Joey pretended to care about the bracket components Nash had given him to work on earlier in the morning, then looked up. “How did you find this place? It’s not exactly one of the tech giants.”
“I had a professor at college who knew the OEG was looking for someone. It’s nice to have Stef on board now, though. To be honest, I was a little worried when Cole got hired – he had a lot of spit and polish and I thought he wouldn’t know his stuff. But he was smart enough to hire Stefanie, so that’s good. I like what I do and I’m good at it, but she’s better at packaging our work to make it more accessible to management. And she’s got the experience to help us get more papers published and give the company more clout. The more clout we have, the more toys I can buy for the lab.” Nash waggled his eyebrows and rummaged through the drawers until he pulled out a tiny screwdriver.
Joey wanted to press for the source of Nash’s employment, but it didn’t especially matter. Everything kept coming back to Cole. Unfortunately, Cole wasn’t around today. “So, if I want to come back, I suppose I have to talk more with Cole. What’s his deal? Is he as nice as he seems?”
“He can be.” Nash shrugged. “But he mostly just does all the meet and greets with investors, customers, and all of that, so we can focus on the work. He’s a tough interviewer because he wants to make sure we can operate well enough without him when he’s not here.”
“Who is Cole’s boss?
Nash shook his head. “Some President of Technology or whatever title he has. I don’t really work with him much. Honestly, I barely see Cole.”
“Oh?” Joey felt himself start to clench his fist but forced himself to relax it. He was getting closer.
“Yeah, he’s busy so he sometimes sends communications through Peggy.” Peggy was the woman at the front desk. The CIA had been monitoring her emails and phone calls and they hadn’t spotted anything worthwhile yet. Maybe they should take a closer look at her too.
“This place gets more interesting every single day I’m here.” Joey turned back to the equipment he was supposed to be assembling.
There was a long pause before Nash replied. “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to think about it.”
Nash and Joey worked in companionable silence for the rest of the morning. Around the time Joey typically left for lunch, he stopped into Stefanie’s office. She was leaning into a notepad, scribbling. Her brow was fully furrowed, and she whipped her head up at his entry. He closed the door behind him. “You ready?”
Stefanie swallowed. Generally, and certainly this morning, she had the easy mannerisms of a practiced and confident professional. It was only in the moments when he caught her off guard that he realized how hard she worked to maintain it. “Yeah. I’ll be fine. Hey, a couple of weeks ago, I detected a weird signal that Cole said came from an extra transmitter on the ship. Today, Nash said Cole had borrowed it – but he wasn’t on the trip that day.”
Joey’s eyebrows shot up. “Hm, that’s at least a little suspicious. What could he do with an extra transmitter?”
“Deploy another research platform, I guess.” Stefanie crossed her arms. “That had to have been what I detected. Who knows what’s on it? It doesn’t tell us anything, other than my new boss bamboozled me into thinking he was honest. How was I so gullible?”
Joey gave her a sympathetic smile. “Some people are extraordinarily good at putting on a show. I’d give you a longer pep talk, but your customers are coming soon. Let’s see if we can figure out if they’re the reason Cole wanted that extra transmitter.”
“Okay. That’s good. Fine.” Stefanie forced her mouth into a line. “Everything will be fine. We’ll chat with them, figure out what they’re up to, and it’ll be fine.”
Joey closed the distance between them. “You know, Nonna Gina always says that the more times you say something is fine, the less likely it is to be true.”
Stefanie closed her eyes. “Nonna Gina is pretty smart. What would she say about you giving me the earpiece I was promised so we can get this over with?” She opened her eyes and held out her hand.
Joey laughed. “She’d like you – she isn’t any good at sitting around worrying about a problem either.” He placed a small device in her palm and when she stared at it curiously, he pulled one out of his own ear and showed her how to place it. “Need some help?”
Stefanie raised an eyebrow. “Are you hitting on me?”
Joey grinned. “Do you want me to? I was just trying to help you stay safe from Dmitri’s spies, but I can multitask.”
Alexis’s voice came through Joey’s earpiece loud and clear. “Your mic is hot. We heard that.”
Joey cleared his throat, thankful Stefanie hadn’t. Stefanie blushed a little, then wiggled the earpiece into position without his help. She moved her jaw up and down, trying to get a feel for it. She poked at the earpiece one more time, then left it alone. Joey spoke into his and she gave him a thumbs up. He heard his own voice in stereo in his earpiece. “Okay, we’re good to go. Now we just need one bomb-sniffing dog.”
“Roger that.” Alexis’s voice came through again. “Waffle and I are on our way.”
A minute later, Stefanie’s phone beeped and Peggy’s voice came through the line. “Stefanie, you have a visitor. Did you order us a dog? Oh, my goodness. He has his own badge!”
Joey gave her a silent high five motion, stopping before making contact. She pushed the button to talk back. “I did! Thanks, Peggy. I’ll be right out.”
Stefanie walked into the lobby and found a woman
