Operation Proof of Life Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman’s head and face. After a few seconds of breezing through the fact sheet and background info, he closed the folder. “Can I offer her a job?”
    Michael gave Flynn his trademarked look again.
    “What? She’s thirty-three, beautiful, educated and skilled. A regular Swiss Army Knife. Perfect for my army.”
    Flynn’s Army was a covert group of the best spies the CIA had. In the world of espionage, they equated to Navy SEALs or the Marines Delta Force. And just like their counterparts in the military, they often performed black ops. “No.”
    Flynn made a noise in his throat that Michael took for rebellious consent. He sat back in his chair. “She’s been selling herself and her skills to foreign intelligence agencies off and on since nine-eleven but she’s never worked with the FBI on any kidnappings and she barely knows Ruth, even if she’s pretending otherwise.”
    “So where do I fit in?”
    “Contact sources you have here in the States and see what they know. Outside of that, follow her and find out what you can.”
    “What do you want to know about her that isn’t in this file?”
    “Where she goes and who she meets. Who her connections are in DHS, the FBI, anyone here in Washington.”
    “You want to run an investigation within the borders of the U.S., a total breach of your precious by-the-book mentality. How’s that going to resolve the kidnapping?”
    “Let me worry about that.”
    “Not good enough. You’re putting both our careers on the line if I investigate her and get caught. I want a reason.”
    Michael dropped his gaze to the file and toyed with his coffee cup. In that split second, he gave himself away.
    Flynn pounced. “You got a personal interest in the doctor?”
    “I simply want a guarantee she’s one hundred percent on our team.”
    “What makes you think she isn’t?”
    Michael couldn’t control the kidnappers, but he still needed to control something about the kidnapping. “Nothing I can put my finger on, but the encounter I had with her tonight makes me think she’s working a personal angle. I want to know what it is.” He squeezed the coffee cup.
    His director of operations nodded, seeming to understand his nobody messes with my family reaction. “But she passed her background check with flying colors and has a security clearance higher than mine.”
    “You and I both know security clearance doesn’t mean jack shit and background checks miss stuff not marked with a bull’s-eye.” Michael sipped his cold coffee without tasting it. “When I asked for her file, my source told me Brigit’s seen a therapist off and on since she was a kid, but there’s nothing in her folder about it. I want to know why. I want to know what secrets she’s keeping.”
    If anyone knew about secret lives, it was Flynn. “If I get caught, I’m blaming it all on you. You are the boss after all.”
    Michael handed him a small jump drive fashioned like a Lego piece. “All the information in the file is contained on this. A few other items of information as well. Don’t lose it.”
    Flynn slid the folder back to him, took the Lego brick and checked his watch, suddenly antsy to leave. “I’ll start on this when I get into the office.”
    “Start now,” Michael said. “Brigit’s in your neck of the woods. I followed her to a bar just outside Arlington’s city limits, called Sail Away. It’s off the interstate past Perkins. She drives a green Ford rental car. On your way home, see if she’s still there and tail her. If she’s gone, her U.S. residence is listed in her file.”
    “Well, I’ll be damned. The deputy director of the CIA did personal surveillance on a suspect. Why didn’t you hang around the bar and find out who she snuggled up to?”
    “She knows me now after meeting me at Ruth’s. I can’t get too close. You can.”
    “And I’m still the best field operator you’ve got.”
    “I’m handing you this job because you owe me. Big time.”
    Flynn tapped the desk