Vince took his feet off the crate and sat forward. "Wait, I don't get it. Why did your CFO go behind your back to borrow money from the Deep State, Sinclair?" Amusement faded from his eyes.
"It was my fault." Raymond said. "I lost a crucial deal during negotiations. Dennis was trying to help salvage our finances." He gritted his teeth. "I confronted Casper and Jamison about why they chose Atsuo Nakamoto, my competitor when we had made a verbal deal. Turns out he was willing to develop their invasive spyware to use on the unsuspecting public."
"Why in God's name did you openly oppose the CIA?" Vince guffawed. "What are you going to do next—jab yourself in the eye with a pointy stick?" He leaned forward and placed his palms on his knees. "If we go forward as a team, you need to think of people besides yourself. These asinine decisions you make will get us all killed."
Evelyn made a face and arched her back to relieve her strained muscles. "He may be impulsive, but I admire Ray for standing up to those transnational criminals."
Raymond rubbed his jaw, lightly dusted with a five o'clock shadow. He wasn't listening. Vince followed his gaze and saw his focus was trained on Evelyn's chest. Raymond rested his hands, holding his iPhone, in his lap to cover a growing bulge.
"Move your hands." Raymond pointedly ignored him. "Show me your fucking hands—now." He stood up and knocked over the crate."
"Mac Hale, stand down." Thanatos stood up and placed a restraining hand on Vince's arm. "We have bigger problems than Sinclair's libido."
Evelyn covered her mouth with her hand to hide an amused smile. Raymond crossed his legs and coughed. "Vince is right. I was arrogant—I made a mistake thinking I could outsmart Casper and Jamison. My father, Michael Sinclair, was a five star general who worked for the NSA. The black operations he directed served to co-opt people like them into black networks. Transnational organizations enmeshed with intelligence agencies such as Mossad and MI6. Let's call them the original Deep State. They controlled secretive agencies that could spend their funds and run their operations above and beyond the law, under the cover of "national security".
"So what made you turn against them?" Intrigued, Vincent sat back down.
"These networks want to circumvent the law." Raymond's voice grew heated. "Casper Winterman and Piers Jamison aren't elected officials—they're bureaucrats. They sit in the background, invisible, pulling the real levers of power. Why should they have more political power than any politician?"
Deedee grumbled in disgust. "Tell me about it. I want to know who owns the mayor's sleazy ass. He has slush funds up the Ying-Yang, but he can't spare a dime for the shelter."
"You can say that again," Evelyn nodded. "The taxpayer money's all fungible. They can pick it out of any pot they want.
Vincent looked at Sinclair. "You and I have something in common. My dad was in the military, also. It sounds like, in your own way, you were trying to follow in your father's footsteps."
Sinclair gave a derisive laugh. "My dad washed his hands of me once I wouldn't go to military school. He never saw CENTIEN's success before he died. He viewed me as an ungrateful brat. He was embarrassed of me."
"If your dad had seen the company you built, I'm sure he would have been proud," Evelyn said.
"No." Raymond said sadly. "He would have been on Casper and Jamison's side."
"That's why we're on the precipice of destruction and we're slipping into the abyss," Thanatos said.