Page 52 of The Gambler
“What’s going on gramps?”
The old man cleared his throat and clasped his hands over his middle. His eyes never left Jenna, as he seemed to be getting his thoughts together. “I just spoke to my guy at the Pentagon. We’ve got us a situation here son, a real situation.”
Andros felt the change in Jenna as she sat next to him, she hadn’t moved in any discernible way, but he was becoming as in tuned with her as she was with him. Leaning forward, her stared at his grandfather until the other man started to talk.
“I’ll make this quick because we don’t have a whole lot of time. Bonata isn’t the one that hit your house.”
“What?” what the fuck was this now? he was not in the fucking mood for any more assholes.
“Yeah, it seems he was sending his goons after you in the car that day to kill you and get her back, and the trade was the same deal. They wanted her alive.”
“So who the fu…who’s trying to kill her then?”
“Mossad.” The one word dropped like a death knell in the room.
“Come again.” His heart was kicking in his chest and he reached for her hand. What the fuck was going on here? “Why is Israeli Intelligence after her?”
“Apparently she cracked the code.”
“What fucking code gramps?”
“They’re top secret military base codes.”
“How the fuck…” He was out of his seat and pacing around like a caged beast. Jenna meanwhile, was looking down at her hands, where she had them folded in her lap.
“That’s where Bonata came in. Apparently he got her to do it then he sold the info to the highest bidder. The only problem is, Jenna somehow tricked them. She gave them only the lower level info, but kept the last part hidden. Bonata was pulling a double-cross; he sold the info to more than one faction. I guess that’s where the off shore accounts and shit came from.”
“How does your friend know all this?”
“She told them, she was sneaking info to an agent on the sly, they figured she finally figured out what the fuck Bonata had her doing and she wanted them to stop him.”
“I’m not followingany of this. Are you telling me that flower has been fucking around with international security?”
“It looks that way, but that’s not all of it. The Russians took her old man; they were one of the factions who paid Bonata. When she refused to divulge the last piece of the puzzle they snatched him.”
“And the American government knows all this and they’re doing what?”
“They don’t have jurisdiction here; and besides, they’re always one step behind her, they only know what she tells them at this point. No one can figure out how she did it, and without the final code what they have so far is useless.”
Andros turned to look at her then. She looked so small and alone in that moment that it tore at his heart. What the fuck had they done to this girl? Se lifted sad, tear filled eyes to him before dropping her head again. “Angel, Jenna bad?”
He was across the room in a flash, kneeling at her feet. Taking her hands in his he looked into her eyes before drying her tears. “No baby, Jenna’s never bad.” How the fuck was he going to get them out of this? He looked over his shoulder at his grandfather. “Where is it?”
The old man tapped his temple. “She keeps it all here.”
He hung his head and tried to calm down a little. Jenna wasn’t saying anything, just sat there with a sad look on her face. For that alone he could kill the fucks all over again. He didn’t have time to think about the past now though, he had to figure out a way to keep her safe.
“What’s your guy saying? How do we get her out of this mess?” He knew they wouldn’t stop unless she was brought down, and he wasn’t sure he could protect her on his own. That galled him to admit, but his pride was nothing compared to her safety.
“They’re working on something, the long and short of it is, that the Israelis are working to change the codes, but it’s gonna take time. In the meantime, we’ve got the Russians, the Persians and a few other middle-eastern factions gunning for that code.”
“She has until eight o’clock tomorrow morning to hand it over or her old man buys it.”
“So if they change their codes she’s in the clear with them right?”
“Yeah, I guess, but their other worry is who’s to stop her from doing it again. Peter, that’s my guy over there, said that they’re working out a deal. They explained to Mossad that she wasn’t aware of what she was doing, and that when she figured it out, she tried to get help from the American government. They’re taking this all into consideration, but the fact still remains that if that information falls into the wrong hands before they fix it, it can be an international disaster.”
“Do they know that this wasn’t her doing? That she’s a fucking innocent in all this?”