“Let me know what you find out.”
He was sanctioning my visit to our old CO although I didn’t need it. I was going no matter what.
That was how I ended up sitting in an armchair in Lincoln’s bedroom a few hours later, watching the man sleep. It was two a.m., and the house was dark and quiet. He was a bachelor and lived off base. No one was around to bother our little chit-chat.
I couldn’t stare at the guy all night. I was here for a reason, so I stirred just enough to wake him. He was a SEAL even if he rode a desk these days. Still, he was trained to hear every sound, every possible danger. Awake or asleep.
He sat up in bed and reached toward his end table.
“Looking for this?” I held up his service pistol.
He pushed the covers back and turned to sit on the side of the bed. His bare feet rested on the area rug.
“Stay where you are,” I commanded.
He stopped moving. “I knew one of you would show up. I expected Ford.”
“I was in the area.”
He didn’t comment on the fact that I’d broken into his house and settled into his bedroom without him knowing. If I’d woken him by accident, I’d know my skills were shit. Breaking and entering were child’s play for a SEAL.
The room was dark. Only the light from the hallway and a street lamp outside lit up his features.
“Mason?” he asked, referring to Quincy’s father.
I nodded. “Heard some pretty damning things about Admiral Williams.”
“And you think I’m involved.”
“If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and all that,” I replied.
“I think Williams has been the head of the drug smuggling operation out of Afghanistan.” He was succinct and to the point. Didn’t reply with five sentences when one could do. Typical Lincoln.
“Why didn’t you tell us? Because you’re involved?”
“Because I didn’t have proof,” he countered. “Ford needed a team to take whomever it was down, and I’ve been feeding him jobs that enabled him to build one. Jobs that Williams knew about and approved.”
Fuck.
“If Ford deals with this alone, he’ll be pinned as rogue. It’ll only make himmoreguilty of shit he never did.”
That made sense. I stayed quiet, let him talk. I knew interrogation techniques, but so did he. I could torture him for the intel, and he knew it.
“He’s got you, Taft, Hayes. Even Quincy. I expect Van and Harding will defect to your company when their tours are up.”
Van and Harding were two other members of our old SEAL team. They were still on it and OCONUS, or outside the contiguous United States. They were deployed on a mission. Ford had talked to them about joining us eventually with another teammate, Carter, too.
If we had those guys at Alpha Mountain, we’d be the best mercs in the business.
I stood, raised his gun and aimed right for his forehead. He didn’t move, didn’t even blink as he sat on the side of his bed in his boxers.
“Ford hates that he got kicked out. It’s like sticking a hot poker in a wound and never pulling it out. It goes against everything he is, everything he lives by.”
“I know.”
“I’m not done. He can live with that. You made sure all of us could handle any hell on earth through BUD/s and all the other training we did. But his woman was kidnapped and almost killed. He made sure that threat was eliminated, but she’s not completely safe.Thatis what drives him now.”
“And you? This middle of the night visit?”