“Anyone interesting?”
“Potentially. The officer who okayed that particular movement order—and allowed the ADS to be taken off the base—is a protégé of Jingo Jain’s. Jingo was the commander of that base at one time and this guy, Vikram Singh, was his second in command.”
“Could all that just be coincidence?” I frown.
“Possibly,” Riya replies. “But we’ve brought Singh in for questioning, in case.”
“Well, great work,” I say.
“Thanks.”
There’s a pause that’s just long enough to be awkward. I break the silence.
“And thanks for letting me know. I really appreciate it.”
“It’s been nice to work with you, Jessie.” She hesitates. “Maybe we can meet up in the next few days? With or without work . . .”
I feel my cheeks flush and I clear my throat, flustered. More than anything, I’m aware of Caitlin looking my way, listening while pretending not to.
“I’d like that,” I murmur.
We say goodbye to each other and hang up. I move about purposefully, stashing things away in my locker, managing to avoid Caitlin’s gaze, even as I bring her up to speed on the theft of the ADS that Riya just reported. Caitlin absorbs the updates and sits down to tie the laces on her running shoes. I take a seat next to her and pull on my boots.
“You’re liking working with this policewoman?” she asks, a little too casually.
I shrug, brushing off her look like it’s lint on my clothes.
“She’s a detective, actually,” I say. “And yeah, she’s cool.”
Caitlin looks like she’s about to say something, but she bites it off and turns away from me.
“What?” I ask.
Her eyes come back to mine, thoughtful, serious. “Just—be careful, Jessie. It might not be good to develop feelings for someone related to the mission, again.”
I feel my face burn. She’s right, of course, but her perceptiveness embarrasses me.
“I know,” I say at last. “But it’s not like we meet a ton of people outside our day jobs. . . .”
She gives a mirthless laugh of agreement. “Tell me about it,” she says, with a sigh.
We let a short pause drag into a silence that feels like it should be filled but neither of us seems ready to fill it. We are sitting side by side, both of us staring at the floor, which should help—not having to look at each other directly.
“Do you get lonely sometimes?” I venture at last.
“Hell, yeah,” Caitlin says. “Just . . . someone to have dinner with. Someone to be with at night.”
She shifts slightly, her eyes downcast, shoulders slumped. As an only child, I’ve never known how it feels to have a sibling, but even though Caitlin and I have known each other only a couple of years, it’s easy to imagine that she’s my older sister. I feel bad for her.
“You’ll meet the right guy, Caitlin. You’re so great. Just, like, the nicest person. Pretty smart too,” I tease as she rolls her eyes at me. “I mean, you are getting on a bit . . .”
“I’m twenty-seven,” she says defensively. “Just because you’re an immature sub-millennial . . .”
“Hey! I’m trying to be understanding. Doesn’t come naturally, you know.”
“Trust me, I know.”
At least I’ve made her smile, though her eyes are still sorrowful when they meet mine. But then an idea pops into my mind.
“What about a dating app?” I suggest.
Caitlin shrugs. “I guess. Have you ever tried one?”
“No, but it’s still a great idea.”
“If you do say so yourself,” she says dryly.
“Why don’t you just pick one and sign up!” I go on, trying to encourage her. “I’ll tell you what. When you like someone’s profile, I can hack in and Amber could run research just to make sure he’s not actually a serial killer or running a porn empire. . . .”
Caitlin stares at me.
“That’s what friends are for, right?” I ask, trying to be supportive.
Caitlin groans and puts her head in her hands for a long moment.
“We’re just not normal people anymore, are we?” Her voice is small and muffled through her fingers.
Well, I can’t really argue with that, so I stay quiet for a bit, thinking, till something comes to me.
“Listen,” I say. “I know we’re not ‘normal.’ And sure, every day we put ourselves out there so far that we could lose everything. But at least I know why I get up in the morning. Don’t you?”
Caitlin sighs, turning to give me a hug. I can’t tell whether I’ve made her feel worse or better, so I just hang on until she’s ready to let go.
Out in the tech cave, Amber’s record player is still turning but it only lets out a soft squeak because the album on it has finished playing. Amber hasn’t even noticed, because she can barely drag herself away from the treasure trove of disturbing data that she’s managing to excavate from the Cypriot Private Bank servers. But she has to give me some attention, if only to get me organized for my next mini-mission. Once that’s done, she races back to her desk, and only when I hit the button for the elevator does she bother throwing me a quick smile and a cheery “good luck.”
My first stop is the parking garage under Chen Technologies. I emerge at the private floor. Li’s car is still there, as is Amber’s scooter, a dinky blue Vespa with a shopping basket on the front. But there’s also a van emblazoned with the logo of one of the main domestic power supply companies in London. The keys are in the ignition. It looks realistically unwashed. How it got here and who brought it, I don’t know. I am sure it must be someone else who forms part of Li’s network, but she chooses to keep us all separate and unaware of each other, which makes sense when I think about it, given the risks of getting caught. Just from the sheer volume of work
