The concern in his face deepened. “All right,” he said, his voice thick. “I’m with you as long as Simmonds is. Whatever you need.”
I felt the tension in my neck and shoulders lessen, and I looked him square in the eye. “Thank you.”
He nodded. “Let’s see what we can come up with.”
I pulled up my file first. I hadn’t had a chance to really look at it yet. Letting Travis read it was unavoidable since we were using it to compare the other files to, but at the very least, I wanted to read it all on my own before I shared.
Travis glanced at my screen. “How’s it look?”
“It’s not too bad,” I said, relieved. “It’s like the others—more of an overall assessment of my time at KATO than a detailed history. It puts a lot of emphasis on what they believed my state of mind to be.” Travis came closer to read. He looked to me, giving me the chance to stop him, but I didn’t. The file referenced some missions and actions, but the focus was on how I had responded to their brainwashing, punishments, and manipulations. They were pleased, overall.
“What does this mean?” Travis asked, pointing to a line. “Loyalty demonstrated by rapid behavior correction upon reprimand.”
I swallowed, keeping my attention on the screen as I answered him. “It means that when they reprimanded me I fell in line immediately. At least as far as they knew. They thought I changed my behavior out of loyalty, and because I didn’t want to anger them. But I really just got more careful about what I was doing.”
“Like crawling around in the air ducts?” he asked.
I nodded. “Exactly.” KATO had only caught me once, and punished me to the point that they were sure I’d never do it again. But I did. I was just more cautious about my approach.
Travis and I spent the next couple hours mapping out my file and pulling out every detail that KATO misread. I translated the meaning behind KATO’s language for Travis. He didn’t ask for specifics or stories once we really got into it. We had too much to get through.
After we had my file sorted out, we turned to the others. We sent them to the monitors on the wall behind the computers and prepared to go through them one by one.
“We can get rid of Venom right now,” Travis said. That was a name I’d heard around headquarters. She was a straight assassin who had a reputation for being very good at her job. “I don’t even need to read her file. She won’t work.”
I looked at him sharply. “Have you gone up against her?”
“No, but I know agents who have—including Cody.” He shook his head. “She is nothing like you. You used to be cold about your kills, but she enjoys them. That’s the last person we need on this.”
I took her file off the screen. “I think we can rule out Hornet and Raptor too.” Travis shot me a questioning look. “They're known for going way too far on their assignments. KATO considers them to be very thorough. If that’s the case, I think it’s safe to assume that they’re entrenched in KATO’s mentality.”
“What did they consider you?” he asked.
“Efficient.” I pulled the two files down and looked at the fifteen we had left. “All right, let’s try to narrow this down to no more than five possibilities that we can investigate further—if we’re even that lucky.”
We were in the prep room most of the night, first condensing the list of agents and then coming up with a plan of attack to pitch to Simmonds in the morning. We’d come down to four potentials: Lotus, Misty, Monarch, and Shadow.
Their files were similar to mine, but we planned to dig deeper, into both our databases and our allies’, and build complete profiles before we made a move. While we had been working, I had realized that there was one more person we needed to get on board if this was going to work.
“I know who our first recruit has to be,” I said to Travis after we more or less had a strategy figured out. “And I don’t think you’re going to like it.” Hell, I didn’t like it, but I also didn’t see another way. Travis’s eyes narrowed, waiting. “Centipede,” I said.
He scanned my face, clearly waiting for some kind of punch line. “You can’t be serious.”
“She’s been assigned to recapture me,” I said. “I’ve been on one mission since KATO learned the truth and she found me. It’s going to be really hard to talk to these agents and keep all of this away from KATO if she’s on my tail. Even if she doesn’t get to me, she’ll still report back to KATO who I contact. And if she does turn, it could give us direct access to headquarters, which none of these agents can do.”
He squinted at me, trying to understand. “Two days ago you told me a whole story about how she turned on you. What could possess you to think there is any way this would work?”
I chewed on my cheek. “I have something on her—or rather, I know KATO has something on her. And I think we can use it to our advantage.” Travis looked skeptical, but he was listening attentively. “I overheard her handler talking not too long after she was brought in. Centipede was put in KATO, but the rest of her family was sent to a labor camp. Her handler said it was something he could use to make her fall in line quickly.”
“So part of the reason she follows their orders is to protect her family,” Travis said.
I nodded. “She got up to speed in KATO fast—really fast. I don’t think she needed to be manipulated as much because she had more to fight for than most of us.”
Travis leaned back in his chair. “But if that’s true, then what makes you think you can her change her mind?”
“Look at who we’re dealing with.” I wheeled a little closer. “There’s no way her family is still alive. Not after all of this time. The conditions in those camps are on KATO’s level, and they’re even less concerned about the health of their workers. But I doubt Centipede knows they’re dead. If we push her to investigate, and she finds out KATO’s been lying, there’s a good chance she’ll be pissed enough to take our offer.”
Travis let out a puff of air. “Yeah,” he said. “No matter how KATO she is, if that was what kept her focused, then exposing the truth may be enough—especially if you’re offering her the out while it’s still fresh.” He tilted his head to the side. “But I still don’t like it. We don’t have data on her, and given your history—”
I held my hands up. “Hey, if you’ve got another way around it, I’m all in. I would much rather do this without her. But I don’t have any other ideas.”
He thought for a moment then grimaced in defeat. “All right, well, take this to Simmonds. If he signs off, we’ll give it a shot.”
I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of including Centipede, but having this plan made me feel a little bit more in control.
Chapter Ten
WORLD TRAVELER
We met with Simmonds early the next morning. He had talked with all of the cooperative agencies who had KATO moles and managed to convince them not to capture their operatives with the understanding that we were working toward a more permanent KATO solution. I knew it had to have been a hard sell, but he managed to pull it off. We also briefed him on our plan, including the short list of agents, and the situation with Centipede.
His eyes widened as we walked him through our planned approach for Centipede, but he let us explain. “I agree that this team will not succeed if she’s tracking you,” he said when we had finished, “but are you certain this will be enough to turn her?”
“Not certain,” I said. “But I know it’s the only thing that has a chance at working. And if she signs on, she’ll have to give us crucial, verifiable intel to prove she’s on our side. Crucial enough that KATO would never authorize her to mislead us with it. If she comes through we’ll know we can move forward.”
Simmonds looked to Travis. “What’s your take on all of this?”
Travis shrugged. “I think it’s a hell of a risk,” he said. “But a well-planned one. I’d put it right up there with going into North Korea.�
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“It would be even more solid if I could give Centipede some kind of proof that her family is dead,” I said. “I know the IDA can’t get into KATO from here, but hacking citizen records shouldn’t be as difficult. I can tell you that Centipede showed up at KATO on August twenty-third, a year after I was taken. I also learned that her family consisted of her grandparents, her mother, two younger sisters, and a younger brother. There can’t have been many families like that, at that time, coming in one family member short.”
“We do have a few back doors,” Simmonds said, running a hand over his jaw. “All right,” he said, after a long moment. “If the board signs off, we’ll do what we can to get you some intel to help with turning Centipede. However, we’ll only consider moving forward on this if you can win her over. The rest of your plan is as sound as something like this can be, and I believe the access this can give us to KATO is worth it.”
“Thank you, sir.” I felt the excitement course through me. This was happening.
Simmonds nodded. “You’ve been up most of the night. Take today to rest. I’ll page you when I hear something.”
• • •
I had spent a good portion of the day asleep, so when my pager went off close to seven that night I was alert and ready.
I hurried to get changed, then hustled over to the operations building. Since Travis lived off campus, I had beaten him to the office significantly. However, when he arrived he too looked sharp and ready to work.
Simmonds was alone in his office. “Your team’s been approved,” he said. “But we’ll get to that later. I paged both of you because we’ve tracked Jin Su’s travel prior to his stop at the safe house in Russia.”
I tensed. I couldn’t even appreciate the fact that we’d been approved. “You mean he didn’t come directly from North Korea?” I pressed my heels into the ground to keep them from bouncing.
“It doesn’t appear that he did.”
Travis grimaced. “He’s really good at finding his way around under the radar.”
“He’s better than even I had given him credit for,” Simmonds said, pushing a button on his keyboard. A series of images appeared on the screens behind him. Most were of a building, but one of them showed Jin Su standing at the reception desk in a very impressive lobby. I ran my tongue over to the right corner of my gums where a molar used to be. I had always hated this man. He’d stood near me while Chin Ho ripped my tooth out of my mouth, taking great care to stay in my line of sight. It was as if he wanted to make sure I knew he had a hand in it. That was two years ago.
“Where were these images taken?” Travis asked, pulling me back to the operation. I dragged my eyes away from the screens to pay attention to Simmonds.
“He’s in a biological research lab in Austria,” Simmonds said. “This is the only confirmation we have that he was there at all.”
“I imagine KATO wiped every other trace of him.” I forced my fingers to uncoil and pressed my hands against my legs, hating that this man still made me anxious—even now. “It’s amazing this picture got through.”
“In more ways than you realize,” Simmonds said. He zoomed in on the image. “He must have wanted to keep this under wraps, because he didn’t resort to KATO’s usual fear tactics. He went in the front door and signed in, like any normal visitor.”
Travis’s eyes squinted, studying the picture. “We have a clear shot of the visitor log.”
I arched an eyebrow as I saw what he was getting at. “So we can see exactly who he was meeting with.” I couldn’t make out the first name, but the last name, Fiser, was as clear as could be.
“And it gets even better,” Simmonds said. “The company’s cyber security is extensive and impressive. I imagine that’s part of the reason why KATO couldn’t completely erase the evidence of Jin Su’s visit. It’s nearly impossible to get into the system from a distance, and the security increases the deeper you move into the building. The only details we were able to pull were from the lobby. However, knowing who he was meeting with gave us a huge advantage.”
I slid to the edge of my seat. “What do we know about him?”
“According to our tech department, Dr. Eli Fiser is an immunology expert. He’s written numerous papers about how the human immune system works. We couldn’t get past the security to pull any details from his office computer, but we were able to get into his personal email.” Simmonds put another image on the screen behind him. It was an email from Fiser to a friend. I started reading as Simmonds continued. “Based on this, and other, similar emails, we’re lead to believe that Fiser creates audio recordings of everything that is said in his office each day.”
My eyes snapped back to Simmonds. “We can’t possibly be that lucky.” I was afraid to believe it—to get too excited.
“We believe that we are,” Simmonds said with a small smile. “It seems that Fiser does an awful lot of thinking out loud. He’s found this to be the best way to capture his thoughts.”
I turned to Travis, who seemed just as eager as I was. “Does the fact that I’m here mean my field suspension has been lifted?” he asked.
“It does.” Simmonds nodded. “I’m sending the two of you after the file.”
He hatched the plan quickly. It was fairly straightforward. According to Fiser’s calendar, he had lunch appointments out of the building every day this week. The plan was for me to break into the office and copy the audio file for the day in question, while Travis kept watch. Travis would be scheduled for the first appointment after lunch. He’d arrive early, giving me enough time to get in, and get out. Travis would be right outside the door in case Fiser, or anyone else, made an unexpected appearance.
“As far as your team is concerned, you’ve been approved for Centipede, and if she turns, no more than two others.” Simmonds pulled a small metal case off the floor and slid it across the table. “These are satellite phones.” I flipped open the case. They were compact, square, and silver. There were four of them. One for each of my potential recruits and myself.
The approval came with a long list of contingencies, such as that we had to keep them out of headquarters and thoroughly vet any intel they might provide. Nothing we wouldn’t have done anyway, but the board still felt it was worth noting.
“All of this hinges on Centipede.” He slid a letter-size envelope across the desk. “Here’s the intel you asked for. If that isn’t enough to make her turn, all of this is off the table. And if she doesn’t show up at all, we’ll have to reevaluate the situation.”
“I understand,” I said, tucking the envelope into the inside pocket of my sweatshirt. It went without saying that I was apprehensive about this, but I was starting to feel like I had some semblance of control of the situation.
“Walter will be on comms for this assignment,” Simmonds said. I grimaced, but stayed quiet. As much as I hated it, Walter was the best tech expert. If the security system was as complicated as Simmonds said, he was probably who we needed. Since Sam was still a student, I couldn’t ask for him on every assignment. “Once you’re in the building, Walter’ll be able to use your tablets to tap into security and keep you off their radar. You’ll have to copy the file yourselves.”
“We leave tonight?” Travis asked, standing.
Simmonds nodded. “As soon as Dr. March clears you.”
Chapter Eleven
OPERATION CENTIPEDE
Travis and I made it through our medical clearances quickly. We were flying through the night, so we both forced ourselves to sleep for most of the trip, waking only as the plane started to descend.
“You know what you’re going to say if Centipede’s here?” he asked.
I nodded. I’d looked over the intel Simmonds had given me. It was photos of Centipede’s family—dead. “I’m ready for her. And I don’t doubt she’ll be here.” After all, I was her mission.
“If she shows up and we�
�re separated, get word to me on comms,” Travis said.
“I will. Trust me.” I wasn’t looking forward to being alone with her. After the way our last fight had gone, I wasn’t so sure I could beat her on my own. “You deal with Walter as much as possible, okay?” I asked as I worked my earbud in. I’d work with Walter if I had to, but the more Travis talked to him, the better it would be.
Travis chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve got you covered.”
The IDA had arranged for a car on the ground. Travis drove while I rode in the trunk. He would be parking the car in the garage so I could use it to access the building, giving us the cover we’d need to get in and out unseen. The plan was for me to use the air ducts to get to Dr. Fiser’s office. Once Travis was inside, Walter would be able to access building security, which would give us a blueprint. He would then forward those plans to my tablet so I could navigate to the office. Travis popped the trunk before he headed in. I was waiting on two signals. One from Walter that he had ahold of the security cameras, which would set me in motion. The second sign would come from Travis that he was stationed outside the office. Once I had confirmation the room was empty, I would move in.
I could hear Travis signing in at the front desk. Shortly after, Walter gave me my cue. I eased the trunk open and did a quick scan, making sure no one was around. Then I rolled out and landed on my feet, staying low. It was the middle of the day, so we had a few hours until the garage saw a lot of action. Still, I wasn’t taking any chances.
“There should be an elevator to your left,” Walter said. “It’s set to stop on the first floor unless you have an ID card. If you hold your tablet up against it, I can get you around that.” I did as he asked and gave him the go-ahead.
“You’re all clear,” Travis said. “His office is on the tenth floor. There are six offices in the area and a small waiting room. That’s where I am now, so I’m right outside if you need me.”
Enemy Exposure Page 10
