Chương 4
His father crouched to straighten it.
Normal life continued with insulting efficiency.
“I tried very hard not to bring any.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
“Then answer me.”
Mercer approached us.
“Captain, this is not the place.”
Michael turned on him.
“With respect, sir, you’ve known my wife three years longer than I have.”
Mercer absorbed that without flinching.
“I understand why you’re angry.”
“No, sir, I don’t think you do.”
“Michael,” I said.
He looked at me.
I almost reached for him.
I did not.
His laugh came out soft and exhausted.
“That sentence is exactly the problem.”
He walked toward the building without waiting for us.
I watched him go.
Mercer stood beside me.
“You should have told him more.”
“I told him what I was permitted to tell him.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
I looked at him.
Mercer had never been particularly gentle, but he had an annoying talent for finding the distinction between professional obedience and personal cowardice.
“I was leaving today.”
“I know.”
“I was going to fix it.”
“You were going to disclose what you could after six years and hope he congratulated you for timing.”
I stared at the grass.
“He deserves to be angry.”
“Yes.”
“You could pretend to disagree.”
“I could.”
He started walking.
I followed.
Inside the administrative building, the air-conditioning felt almost violent after the heat.
A young specialist at the front desk stood when Mercer entered and then froze when he saw Harold surrounded by MPs.
Someone had left a half-eaten cinnamon roll beside the computer.
Its icing had melted into the paper plate.
We were taken to a conference room normally used for promotion boards.
The walls displayed photographs of former commanders.
Harold appeared in three of them.
That seemed cruel, though nobody had arranged it.
Mercer separated us immediately.
Harold went with two investigators who had arrived from the installation headquarters.
Lauren and Diane were taken to another office.
Michael refused to leave the conference room until someone explained why his family was being questioned.
I sat across from him at a long table.
Neither of us spoke.
An air vent rattled overhead.
Someone had left a dry-erase marker uncapped near my elbow.
I put the cap back on.
Michael watched me do it.
“You always do that.”
“What?”
“Fix little things when you don’t want to talk.”
I looked at the marker.
“I didn’t know that.”
“I did.”
The quiet that followed hurt more than shouting.
A counterintelligence officer entered fifteen minutes later.
She introduced herself as Major Lena Shaw.
Mid-forties, tired eyes, no wasted motion.
She placed a legal pad on the table but did not sit.
“Mrs. Wade, General Mercer authorized me to speak with you regarding the access incident.”
Michael looked between us.
“Am I allowed to stay?”
Shaw’s expression softened slightly.
“For the first portion.”
He sat back.
Shaw faced me.
“Do you recognize the name Aaron Voss?”
“Yes.”
“Personally?”
“No.”
“Has he ever had authorized access to information concerning you?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
She wrote something.
“General Wade states he provided Voss with your married name, prior surname, approximate age, and a photograph.”
I kept my face still.
Michael did not.
“Prior surname?”
Shaw looked at him.
“Captain.”
“What surname?”
I closed my eyes briefly.
There were several answers to that question.
Only one belonged in this room.
“Cole.”
Michael stared at me.
“Emma Cole?”
“Yes.”
“You told me your birth certificate was amended after your mother remarried.”
“It was.”
“And before that?”
Shaw stopped writing.
“Mrs. Wade.”
I knew the warning.
I also knew Michael had reached the limit of how much uncertainty a marriage could survive in one morning.
“My original surname was Carver.”
His eyebrows drew together.
“Why does that matter?”
Shaw looked at me.
I shook my head.
Not yet.
She continued.
“Voss used information supplied by General Wade and possibly another individual to query a restricted personnel reference system at approximately eight forty-three this morning.”
“Possibly Lauren,” Michael said.
Shaw did not confirm it.
“What did he see?” I asked.
“That is what we are establishing.”
“Was the query successful?”
“Partially.”
My throat went dry.
Partially was worse than no.
“What field?”
Shaw glanced at Michael.
I understood.
“You can answer at the lowest level.”
She nodded.
“A personnel confirmation flag.”
I let out a breath.
Michael leaned forward.
“What is that?”
“It means he confirmed I exist in a protected system.”
“That’s all?”
Shaw took a second too long.
I caught it.
“So there was metadata.”
Her eyes met mine.
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Access logs indicate an associated legacy identifier became visible for approximately seven seconds before the session was terminated.”
I stopped breathing.
Mercer entered the room behind her.
He had heard enough.
“What identifier?” I asked.
Shaw looked at him.
Mercer gave one short nod.
“Raven Nine.”
The room disappeared for half a heartbeat.
Not physically.
The table remained beneath my hands.
Michael remained across from me.
The air vent still rattled.
But an old corridor returned in my head, concrete walls and emergency lights, and Collins shouting my designation through smoke because using names had been forbidden.
Raven Nine had been dead for four years.
It was supposed to stay dead.
Michael noticed my hands.
“What is Raven Nine?”
Nobody answered.
His gaze moved from Shaw to Mercer.
Then back to me.
“Is that you?”
I forced my fingers to loosen.
“It was.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means Voss saw something he should never have seen.”
Mercer pulled out a chair.
“And if he recognized it, this is no longer about an improper background check.”
Michael’s face hardened.
“What is it about?”
Mercer looked at me before answering.
“Whether someone has just connected your wife’s current identity to operations people have been trying to reconstruct for years.”
Michael stared.
“People meaning who?”
“I cannot answer that.”
“Enemies?”
Mercer remained silent.
Michael pushed his chair back.
May you like
The legs scraped loudly across the floor.
“So my father tries to embarrass my wife at his retirement ceremony, and somehow we end up discussing enemies who might be looking for her.”
