anybody chooses to get blown up and spend weeks, months, if not years in pain overcoming the physical disabilities. So I have to assume somebody either wanted to die or expected it wouldn’t be as bad as it was.”

  The grip around her chest eased slightly as she contemplated that.

  “And I highly doubt it was done as some kind of prank.”

  She shook her head. “No, of course not.” She wi
nced but knew she had to go forward. “What’s the chance the man who died did it?”

  His arms tightened around her again and then relaxed. “No. Mouse was the youngest of all of us. He was just a kid. Somebody we took under our wing and showed the ropes. He was fun-loving, bright, maybe too bright in a lot of ways. He was a good kid. He wasn’t suicidal.”

  “Was he a joker? Was he somebody who would pull a prank like this?”

  Badger shook his head. “Not like this. Definitely not like this.”

  “Of course he paid the ultimate price,” she said for him.

  He nodded. “That he did.”

  They sat together like that for a long moment. “Will you tell the others?”

  His breath caught in his throat, and then finally he exhaled with a heavy breath. “I don’t know what I’ll do. I’d have sworn I could trust them all with my life. And have done so many times over, but now … who do I tell?”

  “Did you hear other voices? Did you recognize anyone’s voice? Did you recognize the speaker’s voice?”

  “That’s the problem. Whoever sent the message disguised his voice. It’s computerized.”

  “How does that work?”

  “You can get scramblers for calls,” he said absentmindedly. “It comes out almost like a mechanical voice on the other end. This wasn’t quite so techno. But it definitely made his voice impossible to distinguish.”

  “Meaning, he could have just had marbles in his mouth or something?”

  That surprised a laugh out of him. “For the same effect, yes. It changed his voice, and I couldn’t recognize it.”

  “Did you recognize anybody else’s?”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment, then nodded. “I think so. I think I’ve recognized three. The trouble is, seven of us are alive, and, out of all eight of us, seven of us have nothing to do with this. Seven of us are victims. There’s just one asshole who decided to throw our lives up in the air and see where they landed.”

  “Surely you don’t think it’s one of your unit? You can’t jump to conclusions.”

  “I know that. Before hearing that audio file, I would have said not one of them would have done anything like this. And that I trust them with my life. I have said so time and time again.”

  “Then stop worrying about it,” she said gently. “You still have a lot of healing to do. If I had my way, I’d have you back in the hospital, having more surgery to fix that stump, so we can do better prosthetics. But you won’t take the downtime in order to make that happen.”

  He sighed again, this time his hands gently stroking her back up and down. “You’ve got a good heart, Doc.”

  She chuckled and laid her head against his heart, hearing the steady pounding under her ear. “So do you. But you’re bullheaded, stubborn and much too focused. And not on your own healing.”

  “It is on my own healing. But it’s on a soul level. My spirit is damaged. My soul is hurting. And that audio file did not help.”

  She lifted her head slightly to stare at him. “And when you open Pandora’s box, you have to expect what you’ll find is not what you want to find.”

  He glared at her. “Mason said something similar.”

  She nodded. “So listen to both of us. Drop it. If you find any other information, then you can follow it. But, in the meantime, let’s get you back to the hospital, get that leg fixed and get you moving on with your life.”

  “And what about the other men?” he asked in a harsh tone. “They deserve justice as much as I do.”

  She nodded. “They do. So pick the one you think you could trust the most and get him on board. And while you get your surgery, send him off and running to do what it is you need to have done. He can report back to you, and the two of you can figure this out.”

  “And the others?”

  She shrugged. “Bring them in as you need to. And slowly knock off the ones who had nothing to do with this and find out the one who did.”

  He dropped his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “Easier said than done.”

  “Nothing about this is easy. But either you get your leg fixed, or it’ll drop you.”

  “You drive a hard bargain.”

  She chuckled. “But you’re not giving an inch, are you?”

  His lips twitched. “I’ll take it under consideration.”

  She knew that was as good as it would get. She twisted so she could look at his watch and tapped its face. “Isn’t it lunchtime?” she complained. “I’m starving.”

  Just on cue came a knock on the door. She laughed, hopped up and ran to it. Opening it, before Badger had a chance to stop her, she froze. It wasn’t Erick or Cade or Talon. But a tall lanky stranger, and the look in his eyes said he meant business. But the gun in his hand said so much more.

  Badger bolted to his feet and slowly backed up, his gaze studying the man dressed in black. From the description he’d been given earlier, this man appeared to be the shooter who’d taken out his informant. Kat’s back was stiff, and every step she took was like she walked on stilts. But she was doing as instructed. When she got close enough to Badger, he gently squeezed her shoulders reassuringly.

  The gunman motioned at the two of them to move toward the bed. “Sit down.”

  Badger urged her backward with him. He had his phone in his back pocket. He entered the alarm code he and his unit had set up. It was a number only they knew. And it may help now. He managed to punch in the final digit, using Kat for cover. He wrapped her in his arms and gently tugged her to the bed, and the two of them sat down.

  “Who are you, and what do you want?” Badger deliberately kept his voice low, calm.

  The man gave a high-pitched laugh. “Well, I’ll take the USB key you were given. And the money you were supposed to pay him.”

  “If you want either of those things, why did you shoot him?”

  The man stiffened. “You don’t know nothing.”

  “You killed the man and got nothing. How does that make any sense?” Kat snapped.

  Badger admired her spirit, but he urged her to stay calm and to not set off the gunman’s temper. It was hard to see the man’s facial expression with the mask on, but the look in his eyes turned icy.

  “You don’t know anything.” He waved the gun toward Badger. “Give me the money and the key, or I shoot her.”

  With the quick squeeze of her shoulder he popped the USB key out of the laptop and threw it at the gunman.

  He easily caught it midair. “And now I want the money.”

  Badger got up, walked in front of Kat to his backpack, pulled it up from the floor onto the bed.

  “Easy.”

  Badger slowed his movements, but he had to open the backpack to pull out the money. He reached inside, his other hand up as the gunman held his gun pointed on Kat. Badger did have a gun in his backpack, but the chance of getting it out and getting the shot off and not getting Kat hurt was minimal. On the other hand …

  Crack.

  The gunman swore and fell against the door, his gun dangling harmlessly from his fingers. Badger pulled out the gun he’d used to shoot through the backpack and held it on the gunman. He walked over, kicked his gun away, plucked the key out of his hand and tossed it to Kat. Then he pulled out his phone. He could hear racing footsteps outside the door. He quickly called Talon and said, “Come in, but a man’s leaning against the door. I’ve shot him once. He won’t make it.”

  His tone was dispassionate, cold. He quickly unlocked and opened the door enough that Talon could slide in. “We’ll have to call Jonas of MI6. He’s got a job we need him to do.”

  “Holy shit. What the hell’s going on here?”

  Kat came up behind Badger and crouched down beside the injured man. She placed fingers against his carotid artery and then shook her head. “You’re a little too accurate with that thing,” she said quietly. She stood and stepped back toward Badger. “How the hell did you get that here?”

  “Talon brought it.” He looped an a
rm around her shoulder and tucked her closer to him. “The shooter wouldn’t have left us alive.”

  He knew her head turned to look at him, but he didn’t want to take his eyes away from the man on the floor. The injured man made an ever-so-slight cough and collapsed the rest of the way to the ground. He gasped once or twice and stopped. That was called the death rattle.

  Badger holstered his weapon, pulled out his phone, and, with the card Talon handed over, Badger quickly called Jonas. When the man answered, he brought him up to speed. “He’s bleeding all over the hotel floor right now. But he’s your shooter from last night.”

  “I’m on my way.” Jonas hung up the phone.

  Badger turned and led Kat back to the bed. “He’s coming. Just sit down here and relax.”

  She shot him a look but behind it was temper. “I’m not being hysterical. I don’t need to relax. But I sure as hell wouldn’t mind going home.”

  “I have to admit I’m with you there.” He turned toward the others and felt his leg give way as the metal pressed against the swollen part of his stump. He shuddered in place for a long moment, waiting for the waves of pain to ease back again.

  Kat grabbed his fingers, just letting him know she understood. “You have to get that surgery.”

  He dropped her hand and forced himself to walk forward to join the other men. He might have to get the surgery, but he still had to get stateside in order to do that. Things had to happen in a certain way, and right now they needed to get rid of a dead man.

  Talon handed him the man’s wallet. Badger went through it, took a picture of the guy’s driver’s license and credit cards, checked to make sure nothing more was of interest and then handed it back.

  Talon straightened. “Nothing else is on him.”

  “Well, he was hired by someone,” Badger said in a harsh voice. “And he got one of his jobs done. Question is, was shooting us his second job or was he just cleaning up his first job? Or figured to collect a bonus for himself? But he knew about the money and the USB key.”