Stephen Travis mentally cursed.
What were the chances?
Granted, he'd known that there was a chance that Elisa and Matt could be brought into this, but he had hoped to have a heads up.
He opened his eyes, and raised his gaze to meet the two detectives' astonished looks.
Yeah, they still looked like they weren't believing it, and he couldn't say that he blamed them.
He had worked his ass off to get to where he was.
He had been with CID, the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, for four years by that point. In all that time, he had never actually done any work at an actual crime scene. Most of CID involved paperwork, interviews, and an occasional undercover assignment.
A few years ago…okay, more than a few years now…he had uncovered the missing supply crates. They had managed to track it before it had disappeared into Manhattan. It was a small shipment at that time. A couple of experimental laser weapons, some random guns, and a few extra cases of ammo.
The concern was how it was getting into Manhattan. When the word came down that they were looking for someone to go undercover within the NYPD, he had jumped at the chance.
No one knew that it would take him undercover for almost eight years.
He had started out working with the 19th precinct, under the identity of a recent graduate of the academy who had passed the aptitude testing to go in at a detective rank. Only one other person within the NYPD knew his real identity, and that had been the NYPD Commissioner.
Commissioner Ramirez had retired a few years back, and Travis honestly didn't know if the man had passed along the information to his successor that he was there. He had assumed that his military liaison would have passed that tidbit along, but hadn't been overly concerned about it at the time.
He'd only been there a few months before he'd met Elisa. That had been at the scene where she'd found Liam.
He had been there because most of the others from his precinct were out with food poisoning after eating some questionable catered food at the company Christmas party. He hadn't had a lot, thankfully, only eating a few of the shrimp, but it had been enough to make him feel queasy the following evening.
Which was why, when Elisa drove in to assist the "rookie", he'd been all but puking in the bushes. It had worked in his favor, though.
She's taken pity on the "poor rookie" who had gotten sick at his first solo assignment at a scene with a dead body.
Unfortunately, he'd been so occupied with his roiling insides that he'd completely missed out on picking up that Liam was there at all.
Thank the Gods that Elisa was so damned stubborn. She had hunted down the noise, found Liam half frozen in a small closet, and the rest was history.
He had found her knowledgeable, well connected with other precincts and he figured that she would be a good detective to be around. He had played up the Rookie angle, and both Elisa and Matt had taken him in.
Ironically, while he'd had training with the Military Police and some investigation training, almost everything he knew had come from Matt and Elisa.
Mostly Elisa, Travis admitted to himself. She was always on Matt and Travis to complete any and all additional training available with the NYPD computer courses.
He was pretty sure that he would actually be able to pass the exam now if he were to actually take it.
Just that evening, Travis had gone in a few hours early and finally confessed all to Captain Chavez. To say she was unhappy with him was putting it mildly.
She'd gotten on the phone and worked her way up the ranks in the NYPD, only to find out that former commissioner Ramirez had shared nothing about Travis, the Army involvement or an ongoing investigation within the NYPD. Maria, realizing that was a dead end, then worked her way through the chain of command until she'd gotten through to HIS boss in the Army.
After confirming his story, she had assigned him strictly to working with Matt and Elisa permanently, because, as she put it, "They at least know what they are doing."
He had already been following them around, so that was advantageous for him. He had been gleaning what information he could, doing the paperwork (because that's what Rookies do) and making the coffee runs (because that's also what Rookies do). He had used their connections to get in deep in the NYPD, but had yet to identify anyone working with whoever was smuggling the goods from the Army.
After his second four year enlistment had come up, he had opted to stay put, insisting that replacing him after so long would be detrimental to any progress made.
The higher ups agreed, and he was able to re-up his contract and stay in Manhattan.
Then Elisa and Matt had introduced him to the Gargoyles, trusting him enough to bring Travis into their inner circle with the clan.
He should have told them then, damn it.
He had almost spilled his secrets to Elisa and Matt on more than one occasion, but had held that part back. He was under orders, after all.
And now, judging by the looks on their faces, not only were his secrets out, but they were going to make him answer for them.
The sad thing was, he couldn't blame them about that, either.