Someday, the country would know the truth. Someday, these stories would be told. Until then, we worked in secret, trying to undo decades’ worth of damage without turning into the very thing we were fighting. It was a fine line to walk, and we’d had some pretty major successes. We’d gone deep into the base popularly known as Area 51, tracking down a Majestic supercomputer/AI called Prometheus. This machine had given our information warfare guys all sorts of hell, but in the end, Reaper helped us pin down the physical location of the AI, hidden in the DOD black budget, in a bunker that few had access to. After we pulled its drives to comb for intelligence, I dropped a Thermite grenade in its CPU and burned it to slag.
No, I’m not at liberty to discuss anything regarding extraterrestrials that may or may not have been there.
After a year-long operation, we were able to find and secure a pair of nuclear weapons that had officially been missing since 1961. The two hydrogen bombs had supposedly never been found after a B-52 carrying them crashed in a North Carolina swamp. Information from Prometheus’ drives led to the realization that an arm of what became Majestic had clandestinely secured the weapons, and later held them in reserve. Tailor and I oversaw the capture of these weapons and their long-overdue return to the Air Force. They were eventually sent to Oak Ridge and decommissioned. Each one had a yield of 24 megatons, far bigger than the warheads used in Project Blue. Getting those out of Majestic’s hands was one of our greatest accomplishments to date.
There were setbacks, too, of course, and the matter was anything but settled. But three years in, I felt that the tide had turned. Majestic was on the run, and for the first time in my adult life, I was cautiously optimistic about the future of my country. Oh, don’t get me wrong, politicians are still crooks, Washington, DC is a sewer of cronyism and corruption, and the nation is still polarized, but I didn’t go into this expecting to fix any of that.
Lorenzo had been right about me, though. A warrior needs a war, and this was my war. It felt good to be fighting for something I believed in, for my daughter’s future, when I had spent so much of my career fighting for a paycheck.
“I slept for a while,” Ling said with a yawn, “until your phone went off. Your work phone.”
“Oh, God,” I said, taking the plastic rectangle from her. “What is it now?”
She smiled. “Go see what they want. Don’t forget, it’s your turn to make dinner tonight.”
“Okay. Do we have any hamburger left?”
“We’re not having hamburgers again.”
“Okay. Do we have hamburger so I can make tacos?”
Ling shook her head.
“Well . . . how about I order a pizza?”
“Just go,” she said. “I’ll get dinner started.”
“Love you!” I said, walking into my office with my phone. Once inside, I unlocked it and checked my messages. There were a bunch, as usual, but an urgent one from Tailor.
Val, check this out. That seismic disturbance the other day was definitely a subterranean nuclear blast. It was located in the Altay Mountains, right on the border of Russia and China. Bob is sending Dragic’s team in to assess the situation on the ground, but it looks like the old Russian missile base there was destroyed. A mountain fell on it. Will keep you posted. Sorry to bug you when you’re on leave.
I opened the files Tailor had sent with the message. Satellite imagery, wind analysis, seismic activity recordings, things like that. What was left at the Crossroads was now gone. I had no way of knowing for sure what happened, but I had a pretty good idea. Lorenzo, you amazing son of a bitch. I was just glad he didn’t accidentally start World War Three.
There was a second message, this one from an unknown sender. That immediately set off alarm bells in my head. This was my work phone, and it was supposed to be secure. I wasn’t supposed to get spam. I swear to God, if this is random junk mail I’m going to tear someone a new asshole over at tech division.
It was a picture of a lovely young woman, a selfie. It took me a moment to recognize Ariel, but when I did, I almost dropped the phone. She had purple streaks in her platinum blonde hair now, and had on a pair of those big sunglasses that girls like to wear, but there was no mistaking her. With the image there was a brief message.
Michael:
I’m sorry you haven’t heard from me. I had something I needed to do. Tell Ling that the Pale Man is gone, for good this time. Also tell her I miss you guys, and I love you both, and I can’t wait to meet Sarah. I just knew you were going to name her Sarah! Oh, and happy birthday, Merry Christmas, etc., times three. I hope I can see you soon. Until then, please don’t worry. I’m okay.
Love, Ariel
“Michael?” Ling startled me when she said my name. I’d been engrossed in my phone and hadn’t heard her come in. “What’s the matter?”
I looked up at her, smiling, and handed her the phone.
END
Alliance of Shadows (Dead Six Series Book 3) Page 44