“They’re scared,” Ellis had said one night over dinner in their new digs, a heavily guarded townhome in Foggy Bottom near the CIA’s headquarters. “We got these abilities, these extraordinary powers. They’re scared of that, even though they want to use us. Maybe they’re right to be scared, especially now that we know there’s more out there like us.”
At first, Frank had dismissed that notion with a laugh and a swig of whiskey, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense; maybe the fact that his Enhancement wasn’t as in-your-face as the others’ were colored his perceptions of it. And so, he kept his head up and eyes open. The first time he saw the Secret Service tails, he chided himself for being so naive. And now, with someone new watching, Frank’s list of people to trust was getting pretty thin indeed.
Maybe it really was a Russian. That seemed a little paranoid at first, but after Istanbul, anything seemed possible.
Frank left Maggie on a bench by the east steps of the Capitol and got a bag of popcorn from a nearby cart. When he returned, she looked off to her right; the fancy-suit guy was sitting on the steps of the Capitol, munching on a sandwich. Frank took a seat next to Maggie and held out the popcorn. “What about the others?” Frank asked.
“One’s up top of the stairs for the wide view,” she replied. “Other’s in the park across the way. Keeping their distance but looking hard. Not like this guy. Maybe he’s better than I thought. Using his peripherals more.”
Frank casually glanced over to the man. “Caucasian, Eastern European descent. Mid forties. Spare tire around the waist, but shoulders and arms look built. Could be a tough customer.” The voice was that of the gangster in the Las Vegas hotel room, and it nearly caused Frank to jump out of his skin. So much for pushing the memories away — something stuck. At least it was kinda useful, but what else was floating around in his head that he didn’t know about?
“Frank?” Maggie asked. “What’s wrong? You got really worried there.”
He shook his head to clear it. “Jesus, Maggie. Stay out of my head.”
She just shrugged. “Doesn’t work that way. I can feel it coming off of you. I wasn’t prying. You all right?”
“Yeah, sorry. Got a bead on that guy, he’s — shit, where’d he go?”
Frank cast around as subtly as he could, but the guy in the nice suit was nowhere to be found. He hadn’t even left any litter on the steps.
“Maybe he wasn’t a tail,” Maggie said. “Could’ve read him wrong.”
“I doubt it. Maybe he saw the others and bailed.”
Then a cluster of tourists directly in front of them parted, and the man was walking right through toward them. He was so close that Frank barely had time to react, and his heart started racing a mile a minute. Definitely not Secret Service. Question was: Who?
“Say, excuse me,” the man said, a Chicago accent coming through. “Don’t suppose you know which way the train station is?”
Maggie gave her best smile; she only did that, Frank knew, when she was acting. “Sure, it’s right over there, mister. Just a block or two. Want some popcorn?” She held out the bag to him.
“Well, don’t mind if I do. Thank you, miss!” The man reached in, grabbed a few kernels, and tipped his hat before walking off toward the station with purpose.
They sat in silence for a few more moments before Frank spoke up. “That was real dangerous, Maggie. Care to tell me what’s going on?”
“I could feel his anxiousness as he got close. He was nervous, excited. Bet he knew exactly who we were. So, I gave him a chance to do something.”
“Right, the popcorn. And?”
Maggie stood up, popcorn in hand. “And I need to use the ladies’ so I can see what he left us.” She made her way toward the building. “Be right back.”
Frank half-smiled after her; she was so goddamn good at this spy stuff, it was scary. Frank began to wonder if there were any aging OSS officers he might sit with. Next to Maggie, he felt like a greenhorn. He watched as the agent at the top of the stairs casually followed Maggie inside, but he knew darn well that the man wouldn’t dare follow her into the bathroom. And that would give her enough time to figure things out. The other agent still sat in the park with his eyes glued to Frank. Hadn’t any of them noticed the man from Chicago?
For the next ten minutes, Frank sat and watched people mill about the Capitol grounds. There were young men with sharp haircuts and clean faces carrying stacks of files around — Washington’s young politicos, probably. Someday, they’d go back to where they came from and probably get a seat on the city council or something, beginning the climb that would hopefully land them back here, with a bunch of young politicos fetching their own paperwork. Then there were the tourists with their guidebooks and their souvenir fans, waving them around to stave off the heat of the typically warm day. They all looked completely innocent, unaware of what was unraveling under their very noses. The thought made Frank’s skin crawl. This spy shit was really getting to him. He was starting to feel like he couldn’t trust anybody.
“Well, that was interesting.”
Maggie sat back down next to him and offered him some popcorn, which he took. “Yeah?” he asked.
“Note. Flushed it. We need to get the team together. Danny, too.”
Frank tried his best to look casual. What the hell was going on? “Anyone else?”
Maggie smiled, and this time it seemed genuine and, if Frank were being honest with himself, a little scary. “No. Just Variants.”
Danny ran down the details of the operation that Hillenkoetter and Forrestal — who were sitting in the back of the room — had approved earlier that day. The only hitch was that Hillenkoetter had nixed the idea of letting Danny lead the effort himself — it’d been determined that Subject-1 was too important to lose should things go sour like they had in Istanbul.
But he felt the team was ready, and he knew Frank was a capable leader. They would be in Prague within two weeks, in time for the inauguration of the new government, unless Station Chief-Prague flagged them sooner that Yushchenko was in town.
“As for prep work, we’re tracking down suitable candidates in the hospitals over there so that Frank can get some language and local information. Any thoughts, Frank?”
“Actually, yeah. The professor in Istanbul was helpful and all, especially since we were in an old palace,” Frank said. “But this time, maybe get me someone who knows the whole city real well, like a cabbie or a cop. If we’re pulling INSIGHT out, that kind of information could be handy.”
Danny made a note on his clipboard. “Good idea. Anyone else?”
Ellis raised a hand. “Yeah. If you want me to work on that car, maybe have another one handy in case the side effects cause a larger issue or I need parts or something.”
“You got it,” Danny said, scribbling again. “Oh, and Cal, we’re going to find and secure a farm on the outskirts of the city proper in case you need to grab some life energy from some livestock. We’ll aim for somewhere between Prague and the West German border, just in case we have to grab him — could double as a safe house if needed. Anything else?”
Danny looked around. Frank, Cal, and Ellis seemed done, while Maggie… Danny had to do a double take. He knew that look.
A moment later, both Hillenkoetter and Forrestal stood. “Looks like you have things in hand, Wallace,” Hillenkoetter said with a forced smile, while Forrestal just glared at the CIA director. “If you’ll excuse us.”
The two men walked out of the conference room and, a few seconds later, could be heard arguing out in the hallway. “Maggie, what the hell did you just do?” Danny snapped. “I worked for weeks to get them to approve this!”