5:24pm Paris
"Director Hampton's first response after I accused him of a kidnapping was not to protest his innocence but to send a top military team to "help" me." Yvette looked around the room, "How am I supposed to take that?"
The Americans exchanged glances. This was not good.
"Do you think I would have sent my team if he had told me all that?" Patricia yanked her glasses off.
"I have no idea where your loyalties lie." Yvette snapped, "Hampton could have convinced you that the kidnapping was part of an op and you sent your team as a hit squad or maybe grab team."
"Seriously!" the charge took Dalton by surprised.
Preach stood up and leaned closer to the conversation. Yvette stepped back, monitoring the space between her and the Americans.
"So you think we were sent to kill you?" Jaz asked.
"You showed up in my country with a man I thought was an ISIS leader, as well as a spy outed by her own country and Dalton…" Yvette trailed off, "interesting military history."
"Hampton was in London during the kidnapping but I can't prove he was actually part of it. We're still working on that part." Patricia revealed.
"I can." Yvette pulled a key out of her pocket and moved to a desk along the wall.
She unlocked a drawer and reached inside. Dalton pulled his bag toward him. His pistol was on top. He rested his hand on the gun but didn't pull it out. Yvette faced the Americans with a file folder and a computer thumb drive in her hands. "Security video from Jennifer's house."
"I had no idea she had a camera." Noah looked at his boss.
"She is my sister so I want to keep an eye on her. And yes, she knew about it." Yvette responded. Her eyes noticed Dalton's hand in his bag but she offered the flash drive to him, "Video of the break in." To Jaz she handed the folder.
"What is this?" Jaz wondered as she opened it.
"Screenshots of the kidnappers."
"And the director was there." Jaz turned the paper around to show everyone. It wasn't the best image, but it was the very man who sent them to France.
"Why would he be hands on for this kidnapping?" Hannah wondered out loud.
"Because this wasn't an authorized job." Patricia realized.
"But this ties him directly to it, why would he do that?" Hannah pressed.
"It's personal to him." Yvette admitted.
Amir noticed a tensing in her jaw and stepped toward her, "What did you do?"
All eyes turned to her. Yvette glanced around the room.
"I'm gathering evidence."
"What kind of evidence?" Patricia wondered.
Yvette's words were calculated, "Hampton kidnapped my family. He believed I had something detrimental to him, something that scared him. I'm not giving any clues without my family back."
"He could vanish." Patricia suggested.
"He kidnapped my family; he will show up eventually."
"We have no idea where they are. That leaves us dead in the water." Preach reminded everyone.
"Actually, we have a lead." Noah glanced at Patricia. Her eyes flared at him. She had hoped to keep that silent for a bit.
"Please don't hold out." Yvette prodded.
"Don't start threatening me." Patricia snapped.
"You need to take a breath." Yvette pointed at the screen, "You backed a man who kidnapped two people I care about which puts your team here in a really bad spot, so don't try to screw me over."
Patricia moved off the video screen to regroup.
Yvette turned her focus to the technician in the corner of the video screen, "Noah, spill it."
"How do you know his name?" McGuire jumped to his feet.
"You know him?" Dalton reeled again from her identifying their office technician, Noah.
"We met in Bucharest. You had really bad info if you didn't know that." Her posture was straight, strong and projected confidence.
"He mentioned it." Patricia defended her technician.
"I didn't know." McG mumbled. Dalton shot him a glare to silence him.
Yvette's eyes studied Noah through the screen. He was uncomfortable.
"I am working with the country who kidnapped my family, this is not easy for me." She reminded them.
"It wasn't us." Dalton snapped.
"How do I know that?" Yvette retorted, "Hampton snaps his fingers and you jump."
"He's a director."
"He's a traitor." Yvette snapped, "A man who turns on his own country has no morals and no boundaries. He chose to send you here which must mean he has great confidence in your abilities."
"Do you have evidence of treason?" Patricia wondered.
Amanda's face showed no emotion and she didn't respond.
"We found footage of them getting on a plane in London." Noah burst out.
"Them?" Jaz wanted clarification.
"Jennifer and Amanda."
"Destination?" Yvette pushed.
"Washington DC."
"Not the same flight with Hampton?" Yvette winced.
"No, he left two hours prior."
"Where did they go?"
"Never left the airport." Hannah chipped in.
"What? How can they get on a plane but not leave?" Dalton questioned.
"They got through security with tickets for a flight to Washington DC, but we have the video of the terminal they were supposed to fly from and they never showed up." Noah recounted.
"Who was with them at security?" Preach wondered.
"Two guys that we don't know." Hannah had been trying to identify them.
"Can I see the photos?" the Frenchwoman asked.
Noah clicked the tab on the computer and sent it to their secure laptop.
Dalton opened the document. Yvette stepped closer, focusing on the images, "They are not trying to hide their faces."
"It's an airport, doing that would alarm security." McG pointed out.
"Those aren't the men from the house." Jaz compared the photos to the ones in her hand.
Amir had been studying his former lover, Yvette knew something, "Do you know either of them?"
Yvette backed up, rubbing her palms together, thinking, "Have you arrested Hampton?" She addressed Patricia, ignoring Amir's question.
Patricia sighed, "He boarded a flight out of the country."
"Destination?"
"Paris."
Yvette winced, "This is not going to go well."
"We set up at the airport and get him when he arrives." Dalton finally felt like he had options, "What time?"
"9pm." Noah told them.
"How do you know he's on it?" Yvette asked, "He's a spy and knows misdirection."
"Video shows him arriving at the terminal, his boarding pass was scanned and he boarded the plane." Hannah revealed.
"Well, we didn't see him get on the actual plane." Noah admitted.
"He entered the gangway thing connected to the plane. That's the only way to exit." Hannah argued.
"In Washington DC? The CIA has their fingers in everything. An airport switch is a piece of cake: maintenance doors, bribed employees..." Yvette rubbed her neck, "All I want is to get my sister and niece back. The problem is Hampton was able to organize and complete a kidnaping and make it back to the US before anyone really noticed. He definitely has a plan and it seems to be going really well so far."
"How come you didn't notice?" McG wanted to know. The others stopped. They hadn't thought of that.
"You said 'this morning' when you called Hampton: the kidnapping was yesterday—that was hours before you called him." McG pointed out.
Yvette was silent a moment, "I was working when the alarm went off. My handler had to check the apartment and it was only after he couldn't find Jennifer or Amanda that he started to work to get me out."
"You couldn't just leave? How deep were you?" Amir wondered.
"Deep. Could have lost the identity we worked years on setting up."
Dalton stepped up, "This is the only clue we have. We need to go to the airport. There's got to be somebody or some lead on the plane. Can you get us in the airport? Or are we going to have to buy tickets?"
Yvette eyed the American leader. "Let me make some calls." She moved away.
"Dalton," Patricia's voice was quiet. He stepped close to the screen.
"Watch your back. Hampton played me so she's not going to trust you. She could turn on you."
"She had the opportunity to arrest us when we arrived." Dalton objected.
"That could still be the plan." McG spoke up.
"I don't think so." Amir noted, "She's stressed, sure, but not aggressive toward us and is mostly relaxed."
"Or is she giving us enough rope to hang ourselves?" Preach wondered.
Jaz followed Yvette when she left the room. Yvette's conversation was in French but Jaz tried to casually eavesdrop but Yvette paced through the house. Whether it was planned or a nervous habit, her movements kept Jaz from hearing the full conversation.
"We have done nothing wrong." Dalton reminded.
"But Hampton has. Just be careful." Patricia counseled her leader.
"Always." Dalton signed off. He looked up as Jaz came back into the room, "I heard 'airport' a couple of times and 'security' but not much else."
Yvette ended the call and joined them, "They are calling in extra security on site and we can be there too."
"This isn't a way to double cross us, is it?" McG was skeptical.
"I want my sister and niece back safe."
"That wasn't an answer." Amir pointed out. Yvette met his gaze, "I will do whatever it gets to take them back."
"Including turning on us." Preach's low voice held an ominous reminder.
This could be dangerous. They all recognized this fact.
