"Calvert!" Virginia yelled to Shannon, letting it sink in. "You know him. You know why he's important to me. I'm going for Calvert. That's what this mission is all about."
Jake heard her and looked right at her, brows furrowed in a way that said, That's impossible.
*****
Shannon heard the name. Her heart sunk, then beat wildly.
So that was Virginia's mission—to take down an untouchable sex-trafficking lord. Roy Calvert was the worst in the world when it came to the sex slavery trade, specifically. USI wouldn't take him down because of how dangerous he was—wouldn't even try. He had his hands in everyone's pockets, connections like you wouldn't believe. The government wouldn't sanction any sort of mission against him. In other words, he was untouchable.
Shannon wanted to help.
Which was crazy. She wanted to scream and yell at how crazy she was thinking right now. Guns were being held on her and she was actually thinking how she wished she could help Virginia. The thought passed when the field agent yelled with a booming voice, "Turn around!"
*****
Reynolds had been the key to getting on this plane.
He was Virginia's step one. She'd needed to establish that a stewardess was meant to be on the flight and that she would be that stewardess. In order to accomplish this, she'd needed to access Reynolds' secretary's office. In order to access the secretary's office, she'd had to get the secretary out of the office, which was located within Reynolds' mansion.
She'd worked it out perfectly.
She employed Carmen's help with the plan because the day prior, as she'd been sneaking around the mansion, she found Carmen crying and contemplating suicide.
Carmen was in her own private room on the fourth floor. She'd taken the screen out of her window and was sitting on the windowsill, about to let herself fall.
Virginia stopped her, explained who she was and that she could get her out of the mansion, get her to a safe place. Carmen had nothing to do with Virginia's mission. Virginia didn't have to help her. USI instructed their field agents to never go beyond their mission objectives. If this had been a sanctioned mission, USI would have advised her to stay clear of Carmen, let the girl kill herself, focus only on the main objective.
But Virginia couldn't help it.
Her pulse quickened when she saw Carmen on the windowsill. Her broken heart broke just a little more and she stepped in. It was the right thing to do.
There were no strings.
She told Carmen that once she finished her mission here, she would take Carmen with her, out of the house, and far, far, away.
Virginia had set it up perfectly, a list of items and circumstances that forced the secretary out of the office. She'd explained the plan to Carmen the night prior, because she had nothing better to do. The office section of the house was locked and guarded through the night. Virginia couldn't leave any dead bodies in her wake, because the flight would then be called off. So she had to wait until morning. Reynolds hadn't called on Carmen that night, so Virginia slept on the side of Carmen's bed. They'd talked late into the night.
Carmen had had dreams before she'd been taken.
She'd wanted to be a soccer player. She'd played with her brothers often when they were small.
*****
The day of the mission held promise. The dominoes Virginia had set fell into place and the secretary left the office. Virginia seized the moment.
But while Virginia was in the office, Reynolds came into the nearby hall. Virginia heard footfalls coming down the corridor. Then they stopped. When Virginia peeked out the door, she saw that Carmen had stepped in to stop Reynolds' approach.
Anger filled Virginia. She didn't want Carmen to help.
But she watched Carmen entice the man up the stairs, to the floor above, to Reynolds' room.
Virginia let it play out. Loaded up the secretary's computer and put herself on the flight's roster. Then she started up the stairs to Reynolds' room.
When she was midway up the stairs, a woman appeared at the top of the stairs. Virginia doubled back, ran down a hallway, and hid in an empty room.
Virginia waited.
Then she ran back down the hall.
Her heart was beating for Carmen's sake.
When it was just for Virginia, when it was just any other mission, and she'd been on plenty, her heart remained calm. But this was for Carmen, for Reynolds, and ultimately for Calvert. This was for every person hurt because of Calvert. This wasn't about her. She was a vessel crafted for vengeance on behalf of all the crushed and abused lives as far as she was concerned.
Virginia made it to Reynolds' room. That's when she saw it happen. Reynolds killed Carmen. He threw her off the balcony. Virginia couldn't kill him because she needed him.
When she killed him in the airplane bathroom later, she had no remorse. The only remorse she had was that she'd failed Carmen.
*****
Shannon had cut through her with the Carmen comment.
This was different, though.
Virginia knew she could protect Shannon.
In fact, she would.
The rain was still crashing over the roof of the plane, rolling, splashing, pounding into the front windshield. There wasn't much the pilot could see but dark clouds.
"I have support," Jake said. "We can use mine."
"There's no one as good as Shannon," said Virginia.
"What's your end game here?"
Brandon still had his arms crossed. "What are we doing about the dead guy? I don't want to get caught up in this. Like you said, I'm just a pilot."