Billionaire Untamed - Tate(48)
They all sat down, and Lara found it surreal that she was actually looking across the table at a man who she’d thought was a terrorist only a short time ago.
Marcus started to talk. “Blake has known since he came to Washington and I could speak with him in person. I met with Zane in Denver before I got here, and I just came from a long discussion with Chloe and Mom.”
“So I’m the last to know,” Tate grumbled.
“I knew you were going to be the hardest one to tell,” Marcus said soberly. “I got you injured, Tate. And Lara was humiliated and hurt as well. I’m sorry.”
“It’s part of my job,” Lara answered quietly. “Can you explain how the FBI didn’t know about you?”
Marcus nodded. “Not very many people knew, and I’m not surprised that they put an FBI counter-terrorist team on this case. I expected it. My trail wasn’t exactly discreet and it wasn’t meant to be. But it was top secret, and we didn’t want any information leaked. The lowest-ranked person at the CIA who knew was the deputy director of NCS, and the director of the FBI was informed but not allowed to share the information.”
“What was your mission?” Tate asked gruffly.
Marcus grimaced. “It was actually something I got involved in inadvertently. This group was fairly sophisticated, and they had money. They were posing as legitimate and respected businessmen. I heard an exchange that I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to understand. It was being discussed in Arabic at a business function.”
“You speak a lot of languages,” Lara mused.
Marcus shrugged. “I deal with a lot of countries, and I have a knack for picking up languages.”
“So then what?” Tate prompted.
“I approached the CIA with the information.”
“How long have you been helping the CIA?”
“Awhile,” Marcus admitted reluctantly. “I travel and I pick up limited information to help them out. I’ve assisted with gathering information for them in the past, but nothing on quite the same scale as this particular operation. They asked me if I could possibly get close to these men, try to infiltrate the group somehow. It wasn’t easy. I’m American and they didn’t trust me. It took me two years to finally convince them that all I wanted was money, and that I didn’t care about their cause. They didn’t want me to. They just needed an American cover to buy the explosives so it didn’t rouse as much suspicion. Since we’re a prominent family, they decided to take the risk. The plan was to get all the explosives together and we’d do the final deal. I’d be given payment and they’d fly out their explosives. What you interrupted was the check of the final shipment before we made our transaction. Nothing was supposed to happen that day. The director was planning on getting together a special team, including the FBI, for the final bust. I wanted to make sure my family was gone, away from the area before anything happened.” Marcus paused for a moment before continuing, “I should have never used the airstrip, or Rocky Springs.”#p#分页标题#e#
“You didn’t have much of a choice. It’s a private airport. Where else could you have arranged this?” Lara said quietly, knowing he had the perfect bait for the terrorists because he did have a private airport and the Colters were a highly respected family.
“It endangered my family,” Marcus replied bleakly.
“Normally, it wouldn’t have,” Tate said honestly. “The airstrip is a safe distance away from our homes and the resort. Lara and I being there was accidental. I wanted to prove to her that you weren’t involved so she’d stop trying to attract your attention.”
Marcus smiled and glanced at Lara. “Oh, she would have attracted my attention. But I probably would have guessed that she was a fed.”
“You never would have known,” Lara said defensively. “I’m damn good at my job.”
Marcus’s smile grew broader. “And I’m highly connected.” He looked at Tate. “Did you mark her as a fed?”
“Yeah. But only because I checked her out for personal information. I didn’t really suspect she was FBI. I just knew she wasn’t our average type of guest at the resort.”
“I’ve checked out everyone who even speaks to me for the last two years. I had no doubt the FBI were looking, but we weren’t ready to form a team. We needed the evidence first,” Marcus explained.
“Why did you let the team arrest you?” Lara asked curiously.
“All of the terrorists weren’t there. We had to round up the rest of the group. They would have bolted immediately if they knew I was involved with the CIA. I had to wait until the remaining group was in custody, and we needed to set a trap. If I would have exposed myself then, it would have made it more difficult for me to assist in luring the rest of the group to an arrest area,” Marcus informed her. “I was damn glad you had backup, Agent Bailey. I went to the storage room to try to get an emergency text to the director while the terrorists were busy checking the merchandise, but they weren’t going to make it in time. I was already trying to think of an alternate plan.”