“You’re after Jack Taylor?”
“Not exactly.”
“Who, then?”
“Jimmy Lee Moran.”
“Who is that?”
“He’s the head of a militia group called Freedom Fighters of the New Revolution.”
“So, Jack Taylor was your conduit to Moran?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Why my brother?” A.J. growled. She could still see the anger simmering in his eyes.
“He’s smart and thinks quick on his feet. We needed someone undercover who worked at the base to hook up with Merchant. After looking at your brother’s jacket, there wasn’t any question he could handle the job.”
“How does Merchant fit into this?” Sienna asked, rubbing at her jaw.
“He’s the naval base weapons manager and Jack Taylor’s flunky.”
“He was stealing weapons for Jack?” Sienna said.
“How did it work?” A.J. asked.
“We asked David to get word around that he had money troubles. We even had him gamble and lose to set up his cover. He started to talk about how he’d do anything to earn a few extra bucks. It wasn’t long before Merchant contacted him and offered him the job of driving for Taylor. He liked that David was security.”
“So, the FBI was on to the theft.”
“Yeah. We had Merchant and Taylor cold, but we weren’t after them. We needed David to find out how to contact Moran. He did so through Knight.”
“Knight was double-crossing Taylor?”
“Right.”
“What was Knight doing in Rojas’s operation?”
“He was Taylor’s inside man. Taylor always liked to know what his competition was up to. Knight met David and told him if he needed quick cash to get out of the country, sell to Moran. Knight said he would give David the information for a cut of the gun money.”
“You told the DA to back off on Knight. Why? David already had the information on Moran.”
“We couldn’t afford to spook Taylor by having Rojas implicate him through Knight. We needed Taylor in play.”
“And now you have Knight to make a case against Taylor,” A.J. said. “Nice and neat. Two birds with one stone.”
“You were holding up my serial number and fingerprints so that I couldn’t confirm that David was involved,” Sienna confirmed.
“Correct. David was under deep cover. We couldn’t take the chance that anything about this operation would be leaked. Keeping you in the dark was the only way to protect him.”
“A little professional courtesy would have gone a long way.”
“We didn’t expect your quick and top-notch detective work. When you found the truck and collared Rojas with the airtight case, we knew that it wouldn’t be long before you ended up heading over to the base. We’re glad Rojas is out of business. He was our next target.” Norton smiled at her and said, “You interested in working for the FBI?”
“If you hire her, Norton, you better watch your job,” A.J. said.
“Now, I’m going to have to ask you two to stay put. We’re going to rendezvous with Moran.”