CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Alistair walked the length of the boat, touching the pontoons, circling the entire structure.

“She wasn’t meant to float,” he said. “The pontoons aren’t water-safe, and there’s no engine. I think they were using this as a dummy to plan what they’re going to do.”

“What are they going to do?” asked Samson.

“Every year, there’s a parade of boats through the bayou. They decorate their boats like you would a Mardi Gras float, only for Christmas. At the end, Santa appears on a boat and gives presents to the kids, along with candy and other fun things,” said Luke.

“How big is this thing? There can’t be that many people in a bayou,” frowned Samson.

“Probably ten to twenty thousand people up and down the bayou,” said Garr.

“Are you shitting me? That’s a lot of people in one place, and if there are hundreds on boats, think of the damage they could do,” said Samson.

“Yeah, and most of them belong to us,” frowned Luke. “AJ? Can I assume that you’re checking flights, trains, buses, any modes of transportation to find our sibling duo?”

“You can assume that,” he nodded, tapping on his tablet. “I say we get back to Belle Fleur.”

“Let’s go,” said Luke.

“Wait,” said Cam. “I think Hex and I need to speak to a few people here to see if we can find out more information. We’ll spend some time at the Pentagon, jump over to the DOD, and hopefully, get into the POTUS. We’ll meet you all back home.”

“Alright,” nodded Luke. “Don’t stay more than twenty-four hours. We need to get this shit wrapped up before Christmas, or Grandma will never forgive us.”

“You’re worried about an old woman?” frowned Samson.

“Brother, don’t ever let her hear you say that,” laughed Garr.

Samson spoke briefly to several of Admiral Harris’s colleagues at the Pentagon to warn them that Brockman might try to reach out and form some sort of alliance. None had heard from him yet but assured him and the VG team that they wouldn’t be helping him in any way.

“Luke, we have an attempted mass shooting in a mall in Pennsylvania,” said AJ, walking toward him with the tablet.

“Attempted?”

“Four soldiers home on leave tackled the two shooters, stripping them of their weapons. No one was injured. The weapons were semi-automatic weapons with their serial numbers scratched off.”

“Sounds like Brockman’s work,” frowned Eric. “At least no one was hurt this time.”

“This time,” said Samson. “What about next time? We know that this is going to happen again. It’s not like Brockman to just quit. He’s relentless.”

“What do you mean?” asked Luke.

“If he wanted something from Admiral Harris, he didn’t let up. He would constantly barrage him with voicemail messages, text messages, e-mail, all of it.”

“About what?” asked Garr with a suspicious glance.

“Anything. Everything. The most recent was giving our assistance to the people around the Black Sea. It’s a hotbed of terrorist activity right now, and Brockman wanted us to send our weapons to them. Admiral Harris refused.”

“Black Sea,” repeated Garr. “He’s sending weapons into Eastern Europe, Russia, those areas, and that’s how he’s getting them back here. They’re masters at it, and they’ve been doing it for years.”

“But Admiral Harris refused,” said Samson. “He repeated his refusal numerous times in all of the messages.”

“That might be,” said Eric, “but with him dead, Brockman could claim that he had changed his mind and was feeling guilty. Anything that happens at this point, he could declare was Harris’s idea, not his, and Harris’s own wife would back all of that up.”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t,” said Samson.

Garr stared at the man, then at his teammates.

“You’re next,” said Garr. “He’s going to come for you to prevent anyone from knowing what was happening behind the scenes. You’re the person that would know all those details.”

“Damn,” muttered Samson. “It’s alright. I can hide out at my family’s cabin in Wisconsin.”

“No,” said Garr. “You’re staying with us. We can be sure you’re protected, and he won’t know where you are.”

“I’m not worried about that. I can defend myself. I’m worried about all of you and your families.” The men smiled at him, shaking their heads with a smirk. “Is that funny?”

“No, brother. It’s not funny. It just says that you might be one step closer to VG, and you didn’t even know it.”

While everyone reviewed the information, laying out all possibilities, Samson sat back in the comfortable leather recliner, staring out the window. Harris wasn’t just his boss and commander. He was a friend and mentor. He was a good man who’d tried to do everything right, including preserving his marriage.

When his phone rang, he was shocked, considering they were thirty thousand feet in the air.

“It’s okay, brother. We’re connected up here,” smiled Garr.

“It’s Isaac, Jr.,” he said, looking down at his phone. “Isaac. I’m so sorry about your father.”

“ Thank you, Jonas. We’re obviously distraught but not shocked. The agents told us they suspect Mom and Uncle Brad. We weren’t surprised at all.” Samson put the phone on speaker, and the others turned as he spoke again.

“Isaac, I’m here with some very important friends who are helping to track them down. Is there anything you can tell us that might help?”

“Well, first of all, thank you for helping in any way. Our mother has been unwell for our entire life, and it was always Dad who protected us, made sure we weren’t near her any more often than we had to be. We had a relatively normal life because of him.”

“We’re sorry for your loss,” said Garr.

“Thank you. Uncle Brad called me a few weeks ago asking a lot of questions about boats. I’m an avid sailor and own a sailboat, as well as a pontoon boat. He said he was considering buying a boat for himself.”

“ Did you believe him?” asked Garr.

“ Not even for a moment. He hated the water. He wasn’t a sailor. He was a soldier and a crappy one at that. Dad protected him his entire career. Jonas is aware of this, but I’m in law school, and I recently had to review an old case as part of our curriculum. I chose the one that involved Uncle Brad and the man that attacked my mother.”

“Did your father know this?” asked Samson.

“I didn’t get a chance to tell him. I wanted to, really, I did. Especially after what I found.”

“What did you find?” asked Luke.

“The man that broke into their home and attacked my mother was paid by Uncle Brad. They went to school together, him, Uncle Brad, and my mom. They all knew one another and had been meeting on and off for weeks. The man was married and desperate for money. He’s reconnected with Mom and Uncle Brad because he asked them for a loan so his family wouldn’t lose their home. According to his wife, he came home the day before and handed her a check for ten thousand dollars. That was the last time she saw him.”

“It was all a setup,” said Jonas. “Everything they did was a setup to control your father.”

“ I believe that’s correct.”

“Isaac, did your uncle end up buying the boat?” asked Garr.

“ He bought two. Two pontoon boats that he picked up over a week ago.”

Samson spoke to the young man a few minutes longer, again expressing his sorrow at the loss of his father. When he ended the call, he stared at the VG men, shaking his head.

“He has those boats, and he’s planning something. We need to find him, but how do we do that?”

“Easy,” smirked Garr. “We call the church ladies.”