CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"I'm headed to Washington," said Bodwick.

"You just got home," frowned his daughter, Aspen, her stepmother, Miriam, beside her.

"I know, honey, but I won't be gone long. This has to be done."

"What's up, brother?" asked Wilson.

"Are you busy?" asked Bodwick.

"Not too busy to help if you need me." Bodwick nodded, looking at Nine and Gaspar.

"I need him and two more. This won't take long," frowned Bodwick. Nine nodded, looking around the room.

"Baptiste? Hawk? Can you go with him?" The two men nodded.

"Let's go."

"What's going on?" asked Ian.

"I'll let you all know for sure when I get there, but keep your comms on. Kaplan has a home in California. We need to get a team there and tear that fucking place apart. We'll get to D.C. and do what we need to do. If you have to get to those islands, go."

"We're still working on getting visuals on the islands. Once we have that, we're going to move out."

Minutes later, Bodwick, Wilson, Hawk, and Baptiste were on the jet headed to D.C. The president was arranging a meeting with someone who might be able to put a pin in this balloon for them. If so, it would speed things up considerably.

"Are you sure, Michael?" asked Wilson. Bodwick's face was contorted in disbelief and sorrow.

"I'm sure. The president is sure. He suspected something was going on with him. Not this, but something. He put one of our undetectable recording devices in his office. Let's go pay a visit."

An hour later, they were in a black car on their way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Whisked away to a small meeting room, they waited inside until the president walked in.

"Nice to see you, boys. Not under these circumstances, but nevertheless. The former vice president is currently being questioned by the CIA and held in custody by the Secret Service. The cabinet members are also being questioned and will be handled."

"Nice to see you too, sir." There was a knock on the door, and a man entered.

"Mr. President…" He stilled, staring at the three men. Then back at the president. For a moment, you could see it in his eyes, the desire to escape. To run. But there would be no escape for him.

"Hell," he smirked, looking around the room. "I probably know the answer to this, but what are you boys doing here?"

"Griner. Long time no see," said Wilson. "And you're right. You probably know why we're here, and you're not going to like how this ends."

"You look fucking great," he said calmly. "You too, Baptiste, still young as ever, fucking jacked and huge. How are the brothers?"

"We're not here on a social call, Griner." Baptiste's face was stoic, sickened that one of their own had turned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I figured that. What do you want to know?"

"I want to know all of it," said Bodwick, "but first, I want to know why you would help that man take our own people. Kill our own. Use those girls the way they did. Why?"

"Money. Bribery," he said, shaking his head. "Hell, all of it. I was in Thailand on a mission almost twenty years ago, and my team was getting bored waiting for the target to arrive. We met this guy in a bar that says he knows of a place where the women will do whatever you want them to do, for a price, of course."

"Women? They were kids, and you were fucking married," growled Wilson.

"I know. I found that out when I saw them, but by that point, I'd paid my money, and they weren't giving it back. I didn't do anything horrible."

Baptiste moved so fast he didn't have time to get out of his way. The same age, but definitely not in the same shape, he was outmanned.

"You raped a child!" he said, gripping his shirt. He slapped him against the wall several times and then released him. Griner straightened himself, feeling his heartbeat pick up to a dangerous level. These men were still in Teams' shape. How was that possible? His body was hurting, and he'd only just been pushed against a wall.

"He took video and photos. He said he would ruin my career, my life, all of it. If I didn't help him, I would find myself on one of those islands with those men. Then he had me," said Griner. "Twenty years on the Teams, and I thought I was slick. I thought I knew it all and knew how to evade and escape. He knew I didn't have the kind of money he wanted to extort from me. So he recruited me." He laughed at the word ‘recruited.'

"You chose to do this," said Wilson. "Don't make this sound as if you had no options. You could have chosen not to."

"My marriage was on the rocks already. I knew this would have sent her over the edge. Turns out she was gone when I got home. When I could, I let him know when troops were close to his compounds. I helped him to find the islands to hold the men."

"You fucking traitor!" seethed Bodwick. Griner stared at the men, then looked at the president, the one man he didn't want to disappoint.

"Call me what you like. It's done and I'm done. I ended all contact with him yesterday. He's going to kill the others on the islands, but it will take his yacht a while to get there."

"Where? Where are the fucking islands?" said Baptiste.

Griner walked toward a table with pens and notepads and began scribbling the coordinates. Three separate islands. He handed it to Bodwick, who snapped a photo and sent it to comms. He could hear them ordering the teams to the choppers.

"You're going to hang for this," said Wilson.

"Naw. I won't. The Teams don't need another black mark on their scorecard. They'll do this quietly, and I'll go away," he smiled. "Maybe to jail, maybe just quietly removed from the public eye. But I won't hang for anything. I'll be the hero that helped to find the madman responsible for all of this."

"Maybe he's right," said Michael. "I think we find another way." Baptiste and Wilson nodded.

"Hawk?" said Wilson, glaring at Griner. "You're up."

Griner looked around the room, waiting for someone else to appear. Instead, a bullet silently broke through the glass, killing the man instantly. As he fell, there was a brief second of shock. Then, peace crossed over his face.

"Nice job," said the president. "I'll have the maintenance team put the bulletproof glass back in place. We'll take care of this mess. You boys go get those men and bring them home. We'll give them everything they deserve and then some."

"Thanks for the heads up, sir," said Bodwick.

"I trusted him to be the go-between for the Special Ops teams and the Joint Chiefs. It was my decision to bring him in. It's my cross to bear. Just bring those men home."

"What will we tell the world?" asked Bodwick.

"What we always do. A variation of the truth that fits the scenario."