Chapter 394 Chapter 394
Calum’s phone rang at the same moment Reeves leaned his head around the door and looked at him.
“Yeah?” Calum nodded at Konner, “hold on, I’ll put it on speaker.”
Konner looked at Reeves, “is it imperative? I need to be on this call.”
Reeves opened his mouth and then shook his head, “no it can wait.”
Konner nodded his head once as Reeves closed the door.
Calum set his phone down, “okay, we’re both here.”
“Dad will be on it just a minute,” he recognized Devin’s voice without issue.
Setting the glass and water jug on his desk, he sat down, it was going to be hard to follow a conversation with voices he didn’t know.
“I hear we have you to thank for this new information, Konner.”
Konner knew that voice as well, “I suppose you do, Raymond.” He hoped his friend wasn’t put off that Konner had been going behind the Alliance security protocol to get things done.
“Konner kept me in the loop,” Devin said, surprising Konner that he was sticking up for him when it had only been the past week they’d been communicating.
“Mister Flores and I have been in full communication with his dealings over the years.” Shepard Addison had joined the call. “There was no way for him to operate under the radar if we brought all of the community in on it.”
“Understandable, sir,” Raymond said in his clipped no-bullshit tone.
“My concern is if anything has leaked out there to anyone we don’t want knowing it.”
Konner looked at the phone.
“I can assure you, Nate, that any of Konner’s dealings are more secure than anything.” The King responded, “I believe one of your team has ensured that.”
“I’m guessing Fallan was involved.” He sounded exhausted the way he said it.
“She is very helpful anytime I talk to her.” Devin validated her involvement with that answer.
“I don’t mean to be a pain, but I had to stop on the side of the road for this call and I don’t like standing here cooling my jets when I need to be somewhere else.”
Konner smirked over at Calum when Wynter spoke in the politest way he’d ever heard her talk.
“We’ll keep it brief, Wynter.” Shepard’s tone was light. “Konner has been dealing with some associates in South America for quite some time, in locating members of his clan, and a few others whose numbers have dwindled, he has a network set up to get them over here, without causing too many waves.”
“Waves? More like a tsunami if they’re caught.”
“That’s exactly why it’s been kept to a few, Kenzo.” The king cleared his throat, “on his most recent check-in with his contacts, some information has come to light that we, collectively, need to deal with.”
“Information?”
“Yes, Uri, it has come to light that the ambassadors and their representatives that are part of our allied network are not working for our combined worldwide plan.” Shepard sighed loud enough everyone on the call picked it up, “I’ve been worried about this happening for some time, not just over there, but elsewhere as well. Feeling it and proving it are two entirely different things.”
“Does this tie into our current situation here, because things have been getting hotter by the minute?”
“It does, Kaid, which is the reason for this call now, we need to start reaching out to friends and contacts that we know are aligned with us and come up with a way to put a stop to it.”
“Are you telling me that these ambassadors or whatever are working with the Tomas organization?” Raymond cut off the King without thought.
Konner leaned on the desk, and blew out a quick breath, “I’m not even sure if it’s that way, Raymond, or if the Tomas organization is working for them.”
“There’s been chatter for as long as I remember about how bad it is in other countries, that what Tomas has been doing is nothing new—” he recognized Nate’s voice this time, “this is way too big for us to handle from here.” He sounded overwhelmed.
“Your task hasn’t changed at this point, Nate, we need your team to find out who left the door open for that breach.”
“Yeah,” Nate made a sound of annoyance, “we’re still on it. It’s like looking through a pile of thread on the floor, for one particular piece, without moving any of the other threads.”
“We understand how difficult it is, but I have faith in your team’s abilities.”
“Oh, don’t worry, sir, we will find it.”
“Are we tackling the South America problem first, because worldwide seems like we’re biting off more than we can chew?” Wynter sounded frazzled now and Konner knew there was nothing more dangerous than an upset Wynter Carr.
“For now,” Shepard’s tone was harder, “we reach out to any we know and trust implicitly to see if we can find a direction to deal with this.” He cleared his throat, “I don’t want to endanger any of our kind anywhere in the world and if we start stirring things up, that’s what will happen.”
“So, we reach out to one area at a time, bring them in, do some planning before we execute anything,” Uri said in a contemplative way.
“I agree,” Kenzo added, “do a little recon in all the directions and see what we’re up against.”
“Many of the clans have origins across the globe.” Konner recognized Jesse’s voice. “Might be an easier route than jumping right to teams and associates of the other ambassadors.”
“Until we vet them and see who can be trusted,” Raymond added briefly.
“I agree, that is a route we should explore.” Shepard seemed content to let the leaders come up with that plan. Konner couldn’t imagine what it was like for him, to sit there and know there were these problems, but his hands were tied because of red tape. “I know I don’t need to say it, but I feel obligated to do so,” he paused, “we can’t let the ambassadors know are we are reaching into their domain and poking around.”
“That’s going to be hard to pull off.”
“I understand that, Kaid, which is the reason for this call. All of you will need to work together with your combined strengths—I know we can succeed.”
“I’ll be the coordinator for this.” Devin piped up, “keeping you as far out of it as possible, Dad.”
“I’ll work with Devin on this.” Calum’s voice startled Konner, he’d been silent up to this point.
“Thank you, Calum, I knew I could rely on you.” The king sounded amused.
“I know this isn’t the topic of this party, but Konner’s clan member was right on the money with deciphering that journal we confiscated, and now more pieces are fitting together.”
“Journal? The one with the transactions in it?” Wynter wasn’t big on paperwork, Konner knew that from personal experience, she was more for guns and not pens.
“That’s the one.” Nate confirmed, “it makes sense now if there are other organizations like Tomas’ across the globe...”
“You think our missing clan members have been shipped to other countries?” Jesse’s tone was more focused now.
“I think it’s a possibility.” Nate sounded distracted. If he was anything like Fallan, Konner suspected he was doing ten things at the same time as being on this call.
“Well shit. That tosses a fucking wrench into it, doesn’t it?”
Calum and Konner both smirked, Wynter’s polite King-worthy speech was now gone.
“I understand it’s a lot to take on, Wynter, but our priority has not changed, we shut down all locations here in North America before we branch out.”
“Understood, sir, just point me in the direction, I will send my team and hand them their asses.” She cleared her throat, “that’s to say, my team is ready—sir.”
Calum covered his mouth, but there was no hiding the big grin behind his hand.
“I’m right there with Wynter, sir, if you need my team to jump in with the incursion and retrieval team, we have no problems mixing it up.”
“I’m glad you volunteered, Kenzo, you were my next call,” Devin spoke up, “we have a lot of locations that need to be breached in a short time of one another,” he paused, “just as soon as Uri gives me the details.”
“My team are on them now, Devin, we should have enough information to act on in the next few days,” Uri informed him.
“To save ten more calls today, how are those four locations I called you about for Konner?” Calum looked across the desk at Konner.
“We’re on those too, three of them will be a walk in the park, low security, like they think they’re gods or something and untouchable. The fourth one is going to be more of a challenge, but” he stopped for a second, “I’m assuming I can speak clearly on this call?”
“You can.” The king interjected, “all the teams here will be brought on it.”
“Okay, we’ve confirmed two of your kind are at the fourth location, Konner.”
Konner stood up and looked down at the phone, “how have you confirmed this? I’ve had many false leads over the years.”