Page 63 of Flesh and Fury
“That was all Rana’s idea and I thought it was great,” Priest said. “I got an urgent call back on my burner from her once I learned who the moles were. I still feel guilty for leaving her sort of a frantic message…before I knew you’d taken off and that’s when she informed me that you’d already boarded and I’d have to get a message to you once you got home. By the way, I would have been here last night but they were watching me. I tossed the apartment and finally slipped out.”
“First, Rana’s idea was fantastic,” Eoghan said. “Do you know who was watching you?”
“Not for sure. I think it must have been Kellen. The truth is, he’s not too smart and he’s most definitely not a field agent. I took a load of laundry down to figure out how to slip out of the building and be on my way and found an exit door to the back alley which I’d never seen before. And, I’ve lived there for nearly two decades. Once I figured my way out, I went back up, staged my kidnapping, waited for a chance, and fled.”
“Yesterday?” Ari asked. “Where did you sleep?”
She grinned. “Well, I came here first and when I realized your unit was going to be empty, I slept next door last night.” She shrugged. “Sorry.”
Eoghan laughed. “Are you serious? You were next door the whole time? Why didn’t you answer your damned phone or knock on the door?” He was feeling a little upset.
“I fell asleep on the couch after I let myself in. I sleep with earplugs so I didn’t hear you.” She looked at Ari and so did Eoghan. The man’s mouth was hanging open.
“You didn’t notice our boss sleeping on your damned couch when you went over there yesterday?” Eoghan asked, shaking his head.
“I-I didn’t look at my couch. I was solely focused on gathering up any unwashed clothes to add to what was in the bundle and check to see if the new garbage disposal was installed in the kitchen. I swear to God, I never looked at the damned couch.”
Eoghan shook his head, laughing. “You walked right by it when you went to the kitchen.”
Ari growled. “I didn’t notice…okay?”
Eoghan shook his head again. “What a tool.”
Priest held up her hand and smacked his. “Word.”
Ari chuckled, and Eoghan was certain he could detect a blush on his dark skin. It was pretty funny when you thought about it.
“Anyway, that’s what happened,” she said. “I gotta tell you guys. I’m really impressed by the work you two have done with these clans. I couldn’t have done it without you, so good going.” She reached out and patted Eoghan’s shoulder.
He blushed. He’d never expected so many would join in their fight. If the two werewolf clans they’d met up north also came down, as well as whoever the dragons went to meet in Wyoming, then hopefully they’d have enough paranormals to win John’s tribe back and free his people. He was beginning to feel like they might actually stand a fighting chance against Tillis Bradshaw and his evil vampires. It was welcome news that this thing might actually be coming to an end and that things might be playing in their favor.
“Who’s the mole at the Agency?” Ari asked, interrupting his thoughts which had begun to do a body count of allies. “You said you know the guy?”
“Yes, but it’s no guy. It’s a woman. Deputy Chief Washington helped me pinpoint her. He’s a good friend and I confided in him about the situation early on. He suggested if I should suspect anyone in the Agency of being the mole, she’d be his first guess. She worked under him and he told me though he couldn’t prove it, he always suspected her to be working an angle for herself. When she got promoted from his office over another marshal who she fingered as dirty, he knew he’d have to watch her. As it turns out, he was right.”
Eoghan nodded. “He told us he was helping you.”
She shrugged. “I had to confide in someone I trusted…someone I knew had been with the I.S.R. a long time. He was right about this woman. We’ve met once or twice and needless to say, I’m not a fan,” Priest said. “Her name is Katerina Rojas. She’s well placed in the organization. She’s a snow leopard half-breed, one of the few nonhumans who works for the Agency and certainly the most highly placed in the organization.”
“A snow leopard, like Night?” Ari asked.
“Yes.” She nodded. “And before you ask, Night is clean. As soon as I figured out who our mole at the Agency was, I cross-referenced any communications between her and our office. I’ve been monitoring Night’s computer for some time now and I installed some spyware in her system that even she wouldn’t be able to detect.”
“Why Night?” Eoghan asked, frowning. “What made you look at her as the possible internal mole?”
“She’s one of the few people who knew the kind of relationship we had with John Townsend and what was going on with Tillis Bradshaw since she was the person we initiallyrelied upon to do information gathering about him. As soon as I realized someone was listening, I installed the spyware. Hers wasn’t the only computer I spied on.”
“McGillis?” Eoghan asked, hating the way Kellen’s name tasted in his mouth.
She nodded, chuckling. “I did Kellen because I just don’t like him. To be truthful, he was always going to be one of my targets because of how many people he screws in the office. I figured I’d use his promiscuity to work for us. Eventually, he would be stupid enough to give himself away. He’s wet his dick in men, women, just about every susceptible person he could. The man really gets around.”
Eoghan flushed with embarrassment, staring down at his coffee cup, afraid to meet her eyes, and wondering how long she’d been looking at the man’s lovers. When the air in the room became uncomfortable, he glanced up and found both Ari and the chief staring at him. He shrugged. “I guess you know I—”
“I know about you only because of the software I used to tap into his home computer. Sorry, Eoghan. I pulled up some chats you’d had with McGillis way back in the day,” she said softly. “Don’t worry. I never questioned your loyalty for a second. I know you’ve got nothing to do with this plot. I looked at a lot of others in the office.”
“Just curious,” Ari said. “Who’d you look at, Chief?”
“As I told you, I looked at Night. I looked at Wordy—”