Evenfall (145 page)

Appearing mollified by the explanation, Carhart nodded briefly before typing something on the keyboard in front of him. After a brief moment an image was projected before them of what appeared to be a neatly typed memo. It was brief and written in what appeared to be a foreign language of some kind, which was doubtful, or a code, which was more likely. It was on stationary although the header was not in view and was signed in what appeared to be ink, with the initials TB.

"Immediately following the aftermath of the Monterrey debacle, a search was put out for Thierry to be brought in for interrogation," Carhart said it calmly but something in his tone implied that the interrogation would hardly be a pleasant affair. "It was he who provided the faulty information and with little to go on other than that, he is suspected of either having done so unwittingly or because he finally chose a side and deliberately lured us into a trap."

Boyd looked at the memo, recognizing the handwriting as the same that had been on the note Thierry had left him with the disc.

"For months his trail was cold and unsurprisingly, it appears that Thierry used his resources and contacts to go deep into hiding. It was assumed that this was an admission of his guilt and that he was indeed hiding from us but several weeks ago it came to our attention that we weren't the only organization searching for him. Details as usual were difficult to obtain, we are dealing with a man who has perfected the art of hiding his tracks and who has managed to maintain relationships with many of the most dangerous organizations in the world for years, so it wasn't entirely clear who exactly the other organization was or why they wanted him. Investigations haven't turned up much on that matter; however, a week ago a contact of Thierry's who has also proved to be a source to Owen in the past, sent out a major distress signal and sent Owen an electronic copy of this memorandum. A note which, according to the contact, was left with strict orders from Thierry only to be opened if there was radio silence between he and his men for more than seven days. It was locked away, hidden, heavily coded and the second set of orders stated that it was only to be sent to us." Carhart nodded briefly at Jeff.

"In essence, the note gives three regions where he believes he would be held in the event he goes missing," Jeff explained. "The basic regions were listed as New Zealand, Northeast Mexico, and Ireland. Given that Thierry has ties to Janus, two out of those three regions are in Janus territory, and the Monterrey mission was so recent which includes ties to northeast Mexico, it seems that Janus may have been the other organization that was after him."

"I checked into New Zealand," Owen offered, surprisingly alert to the topic of conversation. He paused to take a large drink of his coffee, then grimaced and set it down. When he looked back up, the red in his eyes was obvious, as if he hadn't been getting much sleep lately. Then again, given Owen's typical state, even a normal amount may not seem enough for him. "There hasn't been anything suspicious going down recently in New Zealand, which doesn't really mean much since they could just be hiding it secret agent style. But, since Mexico seems to be the place where all the big kids hang out, we figured that was a good starting place. Also, Ryan was checking around and between us we heard that there are places in both New Zealand
and
northeast Mexico that have facilities where it's theorized they may perform interrogations or hold prisoners. But neither of us know exact locations."

Boyd's eyebrows drew down and he leaned forward, thinking that through. "Wait, northeast Mexico? You can't mean Monterrey? It's true that Janus may have a connection to the Mexican authorities, and I don't know what has happened since I was there, but I can't think of many places outside of the areas in the city that Kassian's group and I already checked that would work for keeping Thierry. The type of facility they would need that would be used on a regular basis for interrogations and wouldn't be as... haphazardly adapted as the ones we saw, simply doesn't exist to my knowledge in Monterrey. And the black market groups were still growing in strength by the time I left so I would imagine they have an even stronger presence and further control of any such areas by now."

Sin seemed largely unimpressed with the entire conversation; he had relaxed into his seat again and he was waiting with something approaching impatience. Boyd could feel his gaze on him, but he only glanced over a few times; his mind was working with the information they were giving him and his usual need to solve the puzzle was making it so he didn't want to distract himself with staring at his partner who, for the longest time, he never thought he'd see again.

"Yeah, pretty much what we thought, except, you know, without the details that make yours make more sense," Owen said. "I was kind of going by gut instinct and just the way Janus works. They're like lightning; don't hit the same place twice. Except when they do, which I think is only because it would be too obvious for the culture they're in or they get confused. Which is bad when you have a big terror organization like them, losing... Where was I going with this?" Owen looked at the others in confusion.

Jeff scoffed. "Why don't you try including a shot of intelligence in that coffee?"

"No, they only had espresso," Owen said, looking at him strangely. Jeff gave him a look that stated he thought he was an idiot, but somehow that seemed to jog Owen's memory. "Oh, outside of Monterrey, right? I mean it's not like it has to be specifically in that city. But we don't have any addresses at all, not in New Zealand even less in northeast Mexico. It's all pretty vague right now." He wiggled his fingers in a mysterious way.

"But most of northeast Mexico is desert," Boyd pointed out. "Well, there are plenty of towns in the surrounding areas and some large cities, but Monterrey..." He trailed off, thinking. When he had been in Monterrey, he had studied the city intently but he'd also done some research on the surrounding area. During some of the particularly intense days, when the heat had been too strong to wander around outside and Sin had been at work so he hadn't had anyone to distract him, he'd stopped by the libraries to research bits of Mexico's history, the culture, the language, and especially the current state of affairs. It had been helpful to gain a better understanding of where Monterrey fit in with the country, and it had also provided him with random information he otherwise would not have received. Even so, he couldn't think offhand of any place in particular that would make more sense than any other place would, and without knowing what specifically Janus would look for in the sort of place to house an interrogation center, it was nearly impossible to narrow down the choices. So he tried to think of other things; not that which he had read, but what he'd been told, what he had heard. For a moment that led him nowhere, but then something caught his attention.

"Wait," he said suddenly, sitting up straight. "Laguna de Sαnchez. That's southeast of Monterrey, somewhere between Santiago and Allende, but I don't know much else about it.
Lo mαs chingσn
warned me about that place specifically, though. He said," his eyebrows drew down as he tried to remember the wording, "that the people there would not be fond of the company I kept."

Carhart sat up and looked at Boyd with interest but didn't immediately say anything even though he leaned forward slightly as his eyes narrowed.

Sin, on the other hand, looked mildly confused by the information and raised an eyebrow at Boyd inquisitively. "I'm assuming this happened while I was down for the count," he said, mouthing twisting slightly in disappointment that he'd missed yet another opportunity to confront the smuggler.

Boyd met Sin's gaze and nodded slightly, still marveling at the fact that Sin was really there sitting next to him, speaking to him and that his green eyes were as clear and alert as ever; that there were no signs of any lasting damage despite how dire the situation had been. Thinking of that conversation with
chingσn
automatically put him in mind of what Sin's state had been at the time. "He stopped us on our way out of the city," he said simply.

"Who is this person? Why would we even care what he said?" Jeff asked before anyone else could speak.

Boyd turned his attention to Jeff. "He's the leader of the most dangerous and successful smuggling group that I know of in Monterrey. There are very few people who are on his level or would dare challenge him." He looked at Sin again; for some reason, because Sin knew of the man, he felt the need to explain to him further. "I was trying to avoid any of his territory but in the month since I'd had good
Intel
, he'd taken over jurisdiction of the tunnel we escaped through."

"Why would he warn you about a possible Janus base?" Carhart demanded suddenly but despite the intensity of his tone, he didn't seem skeptical of the information, just intrigued. "What exactly happened when you encountered him during the escape?"

"Well," Boyd said, gaze lingering briefly on Sin before returning his attention to Carhart. "We were all extremely distracted when we were stopped by
lo mαs chingσn
and his men. I'd met him earlier in the assignment so when I recognized his mark, I attempted to negotiate. He called his men off, spoke to me for a bit about nothing in particular, looked in the van and spoke to several of the team members. He seemed... relatively amused by the entire situation until I attempted to stop him from looking into the van. He wasn't really being serious about anything but it was clear he knew we weren't simple civilians due to the riot gear everyone was wearing, and Sin's condition. I'm not certain why he warned me; any number of reasons are possible but it could have been related to the fact that I didn't seem particularly intimidated by him, that he'd seen me before and wanted to see what I'd do with the information, or maybe I just amused him. I have no idea when it comes to him."

Carhart's eyes didn't leave his face for several moments but when his gaze finally dropped, he switched back to the previous topic abruptly. "
Laguna de Sαnchez
," He muttered thoughtfully, with a perfect Spanish accent. "Even if this information seems shady at the moment it's still a lead and the only one we have. I know Mexico is Ryan's forte but do we know anything about this area? It doesn't have to be specifically regarding Janus or suspicious activity."

Sin cleared his throat and looked at Boyd out of the corner of his eye before focusing on Carhart. "My former employer mentioned it in passing at some point. I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying but she claimed it was a tourist spot because of its location near a national park and apparently she has family with property out there."

"Family?" Boyd echoed, looking at Sin a little more intently than he had before. "Close family?"

One shoulder rose in a shrug. "I guess. I have no idea. She seemed to have a huge family and apparently she kept in close contact with all of them so I don't know who's considered close and who's not, even if they're just extended or not really related by blood."

"Like Hale Clemons, right? Janus extraordinaire and her 'uncle'?" Owen asked, taking another drink of his coffee and grimacing again. He pushed it away too abruptly and it was only with Boyd snapping a hand out to stop it that it didn't spill onto all of Jeff's papers.

Jeff gave Owen a disgusted look. "Stop drinking that if you have such issues acting like an adult. Although you have a point. Hale Clemons was her extended family which is why she never appeared on his initial background checks."

Owen nodded, giving Boyd a grateful look for the coffee, then he turned to Carhart with his eyebrows raised. "But family property plus uncle plus Janus plus Laguna adds up to 100% suspicious. I think we should look into it. That's more coincidence in one area than I have in New Zealand."

"What I don't understand is why they are moving like this now," Boyd said, thinking aloud. "If the entire mission was a set up, then who were they trying to catch? I'd assumed it was the Agency since they caught Sin. But even after that was all over, they captured Thierry as well. And even if Hale Clemons was the Janus contact in the area, he can't be the only one. Why would he bother involving himself further in the matter?"

"He's probably taking it personally that information Thierry gave out led to Jessica dying," Jeff said offhandedly.

Boyd's gaze snapped to Jeff in surprise. "What?" He looked over at Sin, though he didn't seem to be asking him specifically when he asked, "Jessica died?"

Sin said nothing, expression unchanging and it was Carhart who wound up answering. "She was caught in the crossfire of gunfire before Sin was captured."

Boyd looked between the two of them. "I see."

"So we have a new theory to explore," Carhart said finally. "One that hadn't even been on the table before this briefing. We now have to take the possibility that Thierry provided the faulty information to us unwittingly more seriously, an idea that could possibly save his life in the end if it can be proven. If it turns out that he really is being held by Janus on Clemons' property, things will go more in his favor if he can be recovered alive. However before I even think to put any of this information in front of the Marshal, we need to do extensive research on the region. Owen, you can collaborate with Ryan as much as you can to find out what he already knows so that you can find out the things we need to know. Finding out whether or not Clemons owns property in that area will be the easiest part and that won't be enough to prove anything. Dig up any information you can find, anything suspicious about the property or movements in that area by Janus."