Terry took a sip of his coffee. “I don’t think so. It should just call up the research platforms.”
Stefanie opened the app to show him the anomaly on the map, but only their current platform remained. “Hm. That’s weird. I could have sworn there were two.”
“That’d sure be unusual.” Terry frowned. “Maybe it’s a glitch from the transmitter getting settled in. I’ll mention we picked up a strange signal in my trip report to your boss. It’s probably an easy fix. We can have the team that developed the app take a look at it.”
“Thanks, Terry. I better get back up there so I can help Nash when it’s time to park ROVer 2. Even though we don’t have much chop today, I don’t want to put a dent in one of the OEG’s pretty submarines.” Stefanie got her own cup of coffee, watching the screens for a few moments before leaving to find Nash.
Soon, they had both ROVs secured and had returned to the harbor. There were still a few hours of work left to finish cleaning and putting everything away. Technically, washing down the equipment wasn’t her responsibility. However, she’d spent a lot of time on boats in her career and wasn’t afraid of a little hard work. She worked alongside the team but before a half an hour had passed, her crew shooed her off the boat, accusing her of trying to stand between them and their hourly pay. She smiled. While most of them were pretty gruff on the outside, they watched out for her. Or they were worried she might break something. Either way, her weary body was grateful.
Stephanie yawned and checked her watch. She’d beat everyone to the harbor by an entire hour, thanks to her nerves refusing to let her sleep more than a few hours the night before. A whole day had passed quickly on the ocean. Everything had gone exactly to plan, and she had no reason to do anything besides celebrate her successes. Still, something about the extra transmission buoy on her cell phone bothered her. She couldn’t come up with an explanation she found plausible. Maybe they were getting some interference from Navy equipment someone had forgotten on the bottom of the ocean. The OEG’s nearest transmitter wasn’t anywhere near in range, so it was impossible they were picking up another signal from OEG equipment. Terry was right. It was probably some kind of crossed wire. Unfortunately, people discarded junk they shouldn’t in the ocean every day. She yawned again and blinked quickly to perk herself up. She was just tired from a long day on the water and letting her imagination run away with her.
2
CIA Operations Officer Joey Pacelli took a long pull of his morning coffee and put the finishing touches on his latest report. He’d spent more time than usual crafting the language – Dmitri Yeninov was making a move, but he couldn’t prove it yet. That was the hazard of chasing someone like Dmitri – he left almost no evidence behind until it was too late to act. It felt like only a few weeks, but it had actually been a few months since Joey had been invited on a CIA operation to help stop the rogue Russian spy from causing a nuclear meltdown at an experimental reactor. Originally, the CIA had invited Joey on the operation because they thought he might be Dmitri’s accomplice. Once they realized that Joey’s research of the man had stemmed from a personal interest in taking him down, Joey soon became an integral part of the team watching Dmitri. Working at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, wasn’t nearly as glamorous as working undercover on an operation, but it served an important function. While prevention never made the newspapers, it saved just as many lives.
Joey sighed when realized he couldn’t make any further improvements to the report, then he sent the document to his CIA colleagues. The lack of concrete information had been the only predictable part of this investigation. He looked up from his computer to spot two of the email recipients arriving for the day: Quinn, a fellow operations officer on his team, and her boyfriend, Cam, an operations officer who generally worked for another group but was also currently involved in their team’s investigation. Quinn and Cam kept it professional at the office, but it was clear they were dating. If Joey hadn’t figured that out by now, he’d go work in a job that didn’t require him to notice details. It was nice they’d found happiness, even if they weren’t openly talking about it at the office. Joey gave them a quick wave, then closed his eyes to think for a moment, second-guessing if he should have included more speculation in his report. When he heard someone in front of his desk, he quickly opened his eyes.
Cam had kept walking in the direction of his desk, but Quinn had stopped, travel mug in hand. Since she had personally led the charge to make sure Joey wasn’t working for Dmitri and complicit in the death of her former partner, they talked almost every workday. They’d even become friends – shared experiences had a way of doing that sometimes. It was a good thing because Quinn was a certified badass. She’d kick him out of the building if he didn’t measure up. She took a sip of coffee from her mug. “Morning, J. Sleeping already?”
Joey grinned. “I wish. I was thinking. I sent the report on Dmitri our boss asked for. All the details are in your email. The NSA traced a phone call that might be connected to Dmitri to a location in San Francisco.”
“Might?” Quinn’s whole demeanor stiffened, not unlike the sweet family pet who is suddenly willing to defend the whole family from a stranger at the door.
Joey rubbed a hand down his face. “The call was routed through a lot of different countries to hide its caller. One
