by K. T. Lee
24
After a rather strange evening, it was even stranger to walk into work on Friday as if Stefanie hadn’t spent the previous evening collaborating with the CIA. And getting more involved with the CIA officer assigned to protect her. She smiled at that, even though she probably shouldn’t. While they both had to keep walking it back, she couldn’t quite regret whatever was happening between her and Joey.
Stefanie put her purse on her desk and walked straight to the lab. Their customers agreed to provide their equipment sometime in the late afternoon and only time would tell if they would actually do it. Later in the morning, Joey told her that Alexis nosed around the hotel but heard nothing. The trio was a well-traveled group of consultants. They were polished and careful not to talk about confidential matters in public areas. They had joked about not having to drop this one in the Arctic and that their colleagues would make fun of them for working in such a nice place as California. There were the typical surprised comments about how cold the Bay Area was. San Francisco businesses sold a surprising number of sweatshirts to unprepared tourists. But unfortunately, nothing about a rogue Russian politician or the American Navy. The package they were asking about at the front desk was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon, just before they’d promised it to the OEG. Which gave them almost no time to tamper with it.
Despite Joey’s platitudes that they might learn something, even if the three men weren’t doing Dmitri’s dirty work, Stefanie was already getting impatient to see results. Normally, her sense of urgency was a benefit in her line of work, but today it was a liability. Cam orchestrated a call from Nash’s brother as well as an unexpected leave for the weekend. He would be coming ashore Friday afternoon and staying all the way through Sunday. Nash ran his hand through his hair while they talked and even put his brother on mute to ask if it was okay if he wasn’t close by. Joey assured him he had everything under control. His brother, too, must have made a convincing case. Nash left reluctantly and only after he’d been reassured several times by both Joey and Stefanie that it was okay for him to leave.
It was nearly the end of the day when Tony arrived, hand-delivering a huge, still-sealed box to the front desk with the help of a dolly. Tony didn’t linger, merely exchanging a few polite words with Peggy before leaving. Thanks to some security cameras the CIA had planted, Joey just happened to be stopping by Peggy’s desk before Peggy had a chance to even call Stefanie or open the box. Nash had left for the weekend and Cole was nowhere to be found. The bug scanner in Joey’s pocket would let him know by the time he hauled the box to the back offices if it contained any listening devices. However, Stefanie’s scientific brain had no trouble coming up with a long list of dangerous things Joey’s scanner couldn’t detect.
Stefanie shut the door behind him and led him to the lab. They brought the box past their demo device and to the back of the lab, where Alexis and Waffle were waiting near an empty lab bench, thanks to a back door. Waffle sniffed the box and merely wagged his tail. Joey shook his head. “Bug scanner didn’t go off either. For some reason, Dmitri didn’t physically touch this one.”
Stefanie removed the cardboard and examined the container inside closely, but it was well sealed. Considering the application, the inaccessibility of the sensor wasn’t particularly suspicious. Watertight was the name of the game in their business. A clicking noise sounded nearby, quiet but insistent. Stefanie’s phone buzzed. It was a notification from Nash’s new platform prototype.
“What is that?” Alexis tilted her head.
“It’s the app that connects to our demo platform.” Stefanie frowned. “Something set off an alert.” She opened the notification and her palms began to sweat. “Um, you guys need to see this.”
Joey looked around them, stepping between Stefanie and the source of the noise. “What caused the alert?”
“The Geiger counter is registering amounts above the background levels it has been measuring for the past week.” Stefanie pointed to the platform in the center of the room. “According to the app, the number is within the safe range, but it spiked when we walked by.” Her heart began to thud. “Is it…?”
“Clear the area.” Alexis put a hand on her arm. “Expediently, but without panic, walk to the back door with me.”
Stefanie blinked several times in succession, shock preventing her from fully processing the danger. “Waffle didn’t detect anything explosive. It shouldn’t explode, right?”
Alexis got very serious. “Stefanie. It doesn’t matter if it won’t explode. Radiation is something we don’t mess around with. We are going to leave, quickly and quietly. We need to bring in the cavalry.” She checked the camera. “Peggy just left. Thank goodness.”
Alexis motioned for them to follow and pushed a button on her phone. “Quinn. It’s hot. Clear the building and get a crew in here. I don’t know what they’re trying to do, but radiation is involved.” She put her phone in her pocket and looked at Joey. “Take Stefanie home and don’t let her out of your sight. We’ll let you know what we find out.”
* * *
Quinn met Alexis at the back of the building and tossed the agent her keys. “Take the van and get out of here.”
“The Geiger counter didn’t register harmful levels. I could help.” Alexis looked back into the building.
Quinn put a hand on Alexis’s shoulder. “If we’ve got a run-of-the-mill explosive, you’re the first one we call. This one is my department. Good boy, Waffle.”
Alexis’s partner wagged his tail cheerfully, looking up with concern at his mistress. He leaned into her leg. She sighed. “Fine. But let me know if you need me.”
Quinn leveled her eyes at the young agent. “I need you to go back to the hotel and see if Stefanie’s customers skipped town. They may be planning to drop and dash. If not, there is no way they know what’s in the box. Tony and his team could be Dmitri’s latest liability.”
“You got it.” Alexis nodded. “You have backup?”
“Yeah. Cam’s meeting our team around the corner, getting us some protective equipment, and leading them here. We’ll call you as soon as we know anything.”
Quinn waited for a specially-trained team to arrive while the remaining occupants of the building filed out to the parking lot. They’d been informed of a natural gas leak and were told to leave the building for the weekend while a crew repaired it. No one seemed particularly concerned. When the small team of specialists showed up half an hour later, they brought protective gear and bags filled with more advanced detection equipment. They shook hands and introduced themselves by first name, then got down to business. Soon, they confirmed what the OEG research platform had already told them. They were dealing with a non-explosive product with traces of radiation. They could learn no more without opening the container to see what was inside, which would risk the lives of everyone around them. Quinn frowned. “It’s Schrödinger’s cat.”
Cam tilted his head. “I’m pretty sure you’re talking about a metaphorical cat, but I’m not sure which one.”
“Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment where a cat is in a box with a vial of poison that is ruptured when the box is opened. Therefore, it can be presumed that the cat is neither dead nor alive. Therefore, it could be presumed both dead and alive…” Cam raised an eyebrow. Quinn sighed. “It’s not important. Anyway, we don’t know if what’s in that box will kill us until we open it. And opening it might kill us. I mean, it’s not a perfect use of Schrödinger’s cat, but it’s the best I could think of in the moment. Basically, by the time we get the container to a place it won’t hurt anyone and determine what’s in it, we’ll miss our meeting. Our cover will be blown and the answer will be moot.”
“Can we replicate it?” Cam stared at the box on the counter.
Quinn looked around the lab. “Not perfectly. But we could use a larger container and claim that it was needed to fit their sensor in the bracket assembly. Stefanie would have to cover for us.”
Cam shrugged. “Okay.
If she can’t, we’ll have her call in sick and we’ll have Joey cover.”
“Deal.”
“How long will it take you to modify the bracket and make a dummy device?” Cam looked around the lab.
Quinn rummaged through a couple of drawers filled with spare parts. “Once these guys are gone? A couple of hours.”
“Alright. Let’s get to work.”
* * *
Stefanie paced around her kitchen. Alexis had stopped on the way to check the hotel, where their customers were still behaving as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Alexis and Joey were remarkably calm, alternating between communicating information to their superiors and half-watching a nature documentary none of them particularly cared about on TV. Finally, Stefanie asked, “Are they okay?” When Joey and Alexis exchanged a look instead of giving a quick answer, all of the things that could go wrong flashed through her brain. She closed her eyes in an attempt to block everything out. Waffle licked her hand and she snapped out of her borderline anxiety attack to give him a quick pat. “You are an excellent dog.”
Waffle sat next to her, tail swishing. Alexis smiled. “He knows. He was as disappointed as I was that we had to leave.” She tapped her phone in her hand, and it suddenly buzzed. She checked the message. “Okay, they’re moving the container. They’re going to substitute a larger container they found in the lab and seal it so it can’t be opened. It’ll cover up that they got rid of it. You okay with selling that story tomorrow or would you be more comfortable calling in with the stomach flu?”
“In for a penny, in for a pound.” Stefanie scoffed. “You can’t ditch me that easily. You’re coming on the ship too?”
Alexis looked down at Waffle. “We’ll be at the dock but not on the boat. I can’t exactly sneak this guy on board.” Waffle snatched a tennis ball off the floor and began squeaking it. She picked up her backpack and put it over one shoulder.
“Fair.” Stefanie smiled.
Alexis looked at Joey. “You ready for tomorrow?”
“Yeah. But we’ll need to check for more than explosives.” He winced, then looked over at Stefanie, presumably to see if she was going to run screaming yet. She gave him a rueful shrug. They were well past remarking at how strange things had become.
Stefanie smacked her forehead. The radioactive box. The boat. Her company. That was it.
Waffle stopped squeaking his tennis ball and Alexis looked over at her. “What is it, Stef?”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with monitoring subs. Think about it. They’re depositing radioactive material on the ocean floor. Off the U.S. coastline. It’ll be dropped by a U.S. company with the bonus of implicating Ree and me. The box was totally unmarked. There would be no way to prove the U.S. wasn’t behind it.”
Joey closed his eyes. “The transmitter. Cole was testing to see how easy it was to detect the equipment nearby. You confirmed it for him without realizing it. Anyone with the right security key could find it with the GPS coordinates. Exactly when they want it to be found. It’s a press nightmare.”
“That’s how he’s going to get attention.” Alexis lowered her backpack to the floor. “Dmitri is in charge of nuclear waste disposal – he gets a two-for-one. His well-disguised cargo solves a problem at work – he’s found a place to get rid of nuclear waste. Politically, he makes a U.S. company look bad and the Ryland sisters look even worse. If he can throw in some U.S. intelligence personnel into his group of scapegoats, that’s just icing on the cake.”
Stefanie rubbed her forehead. “But they wanted multiple trips.”
“Isn’t that what you and Nash do in your labs every day?” Joey raised his eyebrows. “Small scale, then convert it over to large scale? Dmitri is known for big plans.”
Alexis picked up her backpack off the floor and whistled for Waffle. “I’ll send this on to the team. I’ve got to go get everything ready for tomorrow. Your drop has to go off without a hitch to avoid tipping off Dmitri.” Alexis pulled out her phone and began typing a message. Waffle rose and stretched and, much like a human might say goodbye, got one last pet from Joey and Stefanie before he walked out the front door behind Alexis. Joey lingered and shut the door behind her.
Joey eyed her couch. “Do you want me to stay? Or go. I can go.”
“I’d like it if you stayed.” Stefanie felt her heart leap into her chest. The last thing she needed to do was to force Joey to make a decision, even if she was getting surer by the minute. “I have a Murphy bed in the guest room.”
“A Murphy bed, a place to spar, and an office – you’ve thought of everything.”
Stefanie smiled. “Almost. Before you get settled, are you armed? Do you have what you need for tomorrow?”
Joey looked at her. “I am and I always have a change of clothes with me. Is that okay with you?”
Stefanie nodded. “More than okay. I’m moving my gun to my nightstand. Just don’t creep up on me in the middle of the night.”
Joey looked a little taken aback. “Stef, I’m not that kind of guy. If I’m going to make a move, you’ll be wide awake and sober.”
“I know.” Her face heated. “Of course you wouldn’t. I mean, literally, don’t creep up on me to say good morning or whatever thing you mean well about. I’m on edge and I just want to make sure I don’t accidentally shoot the guy trying to protect me. I kind of like him. Even if he’s complicated.”
Joey grinned. “The complicated guy trying to protect you appreciates that.”
“Come on. Let’s get some sleep before you fall over where you’re standing, okay?” Stefanie leaned against him. His warm arms wrapped around her and she felt a light kiss on her head.
Stefanie didn’t move right away. “You know, I’m glad I didn’t kick you out of my house that first night.”
“Glad to hear it.” Joey chuckled. “Any reason it came to mind?”
Stefanie shrugged. “Well, I think it’s indicative of your personality. You didn’t mind that I wasn’t sure if I liked you, and you figured I’d come around. I like that about you. Tenacity mixed with optimism. It’s endearing, considering you look a little intimidating.”
“Thank you?”
Stefanie gave him one last squeeze. “You’re welcome.” She led him to the guest room and flipped down the fully-made bed. “Make yourself at home. Extra toothbrushes are in the guest bathroom drawer.”
“Thank you.” Joey gave her a mischievous smile. “And for the record, Stef, you can sneak up on me.”
Stefanie laughed. “Okay, now you’re getting feisty. Get some sleep before you get any other ideas. We have a spy to catch.”
25
Stefanie woke up at five a.m. with a start. It had been a long time since she’d snapped awake in a full panic. When she was in grad school, her anxiety got a little out of hand and she often found herself wide awake in a cold sweat, worried that she’d missed an important lab or test. Fortunately, after she graduated, her early morning panic wake-ups had subsided.
She rubbed her face and checked her phone. No major work emails indicating they’d been discovered by their customers, and no messages from the CIA. Of course, they slept well in the knowledge they were making progress. They also possessed more patience than she did. She began mentally reviewing the past few weeks, certain she must have missed something critical but feeling helpless to do anything about it. Eventually, she flipped the covers off and padded into the kitchen for some coffee. The faint sound of snoring came from her guest bedroom and she bit back a chuckle. Good to know he snored – although she still liked him anyway. She attempted to push the thought out of her head. It didn’t work. Her thoughts switched over to how they could make it work while he worked in D.C. and she was running a development team in the Bay Area. But, considering that the guy who hired her was increasingly looking like one of Dmitri’s spies, she could need a new job anyway. She smacked herself in the forehead. She was absolutely not moving across the country because she’d known this guy for all of a week.
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Stefanie started the coffee pot and noticed a message from Ree on her phone. I don’t want to distract you. Quinn says you guys are doing awesome. Parker and I are safe, and we love you. Be careful. This baby needs their aunt.
Stefanie smiled at the message, sent at the beginning of Ree’s day. She typed a quick reply. For the first time in a long time, she intentionally lied to her sister. Don’t worry about us. We’ve got this thing handled. Just in case, she added, Love you.
Stefanie punched a few buttons on the coffee pot, wincing at how loud the beep sounded in her quiet kitchen. She was the sort of person who slept in until she heard the noise of the first person in the house waking up, then snapped to instant alertness. Ah, the joys of being an extrovert. Growing up, Ree would always wake up early and be nose-first into a book. In high school, it was coffee and a magazine. Then, in the advent of smartphones, it became eBooks and the news online.
Her thoughts turned to Joey. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt that comfortable with anyone outside of her family. And surely, that was a good sign. If she was at a business meeting, trying to figure out if she should invest in the two of them, she wouldn’t think twice. She smiled at her own realization.
Joey padded into the kitchen in gym shorts and a plain T-shirt, still a little rumpled from sleep, a few moments after the coffee had finished brewing. She poured him a mug, which he gratefully accepted, and leaned against the kitchen counter. “Good morning. Thank you.” He took a sip and leaned against the counter next to her. “Penny for your thoughts?”
“You’re going to need a lot of pennies. An express train just went through.” Stefanie took a sip of her own coffee.
He smiled. “Yeah?”
Stefanie nodded, slowly. “I feel…amped up? I ran track in high school. It feels like right before a track meet. I wasn’t exceptional, but I won the occasional medal. One time I’m pretty sure I placed because my competitor looked at me and told me I was going to lose. I mean, after that, I had to win just to prove her wrong.”