One-Knight Stand (White Knights #3) - Julie Moffett Page 0,11
car in his driveway, engine still running, while speaking on a burner phone. Burner phones were the safest form of communication if you didn’t want to be overheard.
“I haven’t heard from Sinclair since he sent me a text right after the botched kidnapping attempt on his daughter,” Isaac said, his voice hard. “Before he disappeared, he said he was going to bring me down. Not surprisingly, the text was impossible to trace, and he’s apparently gone dark. Candace hasn’t heard from him, either, so far as I know.”
Candace Kim was the NSA’s director of the National Security Operation Center, or NSOC for short. As far as Isaac could tell, she was a token woman in a man’s world, allowed to rise within the agency only to promote an appearance of equality, not because she deserved it. It boiled his blood that she had been personally guided and advised by none other than Director Norton himself. Did the director really believe a woman could handle or understand the complexity of intelligence missions? Now her ineptitude was the greatest internal threat to his assumption of the directorship. He would never, ever lose to a woman, not when he’d come so far. Still, Candace was extremely observant, so he had to tread carefully, so as not to arouse her suspicions or focus any attention on himself or his directorate. She could definitely pose a threat to the operation.
“It could be that Sinclair believes her not to be trustworthy,” Sampson offered. “He doesn’t know who to trust.”
“That works in our favor. I don’t want him to trust anyone in the NSA or the Justice Department. He needs to stay isolated so we can feed his paranoia. He’s declared war on the wrong man. We’re going to move things up a level.”
“How are we going to do that?” Sampson asked. “We failed to kidnap the daughter. She’s being watched now, and besides, she’s way too protected on the UTOP campus. How do you intend to get his attention?”
“It’s time we hit Sinclair where it really hurts. I want him to come crawling to me on his knees, begging for this to be over. He thinks he’s so clever, threatening me.”
“Are you sure it’s worth the risk?”
“Don’t be stupid. Of course it’s worth the risk. He wouldn’t come in without some kind of leverage that will make him look like a good guy. We just don’t know if that leverage points to us or not. Either way, he’s made it personal now. We need that back door. It’s criminal that it’s wasting away in the hands of an incompetent coder with no operational experience. We also can’t have him lobbing accusations around at this critical time in the NSA directorship selection process, even if he doesn’t have any proof. And, if he’s somehow dug up some actual evidence after all this time, then it seals the deal. We have no choice but to go after him, and go after him hard. And there’s only one way to do that that.”
“His wife?”
“His wife. Trust me, Sinclair doesn’t think we’ll do it. He thinks she’s protected or that we’d never be so bold, but he’s wrong. He’s a coward, which is why he’s been in hiding for so long. But we’re men of wisdom and action. I say all options are on the table.”
“What about the eldest daughter, Gwen?”
“I considered that, but she isn’t in the country at the moment. She’s on assignment for her company in South America somewhere.”
“Well, it does make the wife the easy decision, doesn’t it? Except she won’t be easy to get at. She’s being watched since the attempted kidnapping of her daughter.”
Isaac smiled, wrapping his fingers tightly around the steering wheel. “Not anymore. We’re officially clear on that front. After all, the budget only goes so far for so long. My sources tell me that other than occasional drive-by, she’s not being closely watched anymore. That’s not public knowledge, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Make no mistakes this time, Sampson. Hire the right people and bring her in. We can’t afford another misstep.”
“Yes, sir. This time it will be executed perfectly.”
Chapter Six
ANGEL SINCLAIR
The UTOP campus sits on several hundred acres of government land somewhere in rural Virginia—the exact location is classified—and consists of a number of buildings, including an administration center, dorms, classrooms, and an operational arts training studio (OATS) that contains a fitness facility, driving simulators, firing ranges, mocked-up tactical environments, and operational labs where we can become proficient with a wide range of