Parker laid a protective hand on Ree’s back. “Do we want to bring your name into it so soon?”
“If he comes from Indiana Polytechnic and anyone gets suspicious, we’ll find out quickly.” Ree leaned in. “Even if we don’t want to bring my name into it, we could say he got some kind of grant to subsidize his trip. Then, I could just be available to fabricate information as needed.”
“That would work.” Quinn looked at Stefanie. “It would definitely solve the problem of how to get one of our people in the lab with you if it gets hairy. Let me check with my boss, get formal approval to get him involved. Then we can share his information. We’ll get him a place close to yours, so he can keep an eye on you and you can get him into the lab as soon as possible. Until then, just lay low, don’t ask too many questions.”
“That was efficient.” Stefanie checked her watch. “What are we going to do for the rest of the weekend?”
Alexis smiled and Waffle thumped his tail. “I’ve got a few ideas.”
When Stefanie boarded her flight to return home, she hurt everywhere. She tried to read a book on the way, but the words blurred as she replayed the weekend in her head instead. While the CIA and FBI had asked some additional questions about her fellow employees and her life in San Francisco, the bulk of her weekend had been spent training with Alexis and a man who called himself Sensei John. He was quite a bit different from the instructors who had trained her in more theoretical circumstances. It had been nice to learn some new techniques. She was sure she would be even more appreciative once she could move again. Very occasionally, Alexis brought Waffle to visit her during training, either as a reward or an apology, she wasn’t sure. As a result, Stefanie found it impossible to be annoyed with the spunky agent and her canine companion.
Stefanie straightened her back and winced. Okay, not completely impossible. There was a muscle down her spine that ached even when she was sitting. She had even taken some anti-inflammatories before she left for the airport. Ree had told her not to be a baby with an affectionate hug and then slipped a travel-sized bottle in her hand. Her dad would be proud of them. And even more proud that Ree took her to the range to brush up on her skills before she got on her flight back home. Like Ree, Stefanie had a concealed carry permit, but she didn’t carry her weapon in her purse like her sister. Or at least, she hadn’t up to this point. Her large bag usually held her laptop, not a gun. It wasn’t allowed most places she visited anyway and until recently, she’d felt relatively safe in her small neighborhood and workplace. However, when talking about her neighbors with the FBI and CIA teams, she found she could only recall their first names and almost no one’s occupation. She shivered – what else might she have missed?
Stefanie rolled her shoulders and made one last attempt to read the paperback she bought in the airport to no avail. She just couldn’t get invested in the characters when her own life was proving to be a little more exciting than the book. She took a deep breath and sat quietly with her thoughts instead. While her sister was more likely to worry and fuss, Stefanie was generally a little more patient. Her fear was rational. She was far more scared than she was when she’d known nothing about her family’s FBI work, but she was probably quite a bit safer. Unless they’d all missed something important.
8
Dmitri tapped his hand on his desk impatiently and resisted the temptation to reach out to his associate. It wasn’t time to send his regular email. Each contact point increased the risk of discovery, and he knew better than to tempt fate. Their initial test had been successful; he just needed to let his plan unfold. Still, the last update from his ally had generated more questions than answers. There were so many opportunities he could exploit, well beyond his original plan. While the job his government assigned him was to safely manage nuclear waste, he had ideas much more ambitious than the assignment they had given him. He could do his job with his eyes closed and even pursue some personal interests in ways they were too shortsighted to recognize. He stepped away from his computer, away from temptation. His plan was already in motion; its successful conclusion, inevitable. An associate was hand-carrying a package that would prove very useful in the right hands. While Dmitri wanted to know more, he didn’t need to press his luck. Desperation fed stupidity and he was the opposite of stupid.
When Quinn returned to Langley on Monday, she was filled with the familiar adrenaline that came with starting a difficult operation. They hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to stop Dmitri before he did something terrible. Maybe all of their small, seemingly lateral moves on the chessboard would finally lead to checkmate. When she remembered the conversation she was about to have, tension crept into the edges of her enthusiasm. Joey was a professional, but he wasn’t a robot. And like her, he’d lost a friend when Dmitri killed her partner. Fortunately, she saw Joey when she first walked in, at least keeping her trepidation brief. She waved at him as he stood by the watercooler, filling up a large bottle. He was built more like an athlete than a desk jockey and was a little more laid back than she, despite – or maybe because of – the time he spent in the gym. However, she’d
