The Project

by I C Cosmos

  “Sure will.”

  Collin hung up, thinking Alex and Helen would like each other. He imagined the four of them, including Perry, having a dinner together, talking war stories. Maybe, one day…

  He stood up, eager to share Alex’s happiness with Helen. She needed the boost as much as Collin, if not more. Collin sensed how terrible Helen felt about her programs being misused by the Consortium. Disabling Ralph’s network was the silver lining on the ominous cloud the Project had morphed into.

  Collin entered the living room, and the panorama of the harbor captured his attention for a fraction of a second. What…? His heart skipped a beat. Helen’s head lay on her keyboard, motionless. Her arms were spread on the table.

  “Helen?” Collin bent over her, relieved that she was breathing. “Helen?” he repeated softly.

  Helen stirred and sat up, looking disoriented. “Oh my God, I am sorry.” She looked at him apologetically. “I was getting sleepy on the couch and moved to the table, but obviously it didn’t help.”

  Collin laughed, aware of how exhausted all of them were, working around the clock since they came back from Sardinia. “You should go to bed and have a good night’s sleep. You’ve barely slept since Nuoro.”

  “Not yet. Bobby had an idea about getting the data from their Total Power planning session, and I am testing it.” She stood up. “It will take a while to finish. Do you want some water?”

  Collin nodded and followed her to the fridge.

  “I just had a great call. You’d like it,” he said.

  “Yes? Tell me.” Helen looked at him hopefully.

  “Someone just got their life back because you gave us control of Ralph Gibson’s chatting machine.”

  Helen’s face lit up. They sat down on the couch, and Collin told her the story, without sharing Alex’s name.

  “You know, this is really important for me.” Collin inhaled deeply, thinking about what Alex had told him on the day they got Gibson. “When we arrested Gibson and his gang, the person I just spoke with said something that has haunted me ever since. ‘It’s great they were brought to justice. But you know, the law doesn’t protect us from people like them.’” Collin shifted to face Helen. “Thanks to your work on the Project, we can protect them now.”

  “Let’s hope.” Helen gave a small smile. “It’s a great point, by the way. That the law is called to action only after the crime.”

  Anguish occupied the back of her eyes, and Collin automatically put his hand over hers.

  “Please don’t get me wrong. I love the rule of law…innocent until proven guilty and all that. Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Helen said quietly. “The problem is that people like Gibson take advantage of it. That’s why I joined the Project. To prevent terror. Protect people before something irreplaceable is taken away from them.”

  Her eyes were shiny, and Collin desperately wanted to cheer her up.

  “You’ve done that. You prevented Gibson and Santini from spreading terror.”

  “That’s just a drop in the bucket. The Consortium is planning something terrible.”

  Helen checked her laptop. With one hand, Collin noted, his heart fluttering.

  “We’ll get them,” he said confidently. “And it’s not just a drop in the bucket.”

  “I’ll feel much better when we crack their decision-making system.” Helen put the laptop aside and leaned back.

  “Did you always want to be a spy?” Collin grinned.

  “I never wanted to be a spy.” She looked at him, surprised.

  “Really? But you are a damn good one. Or bloody good one, as you’d say.”

  “I am not a spy.” Helen rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t trained to be one. Never visited the Farm. Never got paramilitary training. Or HUMINT training or whatnot. I just do the cyber stuff.”

  “You are a natural.” Collin squeezed her hand.

  “Thank you. I got into it, but I really wanted to study literature and creative writing.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Collin asked.

  “Life happens, you know.”

  “I know,” Collin said softly, enjoying the closeness between them.

  “But I got my master’s in lit after all. Squeezed it in with the cyber stuff.” A flash of rebellion enlivened her face.

  “What would you do if you were absolutely free to do whatever you wanted to right now? Money no object, no Project, no barriers of any kind,” Collin asked on impulse.

  “That’s easy.” Helen smiled. “I’d teach college…in some quaint place. Do things with friends, have a family if I am lucky…just live. And you?”

  He wasn’t as well prepared as she and needed to think a bit about his answer. Her eyes were trained on him. Friendly, welcoming, embracing. She moved him.

  “I’d work on making the law protect people…any which way I can… And cherish the connections in my life…just live.” Collin smiled. Just live, he liked that.

  The tenderness in her eyes stole his heart all over again.

  Monte Carlo

  The next day

  Eyes still closed, Helen luxuriated in the delightful moment between sleeping and being fully awake. For the first time in days, she felt fully rested. Unexpected happiness engulfed her as ribbons of her talk last night with Collin floated in her mind. The easy closeness, the tenderness… It felt so real in the semi-wakefulness, as if they were a couple… Maybe…maybe when this is over… This…Operation Total Power!

  Helen opened her eyes.

  A bright ray of sun squeezed through the closed curtains. Helen picked up her phone. Ten past ten. She jumped up. Never overslept before! Then she remembered that Collin had insisted on her turning off the alarm.

  “No alarm tomorrow morning. That’s an order.”

  Still, sleeping until ten wasn’t acceptable when the Consortium planned a cyberattack and she didn’t know where and when. Helen took a brisk shower and hurried to the living room.

  Collin and Omar were hunched over their laptops.

  “Going over to Argentina would be the best,” Omar said and looked up. Collin followed.

  Helen opened her mouth to apologize.

  “Don’t say a word,” Collin jumped in before she could say anything. “We need you rested.”

  “Yeah,” Omar seconded. “They deposited another piece of intel.”

  “It’s gonna happen in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.”

  “At the Global Ecological Forum.”

  “And we don’t have much time to get ready,” Collin finished their update.

  Helen was fully awake now, feeling like she’d been kicked out of paradise. Bolivia. Her mind was already working on the best way to get there. Omar was probably right about Argentina. Fly to Buenos Aires and then get over the border on a bus with some tourist group. Helen’s mind was sifting through the most suitable IDs to use. Good thing she stopped in Paris after Bali… And then she realized the most important part of the intel was still missing.

  “And we still don’t know what they are planning…or do we?”

  “No.”

  “Oh man…” Helen sat down at the table. “My latest attempt to get into their system came back empty,” she said. She didn’t know what else to try.

  I am failing everyone.

  “We’ll figure it out,” Collin said evenly. “First we have to find a safe way to get you to Bolivia.”

  “It looks like Santini’s team is on its way there already,” Omar added.

  “Bobby and Lynne offered to fly you there with them. They’d invite a bunch of other people so that it looks like they have a transatlantic party in the sky. Going from one playground to another.”

  “No way,” Helen said sharper than she meant to.

  “What?” Collin looked taken aback.

  “I’d never put them at risk like that. Every passenger in their party would be scrutinized. And followed as soon as their private bird lands.”

  Collin steepled his fingers. “So what are you planning?” he asked. />
  “I’ll get on a commercial flight from Paris—”

  “And put all the passengers at risk?” Collin stood up.

  “No. Because no one will recognize me. I’ll look just like one of the thousands of tourists out there.”

  “No way. You aren’t flying on your own,” Collin said firmly.

  “That’s the only way. If anyone recognizable to the Consortium was spotted near me, they and our operation would be in danger. That includes your people.”

  Their eyes locked. Helen wasn’t going to jeopardize anyone or their mission. She was going to travel on her own and meet Collin and Omar in Santa Cruz. Unnoticed.

  But looking into Collin’s deep gray eyes deflated her fight like a punctured balloon. He wasn’t fighting her…he was fighting for her… Sweet. But it didn’t justify putting their operation at risk. Helen didn’t blink.

  “Can we just stop fighting and find a feasible solution?” Collins’s eyes pleaded with hers.

  “Yes. We can.” Three generations of diplomats spoke.

  Monte Carlo

  A day later

  “This is insane.” Collin frowned. “It looks as if DEI never existed. Not a trace of their activities.”

  “Except the docs we got from Bobby.”

  “And a couple of unverified references,” Collin added bitterly.

  Helen wasn’t surprised. She had searched and searched but found nothing. Now Collin’s experts in DC found the same nothing. Disappointing. All of them were no match for DEI’s tremendous power. Helen shrugged.

  “Hm…and if you got hold of the DEI people, they’d tell you that the government lost the data,” she said.

  “But you can’t get hold of them because no one knows who they are.” Collin stood up and paced around the room, his face a tight mask.

  “Well, people could talk to Bobby. He’s got some contacts with DEI.” Helen winked.

  “Yeah, and Frank and the lawyer would deny everything.” Collin looked out the window and studied the harbor. “The same with the Consortium. Nonexistent. Although our guys did get ahold of the presidential order putting them in charge of the Project.”

  “At least something’s verified. By the way, I had no idea my uncle has the president’s ear until Nic told me.”

  “What’s your uncle like?” Collin asked.

  “Domineering. Demanding…” Helen didn’t know what else to say. Her fingers rolled into fists involuntarily. She noticed it only because Collin zoomed in on her hands. She unrolled her fingers slowly, feeling stupid.

  “Was he always like that?” Collin asked softly.

  “Yeah.” Helen bit her lip. “Although he used to be fun when I was very little. Took me to the zoo every time he was in town. He loves animals, sponsors lots of charities.”

  “Animal charities?”

  “Yes, and other ones as well. Is very proud when he makes an unknown charity big. Anyhow, I wish I asked Nic more about the Consortium. But he was touchy like a hair trigger at that time, and I didn’t want to upset him,” Helen explained.

  “I wish I knew why he followed you in Nuoro.” Omar looked up from his laptop. “Do you think he wanted to abduct you?”

  Helen gave it a thought. “If so, to what end?”

  “He took a tremendous risk to show up in Nuoro,” Collin said. “Connecting with you must have been important to him. He almost went into the hotel, but you walked outside and then we scared him off.”

  “He needed you for something,” Omar opined.

  “But for what?” Helen thought she needed Nic to find out more about Operation Total Power, not the other way around. “If he needed me, he could have connected with me safely. He knows how to use the wormhole. We invented it together.”

  “Would he get past your cyber shield?” Omar asked.

  Collin sat down, watching Helen curiously.

  “Probably not,” Helen said slowly. She had never considered this option because she assumed Nic could get into any system. “But it must have been Nic who helped me in Elba… Wait, then he would have gotten in via the Consortium’s system.” Helen bit her lip.

  “So, what if he found out about the cyberattack and needs you to stop it?” Collin asked.

  “Needs your cyber shield to stop it?” Omar went a step further.

  “Jeez…” Helen swallowed hard. If Omar was right and Nic couldn’t connect with her… An invisible vise seized Helen’s temples in a tight grip.

  Collin’s phone pinged.

  His eyes were shiny when he looked up.

  “We have a flight for you. And we have to leave now.”

  The East Coast of Sardinia, Italy

  “Get up!” The voice came from a great distance. Nic buried his head deeper in the pillow.

  “Get up!” The voice got louder. “I am not leaving until you GET UP!” Italian accent. He was still in Sardinia, Nic remembered. He didn’t care. The black hole claimed him and that was just fine. He wanted to go back to sleep.

  A steely hand shook his shoulder. What the hell… It had to be one of the nuns. He was in an old convent that had been converted to an orphanage. The nuns were renting rooms in one wing of the building to raise money, and Nic had crashed there after the fiasco with Helen. He had paid for four nights in advance and hadn’t left the room since.

  The hand squeezed his shoulder. They probably wanted him out, Nic thought, and turned around. Sharp sunshine hit him in the face. He raised his forearm to shield his eyes. A nun was looking down at him.

  “What do you want?”

  “Get up.”

  “I’ll pay you for another week.” Nic reached for his money belt.

  “No.” She gesticulated. “You still have one night—”

  “So leave me alone.” Nic closed his eyes and turned away from her.

  “You’ve just wasted two perfect days. That’s a sin.”

  Nic couldn’t care less. The darkness swallowed him, and he let it take over. No point in fighting it. He fought it after his mom’s crash, and he fought it after his high school sweetheart left him. He didn’t fight it after Afghanistan for a while. Life didn’t make sense then, and it didn’t make sense now.

  The Project brought him back and kept him alive for years. Protecting Helen kept him alive after his dad and the Consortium took the Project away from him. Losing Helen killed his life.

  The steely hand touched his shoulder again. Nic didn’t move.

  “I need your help,” the nun said. “My assistant is sick. New kids are coming in. I have no one else to ask.”

  “I can’t help you. I don’t speak Italian,” Nic said, not convincing even himself.

  “You don’t need to speak Italian to stir a soup and ladle it into bowls.”

  Nic sighed. Something in her melodious voice touched him. He could help her. And then he’d get the hell out of the convent and find a quiet place to end it all.

  “When?”

  “Now.”

  “Give me a minute,” Nic grunted.

  The kids were already sitting at the table when he came down. Nic couldn’t tell whether they were new to the orphanage, but he didn’t care. He stirred the minestrone and ladled it out. He cut the freshly baked bread and put it on the table. He used his best Italian to talk with the kids.

  Their giggles chased the darkness away.

  “Americano, have a soup with us,” a tall boy sitting at the end of the table asked.

  Nic obliged, thinking about the misery the kids must have gone through. Losing both of their parents. Nic took a deep breath. He was fortunate, losing only one. Both technically, but he had Frank.

  For the first time in his life, Nic fully grasped how much Frank had done for him. And for the first time he regretted not giving Frank enough giggles along the way.

  And then a thought crossed his mind.

  Was Frank behind Helen’s disappearance?

  Washington, DC

  “Did you order Santini to kidnap her?” It wasn’t a question but an accu
sation. Loud and uncompromising. And hurtful. Frank moved the phone away from his ear. This wasn’t how he imagined reconnecting with Nic.

  “Nice talking with you again,” Frank said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice and regretting it immediately.

  “Did you or did you not?”

  “What do you think?”

  A loud sigh came across the line. Frank winced.

  “I don’t know. That’s why I ask. Did you make her disappear?”

  “No.” Frank closed his eyes, steadying himself for another blow.

  “Who did?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t care, do you? Never did.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “And killing her is?”

  “She wasn’t killed.”

  “Not yet. There is a contract out on her. And on me, by the way. Did you know?”

  “No.” Frank’s jaw tightened. Is that true?

  “That’s what I mean. You don’t give a shit.”

  “That’s not fair,” Frank repeated.

  “Not fair to whom? She is one of your best and most loyal people, but you couldn’t care less.”

  “And you cared when you abandoned the Project?” Frank said sharply, unwilling to be pushed into a corner. Nic had no right to treat him like this.

  “That’s why I left. Because I care. I wasn’t going to support a scam.”

  Frank remained silent.

  “That’s why I called,” Nic continued, sounding friendlier. “You can stop it right now.”

  “Stop what?”

  “The biggest act of terrorism on American soil. Executed by the Consortium. On your watch.”

  Frank sighed. “Nic, you know what I do for living. If this were true, I would be the first one to be informed about it.”

  “Correct. If you were the real counterterrorism czar. But the president appointed you because Andreas convinced him that the Consortium had you in their pocket. And the optics were great too. Frank Crawford, the quintessential patriot. A nice cover-up.” Nic gave a bitter laugh.