I miss it.
After all his years as an Operator, he didn’t fully understand what his current desk job would entail. Instead of fighting against terrorists, he was directing John and the rest of the OTM in a global war, entirely in secret.
His former Delta buddies had no idea… they thought he was home in Cincinnati, enjoying his retirement.
The Office of Threat Management did the dirty work that needed to be done, no matter how unpleasant, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
That didn’t mean he enjoyed all of it. The paperwork never abated, and there were constant threats ready to erupt at any moment, with the potential for another 9/11.
Not to mention John and the StrikeForce technology.
He took a deep breath. John’s memories had returned, and only John and Eric knew it. If John’s secret got out, that would be the end. Fulton Smith, the Director of the OTM and Eric’s boss, would no doubt order John’s immediate execution.
Smith didn’t like surprises and hated insubordination.
The truth Eric concealed would, at the least, end his career. At the worst, it would guarantee him a position next to John on the firing line.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the StrikeForce tech was killing John. Eric kept that secret from him. Docs Elliot and Oshensker had already detected signs of tumor growth.
John’s immune system — enhanced by the drugs they pumped in him — kept the tumors at bay, but Doctor Elliot assured him the cells would eventually survive. Thanks to the same drugs, the cancer would grow at an accelerated rate. They had a year, perhaps two, before the nanotech would cause an explosion of tumors.
John was dying.
“Eric? You finished in there?”
He jerked at the sound of Karen’s voice and shook his head. He hated his lapse in morality, but enjoyed sex with her. It was his only release, the only thing keeping him sane.
“Yeah,” he said, stepping quickly over the cold tile and back into the bedroom.
Karen lay naked on the bed, as comfortable as a cat in a windowsill, and his eyes were drawn to her. Her skin was creamy white from long hours spent in the underground base, her breasts large enough that they lolled to the sides. “How’s Nancy?” he asked.
“Really?” she asked. “A naked woman in your bed and you want to ask about another woman? No wonder you have problems.”
“You know what I mean.”
She laughed, her eyes twinkling. “I know what you mean. I don’t have to keep an eye on her, she’s been on me like a hawk since we became friends. It gets awkward at times, because she knows about us and she clearly wants to be with you.”
He frowned. “I can imagine.”
“Her idea of bonding time is an evening at the gun range. I’ve gotten pretty good. Nothing like you or John, of course. She’s… opened up about her childhood.”
Interested, he joined her on the bed, wrapping his arm around her and pulling the blanket tight around them. “Oh?”
“Did you know she hasn’t seen her mother since she was six? That she was raised by military couples around the world, but never stayed with any family longer than a year? The Old Man says it was for her protection. I think that’s why she is the way she is.”
He thought about that, then shook his head. “That doesn’t fully explain it.”
She rolled over, resting her head on his chest, and ran her fingers gently over his shoulder. “You know she’s got a lover?”
“What? Who?”
She sighed. “Dewey Green.”
“Dewey Green? The weird guy in the basement?”
“He’s not weird, and that’s not a basement. It’s his office.”
He exhaled slowly. “Right.” He had forgotten that Karen helped recruit Dewey Green from the NSA and that they shared an unlikely friendship.
“Okay,” she admitted. “He comes across as weird, but he’s got Asperger’s. He’s actually one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet.”
“I’ve read his file,” he said grudgingly. “The thing he’s doing with the NSA? The virus and the Iranian centrifuges? That is brilliant.”
“Yes, it is. And don’t forget, if it wasn’t for his code, the VISOR wouldn’t work. His optical recognition software is already being used by other three letter agencies. Dewey can be hard to deal with, but he’s my friend. I don’t want to see him hurt.”
“You’ve heard?”
She nodded. “Nancy chews men up. He can barely process normal emotions, let alone sex. With her? He probably doesn’t understand what’s going on.”
“You think that’s why she picked him?”
She stared at him. “She doesn’t have to worry about commitment. She doesn’t even have to pretend to be human. She told me she leaves right after sex. Poor Dewey.”
“Uh-huh. Sounds terrible.”
She slapped his chest. “Why do I even try? Men are pigs.”
He laughed. “I get your point. Mr. Green is a valuable asset to the OTM. We can’t afford to lose him.”
She hesitated. “What are you going to do?”
“I just love this job. I live to deal with these types of issues.”
“You have to speak to her,” she said. “You encouraged me to befriend her. I actually feel sorry for her, but Dewey and I go way back.”
“Sure, I’ll speak to her,” he said. “You know, the woman whose father is my boss? The woman who has a serious lack of empathy and a predilection for firearms? The woman who would rather shoot first and ask questions later?”
She grabbed the pillow from under his head, yanked it out, then slapped him across the chest with it. “Fix it with Dewey or you can go back to being all pent up inside, mister.”
He rolled over and kissed the soft skin of her chest, between her breasts. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Deion Freeman slipped the keycard into the hotel room door and withdrew it quickly. He turned the handle when the light turned green, but didn’t fully open it. He glanced down the hallway of the Hampton Inn, then quickly opened the door and stepped through, carefully shutting the door behind him as he moved quietly to the bed.
He wasn’t quiet enough. The woman on the bed rolled over and pulled him to her, grabbing at him like a wild animal. He couldn’t help but smile. “Jesus, Val.”
Valerie Simon laughed. She wrapped her legs around him and rolled him onto the bed, straddling him. “I missed you.”
“I wanted to check out the continental breakfast,” he said with a smile.
Deion liked Valerie. He loved her, in fact, though he was hesitant to admit it. They had spent several years working together for the CIA, in the Afghanistan heat. Long hours and murky politics made the job difficult. Then, one day, they found themselves alone. They were both at a point where they had no one, and before they knew it that close working relationship turned into something more. Their relationship came to a sudden halt when one of his more unorthodox ops went bad.
He quickly found himself demoted to guarding prisoners at Camp 7 in the sweltering Cuban heat of Guantanamo, until Eric recruited him.
Before he knew it, he was back in Afghanistan looking for Abdullah the Bomber, working with Valerie. Seeing her again, he realized how much he missed her. It was only reinforced when they almost died in a firefight. If not for Eric’s quick thinking in rerouting a CIA Predator and the arrival of Delta Force Operators, they would have been killed by jihadists, members of the Mujahideen that wanted to stop them from interrogating a young man named Koshen.