“I guess not.”
Claire and Cooper switched places at the pool table, and she changed the subject. “Are you glad to be back?” she asked him.
He stopped concentrating on the game and looked her in the eye. “Yeah. I am.”
“So what did you do for six years? I’m surprised you didn’t pay us a visit once in a while.”
He blinked away, took a shot, and missed. “Neil had me busy. I helped set up the new team. Coordinated different things that will make it easier if we ever find ourselves with a Richter situation again.”
The Richter Situation was a hell of a lot more than a “situation.” Assassins and murder disguised as a military boarding school where the bad guy recruited kids to do his dirty work. Now that Claire had a moment to think about it, she realized it wasn’t so different from the case they were about to dig into. People being manipulated and eventually blackmailed into doing something they didn’t want to do. Only the punishment for murder was a hell of a lot more than for prostitution. Both would mess up a person no matter how you looked at it.
“Is it awful of me to look back on that and miss the adrenaline rush of it all?” Claire found herself asking.
“You wouldn’t be a part of the team if you didn’t.”
She sighed.
“We’re going to be seeing the inside of the classroom again, not jumping around on rooftops and crashing parties,” Jax said.
Cooper went back to playing pool. “What self-respecting high school kid didn’t crash a party or two?”
Claire and Jax looked at each other. “Never happened.”
Jax shook her head. “Not once.”
“Well, you’re going to get your chance.” Cooper took his aim and sunk a ball.
“Hey, wasn’t it my turn?”
“No.” Cooper narrowed his eyes, looked at the table.
“Yes, it was. You missed on the six ball.”
He glanced at Jax, who pointed a thumb to Claire. “She’s right.”
“Whatever. Makes up for the cheap shot to the groin yesterday.”
She placed a finger to his chest and pushed him away from the table. “Yesterday you were the bad guy running away with stolen gems. A knee to the goods is expected. And since you were wearing a cup, it doesn’t count as a cheap shot.”
“That was Sasha’s suggestion.”
Claire laughed. “We were taught by the same instructors.”
“Nothing polite about a fistfight,” Jax added, sending a fist bump to Claire.
“I’m not singing soprano today, so I’m thankful for the advice.”
Claire winked before scooting one of the stripes into a corner pocket with her hand. “One free for me and the next two turns.”
Cooper sent her an indignant look. “Changed the rules of the game while I was away?”
She pointed her cue at him. “Or we could call it and you just pay up your twenty bucks now?”
“Not in this lifetime, Yearling.”
She winked and leaned over the pool table, pulled her pool cue back. Right as she took the shot, Cooper did his best to interrupt her concentration.
“You hold that stick like you enjoy it.”
Her eyes moved to his, the smile that teased lingered on her face. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Neil handed out driver’s licenses and cell phones like he was dealing cards.
“You are no longer Claire Kelly, you’re Claire Porter. Cooper Lockman is now Cooper Mitchel. Jax Simon is now Jax Livingston.”
Claire looked at her driver’s license. They’d done a good job of making her look like she was sixteen. The age she would have been if she’d been in California when she’d obtained her first license.
“Both your addresses are out of the area to coordinate with a new student transfer. We’re working on a location that we’ll use as a base. You will not be driving directly from your home to the school. Claire, your aunt is a flight attendant.” He pointed to Sasha, who looked bored. “Jax, your parents are newly divorced, and your dad works nights.” Lars waved. “These roles are contingent. The desire is to avoid parental involvement altogether, but we have it in place should we need it.
“Jax, you’re the quiet one. Pissed your dad obtained custody. We want you blending with the kids that won’t be missed if they don’t show up for school. Claire, you’re rebellious.”
“Yes.” Claire put both palms in the air.
Neil stared her down, completely unamused. “If you’re done . . .”
She purposely frowned. “Sorry.”
“Rebellion means your aunt is making you play a sport.” He then pointed to Cooper. “Track.”
“The school is working on your schedules now. You need the broadest range of contacts you can get. Be popular enough to be invited to parties, but blend enough so you don’t stand out and have your covers blown,” Neil told them.
“Your cheerleading aspirations will have to wait,” Claire teased Jax.
She shook her head with a laugh.
Sasha handed out portfolios and continued where Neil left off. “Inside is a wide range of known victims. Along with their pictures are those of their friends. Study these and find potential patterns. Either with the victims or their friend base.”
Claire looked at the first photograph. “Jesus, how old is she?”
“Fifteen,” Jax said, waving her copy to show the details on the back.
At Claire’s side, Cooper sighed. “This is disgusting.”
As Claire sifted through the pages, the victims grew older. When she came to a girl that looked twenty, she turned the paper over and read the bio. Eighteen, but dropped out of school six months before graduating.
“Claire, you and Jax are leaving tomorrow for the Bay Area. You will go to the schools you transferred from, take pictures, and fill up your Instagram accounts.”
“Can we hack Instagram to avoid the date stamp of the photos?”
“Not worth the effort,” Sasha said. “Find an excuse for your parents to have taken you off of social media. Right before you transferred, you earned the phones and accounts back.”
“In your packet, you’ll find a case study done down in San Diego. Some of it is unique to that city and its proximity to the border, but most of it mimics what Warren and his team found before the area organized. Plenty of intel in those pages. Some of the main similarities are the victims themselves. Newly transferred in with a history of neglect and abuse.” Neil stood up. “Jax, you are solo at Bremerton in the beginning. The last time you saw Emma was shortly after you moved in with Claire, and she doesn’t remember you. Everyone else in this room she’s more familiar with. She knows nothing about what we’re doing. I’d like to keep it that way. I’m working on recruiting a second player now. You will take no risks. If you need backup, I will have a need to visit my daughter. Understood?”
Jax nodded.
“Good.” He moved to the whiteboard. “Your main objective on campus: identify the biggest risk. The principal at Bremerton is the only administrator that knows you’re there. I have personally vetted him, and he is not involved.”
Claire chuckled. “Is that your way of saying you know the brand of toilet paper the man prefers?”