“Sir, we can track her,” said Hook.
Kempt sat down in his chair and shook his head. “No. Whoever she is, she may have done us a big favor. There’ll be no trial now. Let her go.”
With that, the mission in Albania rapidly began to wind down.
Jen and Owen were picked up walking down the middle of the road by a patrol of Albanian soldiers and brought to their headquarters, where they were turned over to an American liaison officer.
The police found Jackson parked on the side of the road. With him were half-a-dozen lab technicians and guards who had been in the back of the semi-trailer but were now lying facedown in the mud.
As for Mitchell, Yuri, Cardinal, and Sam, the Special Forces team sent to capture Houston was hurriedly dispatched to their location. While the medics treated Mitchell and Cardinal, the chemical warfare team took possession of the anthrax.
The crisis was over.
54
With a box of donuts in one hand and a tray of coffees stacked two high in the other, Nate Jackson walked into the briefing room and placed his usual assortment of treats on the table for everyone to share.
“You’re five minutes late,” said Mitchell, as he helped himself to a coffee.
“Have you seen the weather outside?” replied Jackson. “It’s snowing so hard, I thought I saw a polar bear walking around in the parking lot.”
“Real funny, you should see a winter in Northern Minnesota. Now that is cold,” said Mitchell as he flipped open the box of donuts and grabbed the unhealthiest thing he could find. It’s good to be alive, thought Mitchell as he wolfed down the donut.
“I saw that,” said Jen, as she walked into the room. “You may still be recovering from your gunshot wound, but that’s going to cost you another ten minutes on the treadmill tonight, mister.”
“I can think of better things to do to burn off the calories,” replied Mitchell lecherously.
“Like what?” asked General O’Reilly as he strolled in, accompanied by Mike Donaldson and Fahimah Nazaria.
“Like nothing, sir,” replied Mitchell, turning beet red.
Jackson chuckled. “That’ll teach you to be cute with your much-better half at work.”
As was their routine, for the next few hours they went over every detail of the past mission from the first day they’d met Houston until their last day in Albania. Sam and Cardinal, along with Yuri, weren’t present as they were on an early holiday in Disney World with Sam’s nieces and nephews.
After a quick break for a light lunch, they all met back in the briefing room to wrap up the debriefing.
Mitchell started. “Sir, do you know who has the anthrax and where it’s being held?”
O’Reilly said, “My sources tell me that it was taken lock, stock, and barrel to the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, where it will be disposed of.”
“General, after all we’ve been through, do you believe them?”
O’Reilly smiled at his protégé. “Time will tell.”
“What about Houston? Did they ever find his body?” asked Jackson.
“Not a trace,” replied Donaldson. “The SUV was found. The driver and a young blonde woman were found dead inside. However, Houston’s body was never recovered.”
“I take it the government is looking for him?” said Jen.
“Not just him, but anyone even the slightest bit connected to Houston and his genocidal plan,” said Fahimah. “It turns out that several high-ranking officers in the Pentagon have already resigned. I suspect that before all is said and done, dozens of key people inside and outside the government may be facing some pretty long prison terms.”
“The women, the ones at Houston’s ranch, whatever happened to them?” wondered Jackson. “I overheard a couple of officers saying that they had been flown to Rome and were part of Houston’s plan to infect millions of people over the holidays.”
Donaldson said, “It turns out they’re all innocent. None of them had any idea of what was about to unfold.”
“That’s some good news, at least,” said Mitchell.
O’Reilly stood, reached into his jacket, and handed envelopes to Mitchell, Jackson, and Jen. “It’s your Christmas bonus. The rest of your team already received theirs, so take a well-earned holiday somewhere, and relax for a few weeks on Owen Houston’s dime.”
“Glad to see someone appreciates our hard work,” said Jackson with a wink at O’Reilly as took his envelope and quickly stashed it away.
O’Reilly ignored the quip and with a smile, he thanked his people for all of their hard work and left the room.
A few minutes later, Jen and Mitchell made their way downstairs. They were about to head outside and jump into Mitchell’s Jeep when someone called out. Mitchell turned around and saw that it was the security guard who worked the front desk trying to get his attention.
“Sir, this was left for you,” said the man as he handed Mitchell a bottle wrapped in Christmas paper.
“Thanks,” said Mitchell.
“Who’s it from?” asked Jen.
“I don’t know.” Mitchell looked over at the guard and asked if he saw who dropped it off. The man shrugged his shoulders and said it was dropped off by special delivery about an hour ago.
“The mystery deepens,” said Jen, raising her eyebrows. “Open it.”
Quickly ripping off the wrapping, Mitchell looked down at the bottle. “Eighteen-year-old Laphroaig,” said Mitchell.
“Ryan, you know that I don’t know one bottle of Scotch from another,” said Jen. “Is that a good one?”
“Yeah, but it’s more than that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“This bottle’s from Grace.”
Jen frowned. “Now, why would she bother to send you a bottle of Scotch?”
“It’s a sign.”
“What kind of sign?”
“That she’s now part of our lives, whether we want her in or not.”
Jen slipped her arm under Mitchell’s and pulled him in close. “Well, I, for one, don’t like the idea of another lady taking an interest in my man.”
“You needn’t worry, Jen. You’re the only woman I love.”
Jen smiled. “Yeah well, I think it’s about time that you proved it. I want to go somewhere warm where I can lie on the beach all day long. As soon as we get home, I’m going to book us a couple of tickets to Jamaica for the holidays, and you’re paying.”
“Wonderful,” muttered Mitchell under his breath.
“I heard that.”
Mitchell stood there staring out at the falling snow. Their world had just changed. Where things were going to lead, Mitchell had no idea. All he knew was that that there would be no going back to the way things used to be.