Game of Dust and Ashes (Book Two in the Covert Operations series)

Nine

As fate would have it, Tasha arrived in New York the next morning. She had finished her Op in Yugoslavia two days earlier and had spent the majority of the time since travelling to meet us. It had been far too long since I had last seen her but she hadn't changed a bit in the near five years that I'd been away. Her hair still fell about her head in bushy untameable dark curls and her eyes were the bright green I remembered. When she saw me standing in the middle of my hotel room, she let out an audible squeak and rushed to hug me.

"Oh, my god! I can't believe that you're here!"

Tears bristled at the corner of my eyes but I blinked them away as I tightened my hold on her. "I know. Me too." When we let each other go, Tasha was crying outright. Lia was leaning against the wall, regarding us with an expression on her face that I couldn't place. "What?"

She shrugged as if it were nothing but there was something in her eyes—something guarded. "I honestly never thought that the three of us would be together in the same room again."

Tasha's tears transitioned into full on sobs. She was hiccupping as she said, "I missed you guys! It hasn't been the same without you."

I slung my arm around her and Lia came to join us in another embrace. "When this is all over, we'll figure something out. I've established a good cover. There will always be some danger but we shouldn't have to go five years without seeing each other again."

"Good," Tasha said as she wiped away her tears. Her eyes were still wet but she was no longer openly sobbing. She sniffed and said, "Tell me what the Op is right now. What are we dealing with?"

Lia filled her in as I read over the files Cedric had sent me the night before. If Carmichael wasn't the one who showed up then this information wouldn't matter but he happened to be the one seated in the terminal then this may very well establish some cracks I may be able to use to get information.

"Okay," Tasha said as Lia finished. "I think I've got it. What's up with the guy at the GCCO? Why is he helping us on this Op? Is he going to be joining us too?"

"No," I shook my head. "He's working this off-record. The only other person at the GCCO who knows anything about this whole thing aside from him and me is my boss. Cedric is a co-worker who, well, also happens to be my boyfriend."

Tasha's eyebrows raised at that and she opened her mouth to speak but I continued on. "He knows everything about me. I trust him and he's one of the best hackers I've ever seen. It would have taken me weeks to break through some of the firewalls the CIA had in place to protect these documents. He did it in a day."

"I'm impressed," Tasha said. "By the sounds of it, he's almost as good as I am." She winked at me and laughed. "Is he going to be joining us on this Op?"

"Remotely. He's in Geneva but he's helping however he can. He's running the European side of things at the moment. When we run this thing tonight, he's going to make sure his people are in position in case my contact gets on a flight. If that happens, he's going to have his people tail our guy until we see where he's going and then pick him up for interrogation."

"Sounds like we've got everything working our way. Since when does that ever happen?" Another little giggle. I laughed along with her and Lia cracked a smile. "Okay so what do you need me to do for tonight?"

The front door to our room swung open again and Max walked in carrying a bag from the grocery down the street. We'd sent him out for food a half-hour earlier. He paused when he saw Tasha sitting beside me on the couch and there was a moment where something like shock passed across his face. In the slightest of movements, his eyes flicked over to Lia. It lasted for less than a tenth of a second but then he was smiling broadly. I didn't think that Tasha noticed the exchange but something had changed for Max. He tensed up ever so slightly, his shoulders just a little bit tighter.