One-Knight Stand (White Knights #3) - Julie Moffett Page 0,103
plied with food and drink as a group of police officers, lawyers, FBI agents, and NSA officials, including the director of the NSA himself, General Maxwell Norton, gathered to debrief me in turn.
At first, I was scared we’d be in trouble for a number of things we’d done, like breaking into Remington’s house, hacking, and wiretapping, but General Maxwell assured all of us before the debriefings started that as long as we told the truth, we would be immune from any potential violations by virtue of our cooperation into the investigation. That was a huge relief, as I hadn’t wanted to get anyone in trouble, including myself.
So, I’d told them everything. Then I told the next group of debriefers everything. And the third group, too. They all asked slightly different questions and focused on different aspects of the mission. I was exhausted by the end. The adrenaline rush of the chase and capture was gone, and I just wanted to sleep.
Finally the door opened and General Norton came in, followed by two men in suits. General Norton approached me and sat down in a chair nearby, while the other men waited by the door.
He looked at me for a moment and then shook his head. “I’m going to be honest with you, Angel. This is quite a story. If I didn’t have the evidence in front of me, and the corroborating information from your teammates, your father, Ms. Kim, and the FBI agents, it would be very hard to believe.”
“Does that mean I need to tell you the whole story again?” I asked cautiously.
“No. I’ve seen the other summaries. This was an operation that was planned and executed exceedingly well. Developed on the fly, with limited resources, under severe time constraints, and presenting with a highly personal and professional danger to each of you, but especially you, Angel. I’m considering making this a case study to teach future agents on out-of-the-box thinking and problem solving. Of course, we’d have to change the names and locations to protect the agents involved, but I’m certain it would prove to be quite instructive.”
I wasn’t sure if I should be wary or flattered. “Does that mean I am going to have to study my own mission, sir?”
He smiled. “I think we’ll let your team skate by on this one. Taking down an NSA director and his accomplices by yourselves without any outside help earns you an automatic A-plus. Trust me on that one. But I do have one question from an operational standpoint. As the leader, why did you decide to approach the house after Ms. Kim told you to stay put until she and the FBI showed up?”
I blew out a breath. “I’m not going to lie and tell you it wasn’t a decision based partially on emotion. Because it was, and I’m sure you know that. But it also made operational sense. I was concerned Sampson might hurt my mom before she got there, especially since we weren’t sure how long it would take Ms. Kim to arrive. We had no intention of trying to storm the place, but since we’re agents, we decided intelligence collection was fair game. So, we used the laser microphones from a distance to try to confirm she was in the house and still alive. We also wanted to determine how many people were in the house with her. I knew it would be critical information for the hostage rescue team once they arrived.”
“So, you determined there were two people inside the house?”
“Two, plus my mother. Then everything started to happen fast. My mom managed to escape out of a bathroom window. I saw her from my location in the backyard and tried to help her get away. But her feet were tied, and despite my best efforts, we were captured.”
“By whom?”
“By one of the guys from the house—the one without a mask. He had a gun. But he didn’t know Jax was with me. Jax was able to get behind him and brained him with a thick branch, knocking him out. While Jax took his gun and tied him up, Mom and I tried to make it to the car before Sampson found us in the woods.”
“But you didn’t make it to the car?”
“No. Not at first.” I paused, remembering the flashlight in my face and my abject terror that we weren’t going to get lucky a second time. “We were discovered again…but this time it wasn’t Sampson. It was my dad. Ms. Kim had been