“Yeah. That’s what I thought,” Nash said, shaking his head slowly. “But I want to tell you something. I’m going to make you a hero. All the shit you’ve done that no one knows about? I’m going to tell them. You deserve that.”

Rapp walked to a rock outcropping, tracked by the men covering him. He sat and rested his elbows on his knees. “I got an interesting text on the way here.”

“I meant to ask you about that.”

“Like I said, Ward’s people are still a few weeks out from putting names to the network of burners you were using. But he has put together some of the towers they connected to.”

“So?” Nash said, starting to feel his anxiety notch upward despite the men covering his old friend.

“So, he noticed something interesting. That one of those phones connected twice to the same tower I do when I’m at home in Virginia.”

Nash’s brow furrowed as he tried to understand the ramifications of what he’d just heard. Rapp helped him out.

“Apparently, Nick Ward’s memory is better than mine. I don’t recall telling him that the man I was meeting today lived in my neighborhood. But he did.”

“I don’t understand,” Nash said, backing away a few more steps and making sure his people were still alert and in position.

“I didn’t, either. The video from Irene telling me to meet her in the middle of nowhere. The old password from Belarus that anyone high up enough in the Agency could get hold of. The mole who was too smart for anyone to identify. But then the cell tower put it all together for me.”

This time when Nash looked at the men covering Rapp, he took the time to scrutinize every detail—their physiques, the way they stood, how they held their rifles. And then he knew. He knew before Rapp could give the subtle nod that prompted them to remove their goggles and face coverings.

Nash looked away before he could meet Scott Coleman’s eye, returning his attention to Rapp. As terrifying as his dead stare was, it was better than the pain that would be etched so deeply in the former SEAL’s face. He assumed that the other two men were Joe Maslick and Bruno McGraw, but he refused to confirm it.

“What did you find in the forest?” Rapp asked Coleman.

“Seven mercs.”

“All dead?”

“All but the one we left alive to interrogate. They were solid operators. Too dangerous to play around with.”