Chapter 30
“You’re not disturbed by this revelation?” Chen asked Steele, glancing at Cassie, who was holed up at the far end of the plane.
“I have a source that as much as told me we would be watched while she was in our custody. And you,” he said turning to Agent Carmine, “were in the Oval Office when the general as much as admitted how much they want her predictive abilities.”
“Is she really that big of a deal?” Kessler asked. “I mean, her accomplishments with us have been big and important, but to put a spec ops team or two on overwatch while she’s with us? Come on?”
“She’s barely begun with us,” Steele said. “Would you agree with that, Doctor?”
Chen looked thoughtfully back at him. Then she finally nodded, slowly. “She has begun to speed up her speed of cognition with each investigation. That is her learning how investigations work.”
“From what I understand, she’s just getting started,” Steele said.
“This is classified information I’m about to reveal, but I have permission under certain circumstances.
When we went to the White House, the director and I went in first, ostensibly to update the president.
Instead, General Argyle updated us. JSOC is uncertain of her full capabilities for prediction.
They only know she has matched or beat any AI program they’ve run, including AD Shire’s vaunted CATMAP system.
The general said that the senior cadre of the 75th are in awe of what she can do when she’s in what they call analysis mode.
Tracking seems to be the purest form of that, likely because she’s done it her whole life.
She accurately predicts entire patrol unit movements time and time again during wargames.
They had her review an actual mission live, remotely, telling her it was an exercise.
She got alarmed by what she saw and told them the team needed to exfil their position immediately.
They followed her advice. The forward observation post was overrun, but the team escaped to a man.
Don’t be surprised if a few of our observers were part of that team. ”
“But they let her travel the country by herself,” Carmine said.
“As much as they want her, her father’s sacrifice meant that his wishes were honored when he told them she should grow up without that pressure.
Argyle told us Ryan’s sudden downturn was unexpected.
Cassie almost immediately exfiled on her own.
That means that she analyzed the situation and apparently concluded that waiting for an escort would be too late.
You can’t imagine how excited they are that she did what she did.
An eighteen-year-old civilian successfully evaded capture by professionals.
She took out a highly experienced, Ranger-qualified merc, and the only reason we caught up to her is because she felt an intense need to understand how both her enemy and her potential allies were given the same intel on her movements.
When we got her, the military complex was concerned, but analysis by those who study her indicated that she should be allowed to run with her intuition.
A few even felt she might benefit from learning all that she can about what we do. ”
“They admitted that they study her?” Chen asked.
“They did, and she knows it. She pointed out the drones as much to yank their chain as to warn you, Rose,” Steele said. “Also keep in mind that we can lose her with a phone call to her attorney or even a word out loud where hyper-advanced spy tech is listening.”
“So what do we do?” Red asked.
“I think we teach her. She spends time with each of us and HRT as well. A crash course in Bureau technique, resources, and tactics.”
“Which she’ll soak up like a sponge,” Chen said.
“Have we burnt the bridge already though,” Red asked, looking at Chen.
Chen turned to Agent Carmine with her brows raised, who in turn looked surprised for a moment. After a few seconds of reflection, she slowly shook her head.
“I don’t think so. Her tongue gets sharp when she’s pissed off, but I think if she were really, really upset, she might have just gone silent. My cousin is like that.”
“I concur,” Chen agreed. “She has formed an attachment to Rose, and she didn’t direct any of her ire at her.”
“Okay, each of you needs to consider what you want to teach her and how best to introduce it,” Steele said. “As for now, Rose, what do you suggest?”
“Let her be,” Carmine said. “I’ll park myself nearby and if she wants to talk, I’ll be handy.”
As it turned out, a call came four hours into the flight. Steele brought it on a tablet to Rose, who moved over to Cassie.
The teen prodigy pulled out her earbuds with brows up.
“Our kidnappee is apparently really, really wanting to have a chat with the person who found her clues,” Rose said, one brow up.
“Oh. Okay. You going to be my guardrail?” Cassie asked.
“Of course. Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Cassie said with a sigh.
Rose hit the connect and the screen lit up with Trevor, Meghan, and Abby, who they had only seen very briefly. The girl was all cleaned up, long brown hair in a bun, wearing a well-loved UC Berkeley navy hoodie. Her brown eyes were sharp and she looked excited.
“Agent Carmine and Cassie, thank you for taking our call,” Meghan said. “Abby was worried that she had ignored you when she got home.”
“Nonsense,” Cassie said. “I would have crawled under my bed and not come out till summer. Abduction is frightening.”
“Is frightening?” Abby asked, head tilted. “You’ve been abducted too?”
“Ah… yeah,” Cassie said, frowning. “But not like you. Nobody broke into my house and threatened my family. Just a van grab off the street.”
“What? You were abducted off the street?” Trevor asked, aghast.
“Well, yes, but it wasn’t like that. I mean, my dad arranged it. Shit, that sounded bad, didn’t it?” Cassie turned to Rose.
“Cassie had a very unusual childhood,” Rose explained.
“I should say so,” Meghan said. “Were your parents separated?”
“No. See, it wasn’t like that. My mom left when I was a baby. Listen, you probably learned to swim young, right?” Cassie asked Abby.
“We put her in lessons as a toddler,” Meghan said.
“Exactly. Well, my dad put me in lots of preparatory lessons.”
“You had lessons in anti-abduction as a child?” Trevor asked.
“Sure. Swim lessons, survival lessons, anti-serial killer and rapist lessons. That kind of thing.”
“You’re the girl who caught the terrorist, aren’t you?” Abby suddenly asked. “The train stop two weeks ago. The missing attacker who was found sedated in a train seat. The news said a girl was there and that she left. The FBI was all over it. I think I saw a few familiar faces in photos.”
“What the hell do I do with that?” Cassie asked Rose.
“Okay, Cassie can neither confirm nor deny that story, and we have to be careful what is said,” Rose said to the family.
“That’s… well, we all know what that means,” Abby said.
“Cassie’s… arrangement with the FBI is bound up in layers of confidentiality. So we need to keep our conversation about everything else but her, if that makes sense,” Rose said.
“Oh,” Abby said, clearly unsatisfied with that condition.
“You planning on attending Berkeley?” Cassie asked her, pointing at the sweatshirt.
“It’s the top contender so far,” Abby said, glancing down. “My school’s advanced class got to work with the robotics department this spring.”
“Smart. Definitely jobs in robotics and AI,” Cassie said. Agent Carmine gave her a look and she shrugged. “Well, it is.”
“Is that a field you’re interested in?” Abby asked.
“I follow it, but it’s not something I personally want to plunge into,” Cassie said. “Gives me the creeps a little.”
“You don’t strike me as easily spooked,” Meghan noted.
“Oh, I have my little quirks. No offense, but I couldn’t watch Robot Rage,” Cassie said with a nod to Trevor.
“Between you and me, you didn’t miss much,” he answered with a chuckle.
“Oh, I liked that one,” Agent Carmine said. “You did a good job portraying an FBI agent,” she said to him.
“Thank you. We had a couple of ex-agents as consultants.”
Rao was suddenly hovering over Cassie and Carmine’s shoulders. “Ah, hello. Just letting these two know we are landing soon,” he said, his eyes never leaving the famous parents.
“Oh. We probably need to prepare for landing. But Abby, we can talk again whenever you want,” Cassie said.
“Except when you’re busy saving people or, you know, the world,” the girl said.
“Hah, that leaves me wide open for chats,” Cassie said. “Listen, you were amazingly brave and you did everything right, so try to get some sleep, okay?”
The teen looked like she wanted to protest or say something else, but her mother touched her arm and she just nodded. “Thank you so much, Cassie.”
“Hey, it was a team effort. I just read the note you left. The real agents did the negotiating and stuff.”
“Sure. Nothing to it, right?” Abby asked, slightly sarcastic but wearing a smile.
“Exactly. Good night.”
The call ended.
“Are we there already?” Carmine asked Rao.
“We’ve got at least another forty minutes. Agent Steele thought it might be a good idea to rescue you,” Rao said, turning away.
“Sure he did,” Cassie said, frowning at Rao’s back. Then she curled up in the plush seat and closed her eyes.