Chapter 53
FIFTY-THREE
Undisclosed Location, West Virginia
Two days later
Noah pulled up to the guard shack, but it wasn’t his buddy on duty this time.
It was a dour-looking guy with gray hair and zero sense of humor.
Kind of like my passenger. Ice had been different since the team got back from the Philippines and hadn’t done much but give the highlights of how he’d infiltrated a CIA safehouse to gain access to their server and find the team.
“Building three.” The guard handed their IDs back.
Ice had his head bent to his phone.
“You’ll lose signal in a second,” Noah said. “I was talking to Caleb last time when I got here, and the call dropped at that bend.”
Ice locked his phone and turned it over on his knee.
“You good?”
“Sure. Secret government facilities don’t make me nervous at all.”
Noah said, “No one is going to throw you in a cell. This is a meeting. You can tell, ’cause we’re in button-down shirts and ties.”
Ice didn’t laugh.
“They’ll offer us bad coffee, and we’ll pretend it’s good. We’ll make small talk we don’t care about and eventually get to the point. You’ll be back at the airport before lunch.”
“Great.” Ice shifted in the seat.
“You really have nothing to be nervous about.”
“Sure.” Ice retrieved a lockbox from the back seat, then put his phone and a tablet from his backpack inside. “Just protecting my assets.”
Noah pulled up outside building 3 and found Dr. Emanuela Peraya waiting for them. She wore low heels, a navy-blue dress, and a matching blazer. When she spotted them, she waved Noah to a space.
“Good morning.” Noah pocketed his keys, and the three of them gathered on the sidewalk. He smoothed down his tie. “Should we go through security?”
The doctor shook her head. “Let’s take a walk.” She motioned to the green area east of the buildings, and a path where a young woman in athletic gear walked a tiny dog. Her gaze drifted to Noah’s associate. “Mr. Ice.”
Noah glanced between them. “You guys know each other?”
“We go way back.” Ice set off, toward the grassy area ahead of them.
Noah walked beside Dr. Peraya. “Are you well?”
She had faint red marks on her neck and didn’t seem the same self-assured woman he’d met with prior to this.
“Things have been stressful with the shift in my role here.” She smiled politely as they followed Ice down the path. “I’m the division chief now, on an interim basis.”
“The FBI hasn’t found Kraus?”
She shook her head. “He simply…disappeared.”
“Has the Bureau checked Earthnet facilities, or any buildings occupied by Starwise Holdings?” He was only mostly joking.
“There’s no proof he was working with Earthnet. Those accusations have so far been unsubstantiated. And what would finding evidence prove now? He’s gone.”
That sounded definitive. Too bad she was right, Vesper had offered Adam and Steph zero proof of her belief that Kraus had been working with Earthnet. “No hope that he’ll be found?”
She cleared her throat. “I highly doubt he’s alive.”
They walked to the middle of a grassy area, with pathways that intersected. At the far end, there seemed to be a stream running through the property. He spotted arms breaking the water surface and realized a group of people were swimming.
The place seemed more like a university campus, or a company who focused on the lifestyles of their employees, than the CIA.
Ice turned to face them.
Noah figured they weren’t here to enjoy the grounds of this facility and stare at each other without speaking. “You requested to see both of us.”
Peraya nodded. “I’m sure you can appreciate there is a lot on my desk, much of it unfinished business left by my predecessor. It seemed he dropped the ball on many occasions in favor of pet projects, and we’ve discovered he was utilizing funding for his own ends.”
“Embezzling?” Noah said. If Kraus had been, they should look into everyone who’d been in attendance at that party Noah had crashed at his house.
“In a fashion,” she said.
“That’s why he didn’t want to pay us.” And while Kraus had somewhat kept up his end of the bargain providing information about Noah’s parents, it wasn’t as if the agreement had held.
Ice said nothing, but he listened intently.
“Something that will be rectified, I can assure you.” Peraya sighed.
“I know it was your team who alerted us to the worm in our system. After a complete reboot, we’ve deleted our entire network and restored backups that were saved shortly prior to the infiltration.
We lost some files, but not so many it will set us back. ”
“But you were hacked.” Ice shifted his weight, crossing his arms.
“Our system was penetrated by an unknown entity, yes.”
“How can you be sure it’s gone?” Noah figured they’d taken care of it, but given Polaris wasn’t like anything Marina had dealt with, he wondered if he could garner some tips to pass to her.
Peraya frowned. “My people assure me there’s no possible way the worm remains.”
Noah wanted to argue, but he didn’t know what Marina did.
She’d destroyed any of her devices that were infiltrated and burned the servers.
According to her, that was the only way to ensure the program Polaris didn’t remain where she was unable to detect it.
She was currently in the process of setting up a whole new server with better safeguards and redesigning their comms system to be undetectable.
“Which brings me to the origin.” Peraya lifted her pointy chin. “And our next move.”
“Before or after Division Zero goes after every Earthnet facility?”
“That all depends on whether you wish to keep the contract, one that I’ll have you sign. Just so we’re all on the same page.” She glanced between them. “We’re operating above board now. That means the CIA hands down assignments, and I receive regular reports on your progress.”
“And if we take jobs that have nothing to do with the CIA?” Ice asked.
“You either work for the CIA, or you don’t.”
Noah clenched down on his molars. “I’ll have to discuss it with the team.”
“I’m not sure there’s anything to discuss,” she said. “After all, they already believe they are the Division Zero team. Nothing will change as far as they’re concerned. And I assure you, the CIA will generously compensate you.”
“For being your own private strike force?” Noah shifted his weight, trying to ease the ache in his lower back from sitting on a plane all day yesterday.
“For now, at least, our goals are in alignment. The president is aware of the situation and has signed off on my department using all the resources at our disposal to ensure Earthnet is unable to complete their global network.”
Ice looked at Noah but said nothing.
“I have your first assignment.” Peraya drew a flash drive from the inside pocket of her blazer and held it out. “Your old friend, Richard Leesbury.”
Noah took it. “He was at the Earthnet building when Marina and I were captured.”
“He’s a person of interest we wish to locate and question.”
“Understood.” Noah pocketed the flash drive.
She looked at Ice. “Do you have anything for me?”
“Kraus had a cabin in Alberta. I scoured every inch of it. He didn’t have the book.” He reached back and drew something from his belt, handing over a hard drive. “Just this.”
“Good day, gentlemen.” She stepped away from them, taking what Ice had given her. “I’ll leave you to see yourselves out.”
Noah waited until she was out of earshot. “When did you guys start working together?”
“Right around when I saved her life.” Ice set off back toward the car.
Noah followed him, catching up. “Are you gonna explain that?”
“Better if you don’t ask questions.”
“One day it’s gonna catch up with you, and I hope your choices don’t hit you in the face.”
“Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.” Ice put on a pair of sunglasses, and that was that.