Chapter 548: Lavender

Once Damien and Amelia came back inside the safe house, Styles set a few freshly printed files on the dining table where everyone gathered.

While Amelia joined the rest, Katherine came to Damien's side and placed a hand on his arm as she asked, "What happened?"

His dark stare was directed at Chris from across the room. He hadn't said anything yet, but she could already guess that Damien was pissed at the other. He was already not fond of Chris from the beginning, and now it just felt as if his hostility had grown deeper.

"I don't know. She didn't tell me," he responded.

Styles waved at the two of them, so they hurried towards the table.

"I found some things, but I'm not sure if they're enough." Styles slid the first file on the table towards them. "Josiah Connor runs a foundation and donates to several charities. This is the list of the organizations that he had sent his donations over the last ten years."

"Generous..." Gus commented upon seeing the amount of money that the man had spent helping other people.

"He also runs several profitable businesses here and in some neighboring states, including vacation rentals, delivery service, truck, and cargo rentals, etcetera. Our man seems like he's dipping his toes into several fields. No wonder he's loaded," Styles added.

Letting out a sigh, Chris pondered, "This isn't enough. Parker wouldn't be interested in someone like him. I mean, it's possible. But unless Connor's a client, I don't see how Parker would use him."

"Styles," Amelia called his attention. "Can you check how many times the two have met in the past?"

"I could try… but that's going to take a lot of time going over several footages. I don't even know at what date to start looking."

Katherine planted her hands on the table as she probed, "What about Castle? We could check the database to see if he had been a client in the past or if he's a new one… If there's a new mission, Parker should have already added it to the database."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Styles knitted his brows together and abruptly jogged towards his workstation.

The others followed behind him and watched him do his magic on the keyboard. A series of numbers, letters, and jargon appeared on the screen as his fingers danced along the keys. He seemed so calm and relaxed as if what he was doing was a piece of cake when in fact, he was actually bypassing Castle's security.

It only took less than a minute for Styles to get inside Shadow's database. A timer at the bottom of one of his monitors started running as soon as he accessed it. He only had about three minutes or less to do what he needed to do before it would send an alert to the IT department, and he could only copy a file at a time as copying the entire database would also send an alert, so he had to work fast.

Everyone behind him stayed quiet as they witnessed him breezing through the process, conducting a search that had Josiah Connor's name on it. There were a few results that popped up. And just before the timer hit zero, Styles logged out from the program and opened the files that he had copied.

There were a total of three missions in which Connor was a client. Two of which had already been completed this year while one was a pending mission.

"Looks like a hit mission," Katherine grabbed the paper as soon as it came out of the printer. She glanced over the details of the file and found that there were a few spots that were covered in black blocks. The file was confidential, requiring a certain level of access that would take a longer time to crack and their limited time to access the database wasn't enough.

"Who's the target?" asked Damien. He felt a bitter taste at the back of his throat at the thought of someone getting assassinated.

"I don't know…" she muttered under her breath as her eyes zeroed in on the target of the mission, and she was unsure of what the word meant.

"Let me take a look." Chris took the paper from her hands and examined the file. "The target must be someone high profile—Parker is using a code. Only the team or the agent assigned to this mission would know on the day of it."

"That would mean this is a sure target… No research is needed. Just shoot to kill." Katherine's voice was low as her past came back to haunt her. She had received assignments like this in the past. When they were briefed a few hours before the mission, everything was already planned out. The ins and outs, the method, and an emergency plan in case the mission went haywire.

Noticing that she was in deep thought, Damien slid his hand around her waist and inched closer. She breathed in deeply as if she was holding her breath just now, nodding at him to let him know that she was okay.

Katherine hated it when she remembered her nightmares—it was worse than when she was asleep. At least when she's sleeping and having bad dreams, she would wake up and forget about it later. However, nightmares like this one just now, she's awake. And it stayed in her head longer than when she dreamt about them.

"What's the code?" Amelia asked.

"Lavender," Chris responded, reading the word from the file in his hand.

Then he froze for a few seconds, his heart racing when the realization hit him. Although it was just a guess, his gut told him that it made total sense.

"Chris?" Styles called his attention.

Chris darted his eyes. He looked bothered, and he hesitated when he spoke, "I think I know who this is." Without waiting for anyone else to speak, he pulled up a photo from Styles's computer, and he stepped back when the image opened.

All eyes shifted to the monitor. On the screen was an older woman whom he had known for a few years. She was dressed in a sophisticated manner and had a brooch on the collar of her dress—lavender, a flowering plant.

"Director Hughes," Chris uttered in almost a whisper.