76 Seconds

If Piper does anything now, her cover would be blown. So she held her breath as Kubra forced himself upon her. Forcefully. And rough. Consequently hurting her. She moved, trying to get out of his hold but he wouldn't budge.

Until Kubra's phone vibrated in his pocket. He grunted and reluctantly let go. He got up and took out his phone facing away from Piper.

46 seconds

Piper exhaled in relief. She stretched her hand towards the thumb drive, removing it completely. She has to get out of here trusting that it copied enough information to incriminate him.

"What?!" Kubra shouted over the phone. "Gustavo?... fucking idiot! ... yes, yes. Terminate him before he says a word to Police... I understand that...yes I will...no, she won't be a problem. I kept her away from it...in two days. Yeah...for a new world."

By the time Kubra turned back to Piper, Piper had already gotten up and getting to leave pretending to be disoriented but conscious. She opened the door with heels in one hand and a glass in another.

"Where are you -" Piper was out of the door before Kubra could finish his sentence. She literally ran out of the mansion and grabbed a taxi to their hotel room. Abandoning Alex. If she wanted to save Alex then she would have to figure this out and soon.

She took the stairs back at the hotel. She hid the thumb drive inside her running shoes and quickly changed into more casual clothes. She prepared a getaway bag with her passport, a gun and some money, just in case.

Next she sat down at Alex's desk with her laptop, phone, notepad and a watch. Alex would be here soon. She had already left 4 missed calls and 2 voicemails which Piper did not reply. If Alex is trying to find her at the party then it'll buy her some more time. She turned on the voice receiver on her phone so that she could hear any conversation that might be happening in Kubra's vicinity. Right now it was receiving some vague French song.

Piper plugged the thumb drive into her laptop. With some coding, she entered the file log.

—Encryption code required—

What the hell was an encryption code required for? Wasn't she on her own? She would have to call Caputo now.

The audio receiver buzzed back to life. Piper directed her attention towards it.

"What is it?" Kubra's voice asked.

"It's from the messenger. He says that your laptop might get compromised." Someone replied. Piper recognised the voice as the same that was talking about eliminating Alex. Aydin.

There was a long pause before Kubra said, "Destroy it." And a loud gunshot.

Piper released a breath that she didn't know she was holding. She clenched her fist trying to ease off the anger.

How could he know that? The bug? An information that was just between her and Caputo. Unless...

Piper dialed the agency. She needed the encryption code to know who was the Kubra's man inside the agency.

"Caputo?" Piper immediately said.

"No. It's Deputy director Figueroa. Do you have the information?"

Piper was stunned hearing her stern tone. She had always corresponded with Caputo while on missions abroad. This was new.

"I didn't know you would be receiving the call, Deputy director."

"Well. I am now. And you report directly to me now. Just to make things faster. What can I do for you?"

Trust or not to trust. How much faith can I put into her?

"I need the encryption code for the thumb drive Caputo gave me." Piper iterated in one breath.

"You had access to Kubra's computer." She sounded eager. Happy eager. "What about the microphone?"

"I didn't have much time. I am not sure how much data was copied. And the microphone..." Piper paused. "I couldn't plant it. The encryption code, please."

"Yes... it's 26072019."

Piper typed the numbers in still staying on the call.

Files copied : 76% from parent database

Loading…

"Fuck. It only copied 5 percent." Piper exclaimed.

"That's nothing."

"I think I didn't give it enough time to copy."

"No. It's okay. There wasn't much hope in this operation anyway."

"Yeah. I'll get back to you if I find something." Piper hung up. Piper wrote on the notepad everything that she knew so far from listening into Kubra's conversation.

Who is JF?

What happens in two days?

How come he knows agency's crucial secrets?

Does he already know who I am?

Does Alex know?

No. That's not possible.

Why does he want to get rid of Alex?

Who is the messenger?

He must have someone on the inside. Someone powerful. Maybe that's how he has access to anyone we arrest. He is not working alone, that's for sure. There was someone above him. Otherwise he won't be so sure. But Alex. For him, she is just a pawn. Like Fahri and Sanchez.

Alex needs to get away from Kubra. But how?

Unless she tells her everything. No, that's not an option.

She gets Kubra before he gets Alex.

The computer came back to life with the files. It was not everything but most of the documents were there.

Piper opened the first file.

It was an expansive log of every bank transaction he has ever made. She scrolled down the list to find something out of the ordinary. Most of it was payments to mercenaries and to people who work for him. Records of thousands and thousands of dollars and euros. Most definitely drug money. Piper didn't know what she was looking for but she thought she will know it when she sees it.

And she did. The first transaction from someone called JF was three million dollars. It was deposited into Kubra's account almost three years ago. Back when he was just starting to dip his toes into the terror business. Then the deposits seemed to periodic. Every month. Undoubtedly this was used in carrying out some very illegal operations. Tracing the money back was unfruitful as it lead to numerous bank accounts of shell companies.

But the latest transactions were what caught Piper's attention. Some money transferred to a company for flight booking. Piper didn't recall Alex mentioning anything about Kubra going to New York. It just didn't seem right. Another thing was huge amounts of cash going in and out of accounts that belonged to seemingly random people. And backtracking records of those accounts led to trading firm on Wall Street. There had been a lot of trading by these people on selected companies.

One thing was certain though. She couldn't trust anyone. The drive only copied some of the files. So, she had no idea who else might be involved in this, especially with this high profile insider JF. At the same time she needed to understand what all this money transactions meant. It was too large to be just mercenaries pay off.

Piper dialed a number on her phone. She pressed the phone between her ear and shoulder and resumed work on the laptop.

"Washington speaking..." The reciever said.

"Poussey." Piper said. "Are you at the farm?"

"No, Chapman, I am at home and on a secure line. This is a surprise. I thought you weren't supposed to call me."

"I am not. But I don't really have a choice. I need you to do something for me. And keep it between the two of us. Is that okay with you?"

"Is everything all right over there?" Poussey asked, worried. "Coming from you, this sounds very unusual."

"Look, I can't tell you much now but there might be traitors in the agency and the government who are funding the things that Kubra is doing. He already knew about the bugs somehow and he-"

"Bugs?"

"Caputo gave me a microphone to plant on Kubra but he destroyed it before I could get anything. Also, anyone we arrest, dies even at most secured locations. Tell me it's not an inside job."

"No shit." Poussey exclaimed. "I'm flattered but how come you trust me?"

"Semper fi." Piper replied.

"Semper fi." Poussey conformed. "How can I help you?"

"I need you to take a look at the Wall Street market. Stock prices. Selling, buying patterns. Just take a look and tell me if you can see anything unusual."

Piper waited a few seconds before Poussey spoke again.

"The market is doing pretty good. Overall stock prices are looking good. Some buyers are hiking the prices of NASDAQ and NYSE. But as of two hours ago, there was a sell off of some airline company stocks that were recently bought resulting a drop of almost 300 points. Speculations are that they will drop further. Here, I see the same trend with some tourism and insurance companies. Their stocks are at high point but some people are selling off. You with me?"

"Yeah. Yeah." Piper replied.

"Well, there's the strange thing. The traders are buying shares of tech companies, defence and weaponary contractors and security agencies." Poussey finished. "I am not sure how to say this but they seem to know something we don't."

"What does that mean? Can't anybody else see that?"

"It means that if you had a sixth sense and you came to know that a hurricane is gonna hit, you sell the shares of airlines and railways that are high point because you know those companies are gonna lose when the tragedy hits. You get what I am saying?"

"No. But go on."

"It's so subtle that you can't see if you aren't looking hard enough. Something is gonna happen here in the states and those guys are gonna make some cold hard cash."

Piper sighed heavily before replying.

"I am coming to New York. Tomorrow. Kubra Balik is gonna be there as well."

"Don't tell me you are thinking about catching him single-handedly. I get that you have a weird passion for justice but that's just plain stupid."

"Stupid but necessary. Besides I have you." Piper chuckled.

"I am flattered. But, seriously, think about it. He is a terrorist. You'll need help-"

"Which you'll provide. I need you to run a background check on everyone on our team. Bank records, phone records, where did they travel, who met them since the mission began. And you find the mole."

"I can do Bennett, Carlin and Bloom but I don't have the security clearance for Caputo and Fig. I'll get back to you when I find something."

"Yeah. Sure."

Piper hung up and booked a ticket to New York, right after the flight in which Kubra was getting on that is in eight hours. How hard could it be to find a man like Kubra in New York.

Now, Alex. How does she explain her sudden departure to Alex without breaking her heart?

Piper closed her laptop and left her phone on the table opting for a quick shower to get her brain functions back enough to think this thing through.