LITMIR.BIZ

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kind of thinking the same thing.” He handed Zero a business card.

      He frowned. “What’s this?” The card was simple, ivory, embossed with a website and phone number and the name “Seaside House Recovery Center.”

      “It’s a place in Virginia Beach,” Strickland explained, “where people like her can go to… recuperate. I spent a few weeks there myself, once upon a time. They’re good people. They can help.”

      Zero nodded slowly, a little taken aback by how everyone seemed to see it but him. Maya had already told him that Sara needed professional help, and evidently it was plain to Todd as well. He knew precisely why he’d been blind to it; he wanted to be able to help her. He wanted to be the one who pulled her through it. But he had already known, deep down, that she needed more than he could offer her.

      “I hope this wasn’t overstepping any boundaries,” Todd continued. “But, uh… I gave them a call to make sure they had space. There’s a spot for her, anytime she wants.”

      “Thank you,” Zero murmured. He didn’t know what else to say; it certainly wasn’t overstepping any boundaries to do something that Zero probably wouldn’t have brought himself to do. He stuck the card in his pocket and gestured toward the door. “After you.”

      He had attended scores of briefings in his time as a CIA agent, and no two were alike. Sometimes they were populated and chaotic, with representatives from cooperating agencies and video conferences with subject-matter experts. Other times they were small, quiet, and confidential. And even though he was certain that this one was going to be the latter, he was still quite surprised to enter the conference room and find only one person seated at the table, a single tablet in front of her.

      Strickland seemed equally puzzled, because he asked, “Are we early or something?”

      “No,” said Maria as she stood. “Right on time. Have a seat.”

      Zero and Todd exchanged a glance and took seats on either side of Maria, who was at the far head of the long table.

      “Well,” the younger agent muttered, “isn’t this cozy.”

      “I’m sorry for taking you away from the holiday,” she began. “You know I wouldn’t if I had a choice.” She said it as if it was meant more for Zero; Maria knew precisely who and what was waiting for him at home. After all, she’d been invited as well. “I’ll get right into it,” she continued. “Last night, an incident occurred on the northern waterfront of Havana, and we have strong reason to believe that it was a calculated terror attack.”

      She told them everything they knew; that more than one hundred people experienced a wide range of symptoms, and that the proximity of those impacted the worst suggested the use of an ultrasonic weapon positioned near the water’s edge. As she explained, her fingertips slid across the tablet’s touch-screen, navigating through photos of emergency services in Cuba aiding the victims. Some of them needed support just to stand; others had thin trails of blood running from their ears. A few were carried off on stretchers.

      “There was only one casualty,” Maria concluded, “a young American woman on vacation. And the weapon was not found, hence our involvement.”

      Zero had heard of this kind of ultrasonic weapon before, at least something like it, but aside from the tiny sonic grenades that Bixby had cooked up, he didn’t have any experience with them. But he had to acknowledge that despite the lack of any visual on a weapon or perpetrators, it did sound very much like a terrorist attack—which only made it more confusing.

      “Kent?” Maria prodded. “Penny for your thoughts?”

      He shook his head. “Honestly, I’m a little perplexed. Why go through the trouble of building or buying this kind of weapon when a single assault rifle and a few magazines would have done a lot more damage?”

      “Maybe it wasn’t about the damage,” Strickland suggested. “Maybe it was a message. For all we know, the perps could have been Cuban. They targeted a touristy area; maybe they’re nationalists, and this was some sort of violent protest.”

      “It’s possible,” Maria admitted. “But we need to work on facts—and the only facts we have right now are that American citizens were part of this, one of them is now dead, and this weapon is still out there… which is where you two come in.”

      Zero and Strickland glanced at each other, and then Maria. For a minute there, he had started to think that this might have just been an intelligence briefing, keeping them abreast of what had happened in Cuba, but with those few words he now understood what it really meant.

      There was no doubt about it; he was being sent back into the field.

      “Hang on,” said Strickland. “You’re saying that someone, somewhere in the world, has a fairly portable and powerful sonic weapon, and you want us to what? Just go find it?”

      “I understand it’s not much to go on…” Maria started.

      “It’s not anything to go on.”

      Zero was a little surprised by Strickland’s attitude; at heart he was still a soldier, and never spoke that way to a superior, not even Maria. But he understood, because while Strickland expressed indignation, Zero felt a wave of anger. This was why he was pulled away from Thanksgiving, from reuniting his family? He felt for the victims of the Havana attack, but his skills were typically put to use stopping nuclear wars and avoiding mass casualties, not to go off on a wild goose chase for a weapon that had claimed a single life.

      “We do have something,” Maria told Strickland. “A handful of eyewitnesses at the harbor claim to have seen a group of men, four or five of them, wearing some sort of protective mask or helmet, and loading a ‘strange-looking object’ onto a boat immediately following the attack. The details are sketchy at best, but a few people also reported seeing a woman with bright red hair, possibly Caucasian, among them.”

      “All right, that’s something,” Strickland agreed, appearing to shove down any further protests he might have voiced. “So we go to Havana, find out about the boat, who owns it, where it was going, where it is now, and follow the trail.”

      Maria nodded. “That’s the long and short of it. Bixby is working up some tech that should help. And I don’t mean to be pushy, but President Rutledge did use the words ‘as soon as possible’ on this order, so—”

      “Can we talk?” Zero blurted suddenly, before Maria could give the official go-ahead for them to act. “Privately?”

      “No,” she said simply.

      “No?” Zero blinked.

      She sighed. “I’m sorry, Kent. But I know what you want to say, and I know that if you do I’ll likely give in and try to get you off the hook. But this came from the president. Not from me, not from Director Shaw—”

      “And where’s Director Shaw now?” Zero found himself asking heatedly. “At home, I’m guessing? Getting ready to enjoy Thanksgiving with his family?”

      “Yes, Zero, that’s exactly where he is,” she replied firmly. She never called him Zero; coming from her, it felt like being scolded. “Because it’s not his job to be here. It’s yours. Just like it’s not my job to put my own neck on the block for you again and again. My job is to tell you where you need to go and what needs doing.” She tapped the tablet twice with a finger. “This is where you’re going. This is what you’re doing.”

      Zero stared down at the tabletop, smooth and polished to a reflective sheen. He had foolishly thought that he and Maria could still be friends after all they’d been through. But at the end of the day, this was how it would shake out. She was his boss, and this was what it felt like to have rank pulled on him.

      He did not at all like the feeling, not any more than he liked the idea of the president commanding that he be put on this. As far as he was concerned, this was a complete waste of his skills. But he didn’t bother saying that.

      “Just look at the state of things.” Maria’s tone softened, but she didn’t look directly at either of them. “We’ve

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