Catching Fire by Dustin Stevens

Author:Dustin Stevens [Stevens, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798358375031
Google: K7-SzwEACAAJ
Amazon: B0BCTGTB3H
Goodreads: 123843090
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp
Published: 2022-11-07T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifty-Two

Referencing the proverbial carrot and stick was a favorite euphemism used by Luc Fletcher’s employer. Another of the unending examples of his paranoia, preferring to always speak in code whenever communicating over cellphones. Mistrust made that much worse when in conversation across an international border. An arbitrary line on a map that might heighten the scrutiny upon them.

Two different governments both listening to every word, hungry for any morsel they could use to put him away, as if he was the subject of some massive international manhunt.

More assigned self-importance Luc was long past trying to decipher, the subject of Keaton’s idiosyncrasies completely gone from mind by the time he and Ben Herndon boarded their flight. A quick jaunt up and over the mountains to the coast, most of which he spent thinking about the message buried in the short conversation earlier.

A missive that they had discussed prior, knowing that at least part of it required relinquishing control to a third party. A means of outsourcing that could potentially leave them exposed, much the way recruiting Jamir Baylor had.

A concern that recent conversations seemed to hint was no longer the focal point. A spiraling situation that was moving into the cleanup phase.

The part Luc and Herndon were best suited for. The place where it should have started initially, risking a bit of exposure on the front end a fair trade for the massive headaches that now seemed to be popping up hourly.

Not one bit of Luc was surprised that things with Baylor had gone the way they did. Their most recent problem, taking just barely twenty-four hours for his true nature to bleed through.

Personal proclivities that trumped the five thousand dollars that landed in his commissary account, making him hang onto the cellphone that was delivered to him. A direct conduit to Keaton to be used exactly twice.

Once to hear the story they wanted him to share with Agent Rowe, and then again after to confirm it was done.

After that, it was to be destroyed and discarded immediately.

Straightforward directions that were disregarded, Baylor deciding it was better to hang onto the damn thing. A trinket he thought he could either utilize or exploit later.

An item that ended up confiscated after things in the mountains turned sour, bringing them a much larger headache and him a visit from the proverbial stick.

“Good evening, sir. How many tonight?” the young woman with raven hair at the hostess stand asked. Dressed in black slacks and a matching t-shirt, the sole splash of color on her person was a smear of blood red lipstick.

A circle of color that seemed to float five-and-a-half feet above the floor, visible even in the dim light. Bulbs kept at half their possible wattage, meant to serve some sort of ambient motif. Wasted effort Luc could not have cared less about, choosing the place only because the lack of lighting made it ideal for meetings just such as this.

A rendezvous much different in nature than when they first met a few days earlier.

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