Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

" A ny news on this guy?" Jake asked Abby over speaker phone as he and Castello sat outside the second house their quarry had gone into. This one in another respectable part of DC. Given the people—mostly men—they'd observed coming and going from the house for the past two hours, they'd determined this was a high-end brothel.

"The name of the man who owns that townhouse is Quintus Zacharius. His passport is Greek, and he works as a consultant to an import and export company. He bought the house three years ago just after arriving in this country on a permanent work visa." Abby paused and clicking of her keyboard could be heard in the background. "The name of the company is the Global Systems Network, which we can only find a website for. No physical address in the US. Brianna is working on tracing their finances, but a lot is tied up in crypto currency and foreign banking. By the way, I'm charging Brianna'a hours to EIS."

Jake hated to think what that was going to cost the firm but knew Brianna's skills were always worth the investment. "I figured as much. So, this Zacharius guy works for an international import export firm. A euphemism for a smuggling operation. The Global Systems Network deals in crypto, which is hard to track or trace and uses foreign banks that can launder money."

"Has spook or former spook written all over it," Castello said.

"A good possibility," Abby said. "Given that the car he's driving is licensed to another shady firm MLQ and it is covered by layers and layers of LLCs, this is either some undercover operation, or a very sophisticated money laundering scheme."

"Or both," Brianna said having joined the group call from her home in Cleveland. The woman was a numbers and statistic savant, who could see patterns within them. "I haven't found all the threads yet, but this Quintus person's bank in the Caymans has been receiving regular influxes of cash from various banks throughout Central and South America. A known way to launder cartel money for a fee."

"Which connects us to the articles Zoe was researching in those areas."

"Yes," Abby said. "Speaking of those articles."

"Did you find something about them?"

"No, they seem to be just what we thought, only it's curious how MLQ's LLCs started forming at the same time those incidents in the articles occurred. I'm not one to jump to conclusions, but it's rather coincidental."

"And we don't believe in coincidences." Jake glanced at Castello. "I think we're on the right track. Any news from the team in Virginia yet?"

"Nothing yet," she said, and he could hear the anxiety in her voice.

"We knew they might be out of communication for a while, Abby. As soon as they can I know they'll make contact."

She gave an awkward little laugh. "I know. Usually, when he's on a mission, I'm with him. It's hard to be on this end."

"Sami hates it too."

This time Abby's chuckle wasn't hesitant. "She brought me chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins for tomorrow."

Jake smiled. While his mother-in-law prayed out her worries, his wife baked out hers.

"Oh, we have an address for that key Zoe left for Luke," Brianna said. "Turns out the numbers were GPS coordinates. It's a private mailbox service. Their website says they're open twenty-four-seven. I've texted you the address."

His phone beeped for the text. "Got it. Let me know when you hear from Luke. I'll check back in later."

"Will do," Abby said. "Be careful."

Once they'd disconnected, he turned to Castello. "Like we thought, Zoe stepped into a huge pile."

"She usually does."

"My question is why didn't she go to her people at Areneum? This would've been something right up their alley. Or the CIA even? Why take this on by herself, then only want our help?"

"Maybe whatever's in that lockbox will fill in the answers to those questions," Frank said.

Jake agreed, pulling out his phone and dialing a number. "Ben. We've tracked this guy over to what is likely a whorehouse. Looks like we're going to be here a while. I have something else I'd like you to look into."

"Have anything to do with that key you gave me earlier?" Ben asked.

"Yep. I'm sending you an address of a private mailbox facility. Not too far from Zoe's apartment. Supposed to be open all night. Can you pick up whatever's in it and bring it back to the safe house?"

"Sure."

"Did you get inside the townhouse?" Castello asked.

"Nope. It's got more security than the Pentagon and Fort Knox combined. Took pics of what I found without triggering anything, but decided not to attempt to bypass them, since you don't want him knowing we're watching him."

"Good call," Jake said. "I think we need to find out what Zoe's found on this guy before we risk tipping him off."

"Got the address. I'll head over there now."

Silence settled between Jake and Castello for several minutes as they considered all the information they'd gathered tonight, including pictures of the men leaving the gentleman's club earlier.

"Do we want to talk about General Marsten?" Frank finally asked.

Jake heaved a sigh. "We don't know that was who this guy was meeting."

"Of all the men who exited that club after our guy went in, Marsten is the only one easily recognizable."

"True. Send all the images to Abby. Between her computer skills and her brain maybe she can identify the guy we're following and some of these other men."

Castello opened the app on his phone and started tapping away. "You want all the pics sent to her? You know how Luke feels about guarding what images she sees."

Jake did. The entire family had taken on the job of keeping gruesome images out of her field of vision if possible. "I know. None of our pictures are going to give her nightmares. Abby's brain is one of our team's assets. We'd be insulting her if we didn't use it. If any of those guys have popped up in the news, social media or a file she's seen, she'll remember them."

"This is like doing a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box," Frank muttered.

Jake agreed. "And all the pieces are turned face down."