Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

coming to him.”
    “Seriously.”
    Simon shifted in his chair. “I’d love to be the governor of Texas right now. Just think of all the perks the oil patch boys must be throwing at him to pick a warm body that’s pro oil to fill Booker’s seat.” He held up his hands, a fake look of concern on his face. “Should he die, God forbid.”
    Jack sighed. He picked up the blue marker and began clicking it again. “What’s your gut reaction on Danny Cavanaugh? What the hell would make him go after Booker?”
    “Hard to say. But it looks as if he’s a wild card. I think we need to get to know his story a little bit better.”

Chapter 47
    Anthony Fantroy sipped tea at his desk. He reveled in his hour-long respite from the daily onslaught of pressures and tensions that constantly tugged at him. Where many Londoners regarded high tea as a traditional time for socializing with others, high tea for him was reserved for one man alone with his thoughts. As he eased back in his chair, keeping his exceptionally British feet on the ground, Fantroy stared out through the window of his office at the shapeless gray blanket that covered the sky.
    Taber must have lost them for good.
    Fantroy hadn’t heard a word from Stefan Taber for several hours. The only thing he knew for sure was Taber had screwed up again. Fantroy had heard the news about Booker Halsey being shot. How the hell could Taber have let this happen? Fantroy knew how The Group dealt with failure. The Group didn’t fire people; they wiped them off the face of the earth and replaced them with someone equally as expendable. Simple.
    Taber was well aware of the consequences for his incompetence. Fantroy was chiding himself for allowing Taber to pursue Sydney Dumas into America by himself, but there was nothing else that could be done. The rest of the team was cleaning up the mess at the monastery. The idea was to make it look like the place had been raided by a Mexican drug gang and that Joseph Ambrose and Nathan Broederlam were in the wrong place at the wrong time. For now, Sydney Dumas’s disappearance could be explained as a kidnapping.
    Fantroy thought about Taber’s situation. Would he go to the authorities with what he knew? Was he still on the job? Still tracking them? Doubtful. The bastard was no doubt on the run by now. Fantroy had received the tracking report an hour ago. Both the tracking unit in the gun that Sydney Dumas and her police officer friend were using and the one in Taber’s assault rifle were at the same coordinates in Houston, Texas. They had been at that location for the past few hours. It must have been a point of confrontation. But what happened? And why were both weapons still there?
    Two twenty-inch flat panel monitors were hooked into Fantroy’s desktop computer. One screen showed the contents of Stefan Taber’s dossier. The other displayed information on Sydney Dumas’s new partner in crime. Fantroy looked over Taber’s information as he pictured Taber prying the surveillance bug out of his gun and leaving it wherever he had found the other assault rifle and then pursuing them on his own. Taber was the kind of bloke who wouldn’t stop a mission just because of the threat of his own demise. He would still go after his target, no matter what. But if Taber had lost them now, he no longer had the upper hand, and he was no longer theirs. He was now another liability, like Sydney Dumas and her American friend, Sergeant Danny Cavanaugh of the Texas Rangers.
    Fantroy thought about his other options, really his other only option. The Group’s agents were watching Cavanaugh’s mother’s house in Houston. She wasn’t home. Her email account was being hacked and so were her phone records to determine who she knew and where she might have gone. Hopefully, they could find her and use her as leverage against the policeman.
    Fantroy looked at his watch. The Group would be meeting in less than five hours. There would be many questions about Ms. Dumas and Sergeant Cavanaugh. Fantroy needed to concentrate on them for a while. He sipped his tea while his thoughts turned to Sydney Dumas.
    Sydney Dumas was a smart woman. Fantroy assumed for the moment that she had somehow figured out The Group’s plan. Where would she turn next? Would she go to the authorities? Normally yes , Fantroy thought. But Ms. Dumas had taken on a partner who wouldn’t allow her to make that choice. So now what? Fantroy closed his eyes .
    I am Sydney Dumas. I am being