Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Fallon and Cruze, another enforcer, lounged in the stuffed chairs in the sitting area by Ace, talking quietly.
I wasn’t surprised to see Echo and Cruze there. King had let me know that he’d pulled them on the job, and they’d been caught up with everything so far.
Kevlar glanced at me as I shut the office door behind me, and his mouth quirked in a sarcastic grin. “Oh good, the Navy’s here. Fallon alone wasn’t nearly enough ego for the room.” He cocked his head and drawled, “Heard you’ve been rattling some cages. Thought the only talent you two possessed was buzzing towers and looking pretty in aviators.”
Fallon flipped him the bird casually without even looking up. “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, brother.”
Kevlar snorted, folding his muscular arms across his chest. “The day I’m jealous of someone who flies sitting down is the day I turn in my damn patch.”
Blaze chuckled dryly. “That a challenge, Kevlar? Pretty sure Fallon and Tomcat can arrange to toss your ass in the back seat of a Super Hornet and remind you what it feels like to black out from G-force.”
Kevlar gave a mock shudder, his lips twisting in disgust. “Pass. Rather have my ass strapped to a missile.”
A faint smirk tugged at Echo’s mouth. “I wouldn’t recommend strapping explosives to Kevlar. He’d probably rig it himself and end up blowing up half of Georgia.”
Ace grunted, never lifting his gaze from the tablet in his hands. “Accurate. And we don’t have room in the budget for another Kevlar-sized hole in anything.”
Wizard looked up and snickered. “But it’s so much fun to see you practically stroking out when someone fucks with your budget.”
“You lookin’ to eat a bullet?” Fallon asked the tech genius as he watched Ace lazily spinning his pistol around his trigger finger.
Kevlar’s eyes narrowed, and he cracked his neck from side to side. “Try it, pretty boy. We’ll see who ends up on the wrong end of a sniper rifle.”
King cleared his throat, the sound breaking through the banter instantly. “If you jackasses are done trying to measure your dicks, I’d like to get back to work.”
There were a few snickers and some smirks, but with one look from King, the atmosphere shifted abruptly from teasing camaraderie to something far more severe as the weight of the situation settled over the room. All eyes turned toward me, their expressions now reflecting a grim understanding of the magnitude of the shit show we were dealing with. Even Cerberus, who’d returned to his dog bed by King’s desk, lifted his head, feeling the tension in the air.
“This goes deeper than we initially thought,” I began, my voice edged with barely restrained anger. “Aegis has been conducting unauthorized tests of remote override systems during active test flights.”
Kevlar’s eyes hardened dangerously, his jaw clenched tight. “They’re fucking with aircraft in-flight?”
“Yeah.” My hands fisted on the table as cold fury coursed through my veins. “They’ve overridden controls without pilot consent. Partially to test pilot response, but we’ve found evidence that they’ve intentionally crashed planes to see how much interference they can inject before fail-safes trigger.”
Silence blanketed the room, heavy with anger and disbelief. Any aviator would have been enraged at such a violation. For me, it was personal. A pilot’s plane was fucking sacred, and Aegis had desecrated that sanctity.
Wizard spoke up, his voice tight. “We were right that Carson Holbrook’s flight wasn’t mechanical failure or pilot error. His aircraft was hijacked remotely and deliberately crashed as part of a risk trial.”
Blaze let out a low curse, disbelief coloring his tone. “They’re crashing multimillion-dollar military prototypes just to see how much control they can seize? How the fuck can they afford it?”
“Not just multimillion,” Ace interjected as he leaned forward and set his tablet on the coffee table in front of him. “These aircraft cost hundreds of millions each, but since Aegis has been making it look like pilot error or mechanical malfunctions, the military’s been footing the bill. They’ve been getting away with it, but that shit ends now.”
I looked at King. “The only reason Aegis would risk exposure this way is because they already have a buyer lined up. Someone who wants this override capability badly enough to make these tests worth it.”
His gaze sharpened, his voice dropping to a deadly rasp. “That means Linden is in even deeper shit than we thought.” He paused, his eyes flicking to Wizard. “We need to know exactly where these override signals originate from, then burn it to the fucking ground.”
Wizard nodded, his gaze already locked on his tablet again. “I’m on it. If there’s a server or signal hub within fifty miles, I’ll find it.”
Our prez turned his chair toward Ace. “Stay on the financials. Track deposits, offshore accounts, and shell companies. Anything that ties Aegis to the buyer or evidence that they’ve had previous dealings like this. Find the money trail, and we’ll know who’s pulling the strings.”