by Jack Mars
“Then screw it,” Alan said. “Let’s go to South Korea, charter a boat, and do some fishing. Consider it a mini-vacation. Let the Navy find it. If they’re so intent to make us look inept, let’s be inept.”
“No,” Maria cut him off. “No, we’re going to find it. Just not the way they want us to.” She pointed at something on the page. “We’re going here.”
Zero peered over her shoulder and saw what she was pointing out. A Somali boat was identified in the South China Sea as one that made its home port in…
“Mogadishu.” He nodded. “Feels like the right play.”
“Not even out of the gate and already disobeying orders.” Reidigger put his oil-stained cap back on. “Sounds about status quo.”
“We’ll have to convince the pilot,” Zero warned. Walsh had made it clear that the waiting jet already knew where they were supposed to be heading.
“Don’t need him,” Alan said with a shrug. “I can fly.”
“We’ll figure that out later.” Maria dropped the envelope to the floor, rolled up the report, and stuck it in her back pocket. Then she gestured to the steel door that would grant them entry into what used to be Bixby’s lab. “First, let’s see who’s behind door number one.”
CHAPTER NINE
Most who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency were unaware of the multiple subterranean levels beneath their feet. Of those who were, most knew the lab as Research & Development—which was, in a way, partially true. Research did occur down there, as did development, though what was being researched or developed was kept highly classified.
Even Zero, for as often as he had been down there over the course of his career, knew only a fraction of what actually went on in the bowels of Langley. He knew that the supercomputer OMNI had dwelled down there before Bixby had decommissioned it. He knew the lab was where Bixby had invented new weaponry and new defense systems, and sometimes even reverse-engineered stolen tech from other countries and militaries, improving it and finding ways to use it against them in the same capacity.
The first thing he noticed upon entering was the scent. The lab smelled like fresh solder, a sort of burning odor that wasn’t unpleasant or harsh but still foreign enough to register as something possibly being on fire. As Maria pushed into the cavernous lab, Zero found himself hesitating, feeling strange to be back in the place that had been a second home to a man he had most recently seen living in fear in a remote region of Saskatchewan.
With that thought came the reminder of why he went there in the first place—his own brain, trying to kill him. Losing memories. The other agent, the man called…
Shit. What was the name again? He panicked briefly. That wasn’t the kind of information he could afford to forget. He took a calming breath and reminded himself that Alan knew it too. It would come back to him, he was sure.
Just stay focused, he told himself.
The underground lab was large as a hangar, the ceiling overhead high as a gymnasium and lined white wall to white wall with powerful halogen bulbs that burned as bright as day. Shelving units, computers, and arrays of machinery the function of which Zero could barely begin to guess were arranged lengthwise in the shape of a huge H. As they made their way further into the lab, Zero saw blue sparks popping from the tail of what appeared to be a miniature Predator drone as two white-coated technicians in goggles worked on it.
“Excuse me,” Maria called out to them. “Who’s in charge here?”
They looked up sharply as if they hadn’t noticed that they weren’t alone. “That would be Dr. León,” one of them called back.
“And where would we find…?”
Before Maria could even finish her statement, a young woman rounded the corner from an antechamber of the lab not ten yards from them. To say “young woman” was almost an overstatement; to Zero, she looked like she might have been Maya’s age. Her skin tone, dark eyes, and curly, shoulder-length brown hair suggested she was Latina, and she wore denim jeans, brown clogs, and a pink and white striped T-shirt.
Upon seeing them, the woman’s eyes went wide and she stopped dead in her tracks, fumbling the clipboard in her hands. It clattered noisily to the floor.
“Oh! Oh my god, sorry!” She ignored the clipboard and hurried over to them. “Hi! Hello. Wow. It is so good to meet you! Wait, wait, don’t tell me, please. You must be Agent Johansson.”
The young woman grabbed Maria’s hand and pumped it enthusiastically. Zero blinked several times. This was who was running Bixby’s lab now?
“Um, yes, hi,” Maria said, equally stunned.
“And that would mean…” The woman glanced between him and Reidigger, her gaze finally landing on him. “You’re Agent Zero? Wow! He was right. You really don’t look the part. I bet that comes in handy though, huh?” She grabbed Zero’s hand and shook it vigorously, while he decided to ignore the backhanded compliment. For the most part, he really did still look more like a professor than a CIA agent. But then again, this young woman before him sounded more like a Valley girl than a doctor.
She glanced over at Alan. “I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are, but I’m sure you’re great.” She sighed. “Wow. It is so good to meet you guys. I’ve heard so much!” Then she let out a nervous laugh. “Look at me, fan-girling all over the place here.”
“Uh, sorry,” Maria said carefully, “but who are you exactly?”
“Oh! Right. Of course. I’m Penelope. I mean, Dr. León.” She cleared her throat. “I am Dr. Penelope León.” She laughed nervously again. “You know what? Just call me Penny.”
Zero smirked at Alan, who just shook his head slightly. “And you’re running the lab now?” he asked.
“Yes I am,” she said proudly. “It’s a lot of work, but I’m managing.” She looked from one of them to the next, and as she did, the smile faded from her lips. “You guys don’t know who I am, do you? He never… mentioned me?”
Zero assumed that the “he” was Bixby, but wasn’t sure the connection. “No,” he said gently, “he didn’t. I’m sorry… uh, Penny.”
“Oh. That’s okay.” She laughed nervously again and waved a hand dismissively in the air. “He had a lot of secrets. Not like I had to be one of them, but… you know.”
“So you were Bixby’s student?” Zero asked.
“Student? I guess you could say that. More like a protégé. An understudy. I interned with him through my entire doctorate in applied sciences, and worked here in the lab ever since. But you guys know this is a big place, right? I was never, you know, out here. Front and center. He taught me everything I know.” She gestured to her T-shirt and jeans before adding, “Except how to dress, am I right? He was always a snappy dresser.”
Her gaze fell to the floor of the lab for a moment. Zero couldn’t help but wonder why this young woman, who the CIA deemed qualified to take Bixby’s place, had never been mentioned. Another of Bixby’s secrets, maybe? She certainly didn’t seem like it—though he had to admit that everything about her demeanor fit the bill of someone Bixby would keep around.
And there was something about her demeanor, subtle and just beneath the surface. It felt to Zero like she was trying to be intentionally disarming, yet guarded. She’s hiding something, he realized. But from us? Or from cameras?
“Hey, do you guys want something to drink?” Penny asked suddenly. “I set up a little break room in the back, there’s a fridge, we’ve got water, soda, juices… there’s a coffee machine, though I don’t know if you have that kind of time—”
“Dr. León,” Maria said with just enough force in her voice.
“Penny, please,” she corrected.
“Penny. Sure. We’re here to gear up, and then we have to get going.”
“Right.” She laughed at herself again. “Of course you are. Of course you do. Right this way! Let me show you what I’ve got for you.” She led them with a wave of her hand as she turned on a heel and strode quickly across the lab.
Maria exchanged a quick glance with Zero a
nd Reidigger. “You trust this?” she asked quietly in Arabic.
“Not sure yet,” Zero told her.
They followed her to a long, stainless-steel table upon which three black neoprene backpacks were waiting. “So, this is it,” Penny said with a sweep of her arm. “Ta-da, I guess.”
Zero frowned. A bag each for a major globetrotting operation? He grabbed the nearest one and unzipped it. Inside he saw a pair of binoculars, a first-aid kit, a bundle of nylon rope, a few flares…
He tossed the bag aside. These looked like emergency provisions for a camping trip. “Penny, what is this stuff?”
“Not even a gun in here,” Alan grumbled as he sifted through another bag.
She smiled apologetically. “That was the approved list from Deputy Director Walsh. Sorry, guys, that’s what I was given, so that’s what we’re working with.” She let out another nervous laugh.
It didn’t make sense to Zero. The envelope, the lack of proper equipment; what was Walsh playing at? It was one thing to want them to fail. It was another matter entirely to want them to…
A-ha.
“I know what this is,” he told his teammates in Arabic. “He doesn’t just want us to fail. He doesn’t even want us to go.” Walsh was hoping they would lodge a complaint, or refuse to commit to the op under these circumstances, so that he could say they were uncooperative.
“Well, that’s not going to happen.” Maria took a step toward the doctor. “Penny. We need more than this, and you know that.”
Penny’s gaze drifted from one of them to the next as her smile evaporated. “I’m sorry, guys. Really, I am. But you gotta understand, I’m twenty-seven years old and never had another job. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for me. I can’t do anything to jeopardize that.” She took two steps backward. “I’m sorry,” she said again, and then curtly spun and strode around the corner, vanishing into another part of the lab.
Alan scoffed. “I say we scrub it. Let Walsh send someone else.”
Zero shook his head. “No.” It wasn’t just a sense of duty speaking. It wasn’t just the thought of letting Walsh have his way. This young woman knew something, more than she was letting on, and Zero wanted to find out what that was. “Stay here a minute.” He grabbed one of the backpacks and followed Penny around the corner.
The antechambers of the lab were like a maze, corridors that split off and emptied into rooms that led into other rooms. Luckily Penny hadn’t gone far; he saw her through a small window in a white clean room, tinkering with something that looked like a transmitter.
He pushed into the room and set the backpack on the table before them, opening it up as if he was showing her something. There was one way to know if she was a plant, or truly a friend of Bixby’s—the same tactic he had used on the Canadian pharmacy to find the elusive engineer.
As quietly as he could he asked, “Did you hear the one about the dyslexic insomniac atheist?”
Penny stared into the bag, but a sad smile touched her lips. “Yes.” She set the transmitter down gently. “He stayed up all night wondering if there was a dog.”
“He’s alive.” Zero’s voice was barely a whisper, little more than a breath. “I’ve seen him.” He reached into the bag for a pair of binoculars, as if he was showing them to her, for the sake of anyone watching. “But you knew that already, didn’t you? So how about you drop the ditzy-girl act and help us?”
Penny smiled then and took a step back. “He was right. You really are quite good, Agent Zero.” Suddenly her California demeanor was gone, replaced with squared shoulders and a stark British accent. “And you don’t have to whisper in here. I’ve swept and debugged this room myself.”
He was right—and she was sly. She’d led him back here on purpose so they could speak openly. The lab was being watched, or at least parts of it. Somehow she was in communication with Bixby, and he wasn’t going to ask about that. But she hadn’t been sure that she could trust him, same as he’d thought about her.
“What else do you know, Dr. León?”
“I know that Shaw and Walsh want you gone,” she told him simply. “I know that they’re afraid to try to have you killed because so many others have failed. Besides, they’re bureaucrats; that’s not their way. They won’t fire you because Rutledge likes you. So they’re trying to find a more elegant solution.”
“Like have me quit?”
“Have you quit, prove you insubordinate—I don’t believe they’re that picky at this point, as long as you’re gone. You’re a wild card to them. They fear that eventually your luck will run out and you’ll cause a catastrophe.”
“Someday, probably,” he allowed, “but not today. We’re going to get this done. Do we have you on our side, Penny?”
“What do you need?”
“First, a private and secure line directly to you. We need someone helpful on the inside who can get us intel.”
“Done,” she said immediately. “And?”
“And we’re going to need real gear. Some things that go bang. A few things that go boom.”
Penny’s gaze drifted toward the corner of the clean room. Zero hadn’t noticed it before, but beneath a stainless-steel table was a large, rectangular black footlocker. “I may have foreseen things going this way,” she admitted. “But I will warn you that I was deadly serious that I will not jeopardize my position here. This lab gives me access to information and resources that I have need for. If I notice anyone sniffing around, I will disavow having helped you in any way.”
“Understood,” Zero agreed. He sorely wanted to ask what “need” she had for the lab’s resources, but held his tongue. She’d shared enough with him for one day.
“Take the bags and go,” she instructed. “A van will meet you on the runway. And Agent Zero? Do try to look disappointed on the way out.”
CHAPTER TEN
“That sneaky little bitch,” Maria remarked on the way to the airstrip. Zero had waited until they were in the truck, en route to the airport, before recounting what had shaken out in the lab. And it wasn’t lost on him that despite her words, there was admiration in Maria’s tone.
“She’d make a good agent,” Alan added.
“Point is, we’ve got an ally on the inside,” Zero said. He was squeezed in the center of the bench seat of Alan’s truck as they rumbled toward Dulles International Airport. There was no way they were going to take a CIA vehicle, and out of their three, Alan’s was the only one they could say with certainty was bug-free.
He had to acknowledge that it was utterly ridiculous to live like this. But at the same time he was even more convinced that his own home was likely bugged, armed as he was with the knowledge that Walsh and Shaw would stop at nothing to get rid of the liability that he represented to them.
“Now we just have to convince a pilot who has direct orders and a registered flight plan to South Korea to take us to Somalia instead,” Maria noted.
“Told you before,” Alan grunted. “I can fly. Let’s just leave him behind.”
“Can’t do that,” Maria told him. “The less Walsh knows, the better. He’s going to find out sooner or later what we’re up to, but if we’re overseas before that happens there’s not much he can do about it.”
Zero very much wanted to ask the glaring question on his mind—what exactly were they going to do when they got to Mogadishu? How were three very obvious Americans going to infiltrate and scope out a known pirate port? But he also knew that there were a few hurdles to leap between then and now, most prudent of which was getting there in the first place.
They arrived at Dulles and Alan slowed the truck to flash his CIA credentials to the guards at the gated entrance to the government runway. Beyond it, Zero could see the waiting jet, a Gulfstream G650 gleaming white even under a cloudy February sky. At least Walsh hadn’t stiffed them on transportation; but then again, he hadn’t expected them to get this far.
But, Zero noted, there was no van as Penny had promised.
“She’ll co
me through,” he said aloud, as much to convince himself as his teammates.
Alan parked and the three of them climbed out of the cab. “I’ll talk to the pilot,” Maria announced. “Alan, keep an eye out for the van. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve got eyes on us right now.”
“You two go on,” Zero called after them. “Gonna make a quick call.” He pulled out his phone, realizing he’d have to leave it behind in Alan’s truck. But first, he navigated his contacts and hit the green call button.
“Hey, Zero,” Strickland answered on the first ring.
“Hi, Todd.” Zero couldn’t help himself. “How’s your cat?”
“She told you?”
Zero snickered. “Don’t sweat it. Listen, I’m getting called away, with Maria and Alan. Not sure for how long. Do me a favor and keep an ear to the ground, would you?”
“Of course,” Strickland replied quickly. He didn’t even need an elaboration on what Zero was asking; Todd had vowed that whether Zero was dead or alive, he’d keep an eye on the girls whenever possible. “But you and I both know it’s hardly necessary anymore. They can handle themselves.”
“I know they can.” He couldn’t tell Todd about his suspicions that his Bethesda apartment was bugged—not overtly, anyway. “I just want to make sure someone is watching.”
There was a brief moment of silence before Todd said, “Yeah, man, you got it.” Zero could only hope that in that moment Todd was coming to an understanding. “Be careful, yeah?”
“I will. Bye.” As soon as he was off the phone with Strickland, he made another call. “Maya, it’s Dad. Is your sister there? Put it on speaker.”
“Hey, Dad,” he heard Sara say in the background. It sounded like her mouth was full.
“I’ve got to do a thing,” he told them. “Couple days minimum, maybe longer.”
“Aww, does that mean we’re going to miss out on our big Valentine’s Day?” Sara asked, clearly sarcastic.