Code Name: Diesel (K19 Shadow Operations Book 2), page 1
CODE NAME: DIESEL
HEATHER SLADE
K19 Shadow Operations Book Two
CONTENTS
1. Diesel
2. Bryar
3. Diesel
4. Bryar
5. Diesel
6. Diesel
7. Bryar
8. Diesel
9. Bryar
10. Diesel
11. Bryar
12. Diesel
13. Bryar
14. Diesel
15. Bryar
16. Diesel
17. Bryar
18. Diesel
19. Bryar
20. Diesel
21. Bryar
22. Diesel
23. Bryar
24. Diesel
25. Bryar
26. Diesel
27. Bryar
28. Diesel
29. Bryar
30. Diesel
31. Diesel
Want more?
Code Name: Wasp
About the Author
Also by Heather Slade
1
DIESEL
Number four. That was the description used by the man who’d swooped in to “take over” while the FBI’s original agent assigned to the case—Bryar Davies—recovered from surgery. The victim wasn’t a fucking number. She was a person. A person I knew.
“Where are you going?” my boss, Onyx, asked when I stormed through the investigation command center.
“I need some air.”
At first, I only intended to walk down to the lake, but when I put my hand in my pocket to ward off the windchill of the Adirondacks in the middle of winter and felt my key fob, I got in my SUV instead.
I didn’t know exactly where I was going when I threw gravel, pulling out of the forestry service lodge where the command center had been set up, only that I had to get the fuck out of there.
While she could be a pain in my ass, at least Special Agent Davies had grasped early on that we—K19 Shadow Ops, a private security and intelligence firm—had the knowledge, resources, and experience to lead this investigation better than the FBI ever could.
There wasn’t a single person on our team who hadn’t either been part of Special Forces units for various branches of the military or done stints of duty with the CIA. In most cases, it was both. We didn’t demand respect like Davies’ dickhead boss. We didn’t have to. We’d earned it.
I was stunned when my cell rang and I saw the name of the very woman on my mind.
“What can I do for you, Agent Davies?” I asked, skipping unnecessary niceties.
“I just got a call from Ryan, saying you left without alerting anyone.”
I shook my head. While Ryan may think he was in command of this case, he was in for a rude awakening in about five minutes when my boss set him straight.
“I don’t answer to him or to you, for that matter.”
“Don’t be fucking smug with me, Diesel. This is the same asshole power play shit you pulled with me the day I arrived.”
“Guess you’re feeling better.” Agent Davies had taken a hit when the team transporting a prisoner was ambushed on the way into the FBI field office in Albany. She’d been in surgery for four hours and thirty-seven minutes before they were able to control the internal bleeding and repair the damage from the bullet that had ripped through her abdomen.
How did I know the exact amount of time she’d been in the operating room? Because I counted the fucking seconds. That’s how.
“Diesel? Are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Why did you say you guess I’m feeling better?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you toss so many swear words into one sentence.”
“You haven’t been listening.”
“Where are you?”
“Still at the hospital, but I think they might release me today.”
“I’ll be there in twenty.”
“No! Don’t come here. Ryan wants you back at the command center.”
“I don’t give a shit what Agent Fitzsimmons wants. Is someone there to give you a lift once they let you go?”
“No, but…”
“But what? There aren’t cabs in the Adirondacks, babe.”
“Don’t call me that. Besides, aren’t you anxious to get back to the investigation? I’m sure you’re very concerned about locating your girlfriend and bringing her back safe.”
“My girlfriend?” What the fuck was that about?
“You’re not denying it.”
“First of all, we’re talking about a person who was abducted, probably by a serial killer. Second, Patricia Fasano is not my girlfriend.”
“Not your girlfriend, but you slept with her?”
“Those meds are messing with your head, babe. Barely had a cup o’ Joe with her, let alone sex.”
“You have an IQ of what, in the one-sixties? Yet you use words like ‘babe’ and ‘cup o’ Joe.’ You speak ten languages. Use better vocabulary.”
“Twelve, and I’ll see you in fifteen.”
I ended that call when another came through from my best friend, Ranger.
“Hey, I just heard from the FBI asshole.”
“Yeah? What did he want?”
“To know where you are.”
“Too fucking bad.”
“Yeah. I appreciated the opportunity to tell him he wasn’t your boss, so it was none of his business. I used a few different words, but that was the gist.” He chuckled. “But seriously. Where are you?”
“On my way to the hospital. Agent Davies thinks she might be released today.”
“Would you cut the Agent Davies shit? Everyone else may be blind to how you hang on her every word, but I’m not. Her name is…what’s her name?”
“Bryar, and I don’t hang on her every word.”
“Yeah, whatever. Weird name,” Ranger muttered. “Anyway, so you’re picking her up?”
“Yeah, but listen to this. She thinks I slept with the psychologist.”
“Did you?”
“Fuck no,” I spat.
“Why does she think you did?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
“All right. I’ll let Onyx know you’re out for the rest of the day.”
“I was planning to work on a review of the ransom call that came in to Fasano’s parents.”
“I already jumped on it. Go get brier patch.”
I laughed. She wasn’t going to like that any better than babe.
“Hey, Diesel. Before you hang up, I had a talk with Admiral.”
Pershing “Admiral” Kane had been my college roommate at Cornell and was good friends with Ranger too. He’d attended college via the Navy’s ROTC program but had been plucked up by the FBI two years into his required four years of active duty.
“What about?” I asked.
“He’s looking into the leak resulting in Maxim Edwards’ death. He’s also Fitzsimmons’ boss, which makes him up Agent Davies’ chain of command.”
“How far?”
“Just one layer between them. Anyway, Admiral is on his way here now.”
“Here?”
“To Canada Lake. He also said he’d be meeting with Agent Davies about what went down that day.”
She’d come close to being the third casualty. The other man we lost was Miguel Rodriguez, a damn good agent.
“He’s not sure what time he’ll get in, but he suggested getting together for dinner tomorrow night.”
“I’m in.”
“I’ll let him know.”
“He also said he’d be accompanying Agent Davies back to DC.”
“Wait. She’s leaving? Why?”
“She had major surgery, Diesel. Why do you think?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked.”
“Because she needs to recuperate, asshole.”
“Why can’t she do that here?”
“For God’s sake, I gotta go. Ask Admiral why not, or better yet, ask her.”
I’d just gotten off the elevator on the surgical floor when Ranger called again.
“What?” I barked.
“Are you still on your way to the hospital?”
“Just got here. Why?”
“Need you to head down to the ER as soon as possible,” he responded.
“Why?”
“Ms. Fasano has been located—alive.”
“Where?”
“You’ll never guess.”
I didn’t have time for this shit. “Ranger—”
“She was walking down Sherman’s midway, seemingly bewildered.”
“What’s her physical condition?”
“Almost identical to how we found Maisie.”
The troubling part of this was that the details of Maisie’s kidnapping and rescue hadn’t been released to the media, and who her assailant was, was not to be shared with anyone, given the investigation into the serial killings was ongoing. The same with the details of the other three murders.
“Have you asked Maisie if she revealed who kidnapped her or where she was held?”
“Affirmative. She confirmed that she and Fasano only talked about the sexual assault.”
I had been the one to brief the medical staff about the importance of nothing being leaked to the press. Given HIPAA laws prevented them from talking about anything to do with Maisie’s medical condition, I expected their full compliance.
Before I could comment, I received an alert of an emergency text coming in.
“Call ya back,” said Ranger, obviously receiving the same alert.
The message was from Onyx. Another suspected abduction had just been reported, this time near Long Lake.
2
BRYAR
“Hi, Ryan. If you’re calling again about Agent Jacks’ whereabouts, I can’t help you.”
“First of all, he’s not an agent.”
I rolled my eyes. He used to be. And a damned good one, from what I’d been able to find out from my contact at the CIA, one who had once been the assistant of Diesel’s boss.
“There’s an update on victim number four.”
I held my breath, feeling horrible that I’d just given Diesel shit about a woman who was likely dead.
“She was picked up at the same amusement park where the other victim was held captive. She’s being transported to your location.”
“Picked up?” The word choice seemed odd.
“I’ll get back to that. We might have a fifth abduction.”
I rested my head against the pillow. I hadn’t believed Maxim Edwards was our serial killer, and a fourth and fifth abduction seemed to validate my opinion. However, that Fasano had been “picked up” baffled me. What did that mean? As much as I hadn’t wanted to see him before, now I hoped Diesel was on his way here and I could ask what he knew. I also hoped my conversation with my boss ended before he arrived.
“Do you have any details?”
“The call came in about the missing person a few minutes ago. I’m gathering the particulars now and will brief you when I have them ready.” He hung up without another word.
Within minutes, there was a knock at the door, and Diesel stuck his head inside. I motioned for him to come in.
“I just got off the phone with Ryan.” Was it my imagination, or did Diesel just scowl?
“Did he tell you Fasano was located?”
“Yes. He also said there might be a fifth abduction.”
He pulled a chair over and sat down. He looked so stressed it made me want to reach out and rub his shoulder or put my hand on his. Both of which would be completely unprofessional and, I’m sure, equally unwelcome.
“I don’t know anything about Ms. Fasano other than that she was located. What is her condition?” I asked.
“I don’t know much more than you do. Ranger said she was found on Sherman’s midway in much the same condition Maisie was. Before he could brief me further, the message came in about the Long Lake abduction.”
“Why does that name sound familiar?” It wouldn’t be because I’d spent any time in the Adirondack State Park. The investigation into a possible serial killer was the first time I’d been here.
“It’s where Ranger and Maisie got married.”
I was stunned, and my eyes opened wide. “The same location as the abduction?”
“I don’t have those particulars yet to know exactly.”
Something about that nagged at me. Maxim Edwards—the man who’d abducted Maisie Ann Jones—was dead. I knew firsthand since I’d been caught in the crossfire of what we believed was a mob hit, most likely issued by the Bonanno crime family.
But back to why it nagged at me. Maisie had a connection to Long Lake, since it’s where she and Ranger got married. She was also linked to the fourth victim, who was mysteriously “picked up” today. Fasano was a psychologist specializing in sexual-assault support, and Maisie was her patient.
Victims one through three also had a loose connection to Miss Jones—actually, Mrs. Messick now—by way of where they went to college.
But we’d ruled out Edwards as a suspect in the first three killings. He couldn’t have abducted Fasano or the fifth victim, because he was in custody—or dead, depending on when they took place.
“Got it all figured out, babe?”
When I looked up at him, he winked.
“Why do you do that?”
“What specifically?”
“Call me babe.”
He shrugged. “Mainly because it irritates you.”
“You have sisters, don’t you?”
Diesel smirked. “Don’t ask questions, pretending like you don’t already know the answer. You know I have two, and I know you’re an only child. So, why does the babe thing bug you so much?”
“It’s what my mother called me.” We’d read dossiers on each other, so he knew both my parents were dead.
“I’m sorry, Bryar. I didn’t mean to rub an old wound. I’m sure you miss her.”
“Actually, I don’t, and I detested the nickname.”
He sat back in the chair. “If that’s the case, I apologize in earnest.”
“You’ll stop?”
“I will.”
“And no other nicknames.”
He leaned forward, closer to the bed. “You were deep in thought before. What about?”
“It’s beginning to feel like each of these abductions has some degree of separation from Miss Jones.”
“Mrs. Messick,” he reminded me.
“Right. I keep reminding myself of her new name. Anyway, that’s what I was thinking about.”
“I need to ask you something.”
“You don’t usually preface it with a warning.”
He smiled. “Why do you think I had sex with Fasano?”
“She took great pains to let me know you had.”
He opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “When?”
“When did you have sex with her, or when did she tell me?”
He raised a brow. “I didn’t, so when did she tell you this?”
“She visited me not long after I was moved from the recovery room to this one.”
“You’re certain?” he asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because no one else saw her after she left here the day before.”
“You’re certain?” I repeated back to him.
“Did a nurse or anyone else come in while she was here?”
“No. She didn’t stay long.”
“What else did you talk about?”
“I don’t remember much more than her saying she’d spent the night with you but had to come by the hospital because there was something she forgot to do.”
“Did she say more?”
“That she had to make it quick because you were waiting for her, but that you’d reminded her she was supposed to bring me a copy of her report on victim number four, who we now know wasn’t, since Maisie was kidnapped by someone else—and rescued.” I put my fingers on my aching temples. “But then Fasano became number four herself.”
“I was with Ranger and Maisie at my parents’ place on Oneida Lake the night she told you she was with me. Unless she got the days confused.”
“Unless she got the days confused?” I was incredulous! Why was he questioning me only to admit he had been with her? “Now you’re saying you did spend the night with her?”
“I had dinner with her. That’s what I meant, but we didn’t spend the night together, nor did we have sex.” He looked at something on his phone. “She’s here.”
“Fasano?”
“Affirmative.”
“You better be on your way.”
“I can stay a little longer. By the way, do you know when you’re getting out of here?” he asked.
“The doctor is waiting for one more test result before I can be released.”
“So…uh…what are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t you have to recuperate?”
“I guess so.” Now that he brought it up, I had no idea what I’d do. Getting in and out of the bunk bed in the forestry service cabin where I was staying had been challenging before my surgery. I doubted I could manage it now. “Maybe there’s a room inside the lodge.”
He shook his head.
I hadn’t seen any of them, but I’d assumed they had full or queen-size beds, unlike the cabins. “I’m not leaving this investigation, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
