Chapter Twenty-One

Beowolf was back at his kennel playing with his pals, and Panther Force was back in the war room with their thinking caps pulled on, going over the knowns with Olivia.

Now, there was nothing else to be said.

They'd spent the last hour examining the events that had occurred since Olivia's soon-to-be ex had put a rock through her kitchen door window.

It was a lot.

Olivia showed her prosecutorial chops as the team listed the complications on their whiteboard.

There were imbalances in today's disclosure.

Olivia mentioned that she was on a team that had just seated a grand jury in a significant case and wasn't at liberty to discuss it. She'd mentioned that she was in the final days until a contentious divorce. And lastly, there was the Offsed trial, which both Olivia and Nutsbe were involved with now.

On his side, Nutsbe disclosed nothing.

That Russia, Albania, and a retired senior FBI honcho might want him eradicated was left unsaid.

The sniper? Olivia was right; everyone agreed the wind made it difficult to tell if it was a professional or a disaffected Joe Schmo shooting from the parking garage roof. They needed to wait for the crime scene reports to better evaluate.

The motorcycles that were following their SUV into the ambush?

They weren't amateurs; they knew to hang back.

They weren't professionals; they made beginner mistakes.

The motorcycles were an in-between.

But that was assuming that the riders were doing something nefarious. With the rearview film on the big screen, they decided it was a valid option for the bikers to stay a certain distance from the SUV in front of them when it was erratically changing lanes and speed, the way Nutsbe had done to test his theory that his vehicle was being followed.

Neither Olivia nor Nutsbe could identify the sound of those bikes as the ones that had been harassing their neighborhood.

At least with the back-camera footage, they could get the make and model. Nutsbe put that on his to-do list.

The ambush?

Definitely a dedicated crew. Again, the criminals had tactical training, which was evident to everyone. And the police had already brought Panther Force up to date on that car. It was a fast turnaround because it was an M.O. that the D.C.P.D. had been chasing all over the capital city and was now spreading to Northern Virginia.

Were all the ambush criminals ex-military? Ex-law enforcement?

Impossible to say with their video alone.

It could very well be a street gang that someone trained up.

"We go away to help out Strike Force for one night—one night—and this is what you get yourself up to?" Thorn chided.

"I got bored without you and went looking for a little excitement," Nutsbe said, checking his phone. "Hard to blame a guy." It was security calling in.

Nutsbe had interacted with the police on three occasions in less than twenty-four hours, and it didn't surprise him in the least when the front gate was on the line asking permission to allow Special Agents Kennedy and Finley to head up for a meeting.

They hadn't even bothered to send a text to see if he was in the building.

Commander Titus Kane tipped his gaze to Thorn. "Automotive brought a new vehicle around to visitor parking, now that Nutsbe made a mess of the last one." He sent Nutsbe a grin before focusing back on Thorn. "Olivia was going to drive the new vehicle home. Do you want to walk her down?"

"Will do." Thorn stood and faced Olivia. "Ma'am, it's been a trying day. I can either get you the keys, or I'd be happy to drive you."

Sending Thorn a tired smile, Olivia said, "I think my nerves have settled. I won't inconvenience you. But thank you." As she followed along behind Thorn, she caught Nutsbe's gaze. "You're still able to help me with my car? How about I order takeout for two?"

Olivia had handled everything since he'd met her with an interesting combination of compassion and ice in her veins. Nerves of steel, the kind of woman who would talk about issues without opening teary floodgates, rational and even. It was crazy that she'd been on the other side of his fence for years, and he'd not known it. All that time …

Nutsbe had just watched something similar happen in Estonia where not just the right people lined up, but also the right place right time. It made Nutsbe wonder. Maybe he was just meeting Olivia now because her marriage was about to end. It was a thought that brushed through his mind and vanished.

Right now, both his heart and his head appreciated Olivia Gladstone's sudden appearance in his life, even with the volatility. "I can't guarantee what time I can get there." He waggled his phone. "I'm not sure what my friends are on the way up to talk to me about."

"Okay then, I'll see you when I see you." Olivia looked like there was more she wanted to say, but she rolled her lips in, gave a nod, acknowledged Kennedy and Finley, and followed Thorn into the hall.

Nutsbe stood back as the special agents made their way into the war room.

"That was Olivia Gladstone. She's a U.S. prosecutor," Finley said. His focus moved toward the board, scanning down the storyline. "Hell of a day you two had."

"One for the books," Nutsbe moved back to his chair. The special agents were familiar enough with the room that they didn't need special manners.

"Really interesting that she's been involved in all this." Deep in thought, Kennedy pulled his brow together as he took his chair.

"You know her, Kennedy?" Titus asked. "You're Eastern Europe. Why are you finding her presence interesting?"

"Nothing classified." He sat and considered those words. "Nothing that I've been read into anyway. But I'm just back from Germany, and her name came up in passing. I looked her up just last week."

"In Germany?" Nutsbe asked.

"And interestingly," Kennedy pulled his ankle over his knee as he settled in, "there was a motorcycle component to why I was invited to that meeting."

Titus leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. "For clarity, her name was spoken in conjunction with motorcycles?"

"Her name was mentioned—and knowing your clearance levels and professionalism, I'm going to share this with you. I think I might have heard something I wasn't supposed to know."

"It stays in this room," Titus said.

"All right." Kennedy swiped his fingers down either side of his nose. "Eastern Virginia sat a secret grand jury looking at a possible assassin functioning within the U.S. The DOJ has already been scraping up associates, several of whom have been working as unregistered foreign agents. The extremist organization will be pissed if the prosecutors get the true bill to press formal federal charges. The concern is that once charged, the man will turn State's evidence and share the terrorist organization's internal secrets. We know that group is actively trying to thwart that outcome."

"Olivia said she has a grand jury seated, and she's unable to talk about it," Nutsbe said, his arms folded over his chest, his gaze intent. "That information may be accurate and current. How would anyone in Europe have figured it out?"

"Hard to say," Kennedy drummed his fingers on his knee. "I heard rumors, and I'm repeating the rumors back to you."

"What has that got to do with motorcycles?" Titus asked.

"At that same meeting, there was a briefing about an American terrorist active in Germany. German authorities believe that an extremist organization has been using an American on a motorcycle to attack Jewish targets in Northern Germany. A leader of a major Jewish community group has been specifically targeted."

"An American terrorist in Germany," Titus asked. "Is he acting on ideology?"

"Ideology." Kennedy let that word drag out. "From what Interpol is turning up, he's getting a hefty payday. Interpol knows the biker is responding to commands from out of the Middle East, and they're actively seeking the biker's arrest. It muddies relationships when an extremist organization can get people from countries with friendly governments to commit crimes. It's a positive for an adversarial country when they can get criminals from one Western ally to hurt another Western ally, right? If and when arrests are made, and that hits the papers, it creates bad feelings and diplomacy issues amongst friends."

"What has this American biker done exactly?" Nutsbe asked.

"So far, he's thrown Molotov cocktails that have only created minor damage but major terror," Kennedy said.

"And they're sure it's this American?" Titus asked.

"They have him on video. They just can't find him. But various intelligence agencies are picking up his name in a lot of chatter about a missing dissident with dual German citizenship. We know there was a fatwa against that dissident. They believe the American was able to entice the guy out of hiding to attend a dinner. No one knows what happened to him after he left the restaurant with the American biker."

"Let me just go through this," Nutsbe said. "As you were listening to this conversation about Olivia and the American biker—"

"Different parts of the conversation," Kennedy said.

"Okay, but were these two concerns spoken back-to-back?" Nutsbe pressed. "Is it possible that this was a stream-of-consciousness conversation that aligned two disparate things because somewhere in their mind, they drew a connection?"

"I get what you're saying, Nutsbe." Kennedy's gaze rested on the ground as if he were going back in his memory to revisit the meeting. "The intelligence community thinks the dissident was assassinated, not kidnapped. They're looking for a body. That's one thing. Another is that we already knew the extremist group was involved in terrorist acts. For example, that same group hired a local thug to go after our US national security advisor when he was visiting Germany. The attacker showed up outside of the security advisor's hotel suite with an assault rifle. The Secret Service acted, and the man was arrested. From his interviews—and this is where my counterparts were looping me in—it was discovered that this particular extremist organization is increasing its policy of going after low-level dissidents worldwide. The goal is to send a message that any level of opposition is intolerable. And as an example, they mentioned Eastern Virginia had recently seated a grand jury that has something to do with dissident assassinations."

"And they mentioned Olivia's name," Titus said.

"I understand that Stephany Abner and Olivia Gladstone are running a team," Kennedy affirmed.

"Olivia said her grand jury was classified," Titus said. "I'd keep this information as need to know."

"Got you." Kennedy nodded his agreement.

"I hope Olivia and her team are all taking precautions," Finley said.

Titus leaned forward to catch Kennedy's gaze. "Might be nice if the FBI went by and had a little chat with their office, don't you think?"