Breach of Protocol

TARGET ACQUIRED

2

TARGET ACQUIRED

Melide, Spain

By the time they reached the edge of town, a faint cell signal had emerged. Jana panted in exhaustion but wasted no time placing the call. This time, the phone rang.

“Come on, Cade. Pick up.”

On the fourth ring, he answered.

“Well, if it isn’t my—”

“Cade! Whatever you’re doing, get to a safe place. Don’t question me! Do it now!”

Gilda could see the terror in Jana’s face and held her hand over her mouth.

“Jana,” Cade said, “what are you talking about? I’m in a perfectly safe place. What’s the matter?”

“Where are you? Tell me where you are!”

“I’m at The Box, NSA headquarters. I work here, remember? What’s the matter? I’m in the operations center. Where did you think I was? Tell me what’s going on.”

“Don’t leave the building, Cade. Stay at NSA. Do you understand me?”

“Babe, sure, I understand. But what’s happening? Is this another one of those top-secret things you’re not supposed to tell me about? You know that my security clearance is higher than yours, right?”

The attempt at levity went nowhere as Jana’s emotions overwhelmed her. She slumped to the ground and her throat locked tight. Gilda knelt beside her and put her arm around Jana.

“I thought . . . I thought I’d lost you.”

“Why?”

“Jarrah! Jarrah is in the open. Somehow he got my cell number and I think he knows where I am. He called me, Cade. He said he was going to exact revenge on me for killing Skakey Kunde. He knows I’m on this hike and said he was going to kill someone close to me.”

“Okay, now calm down. I’m fine, okay? Nobody can get to me in here. It’s you I’m worried about. Where are you right now?”

“We’re in a little hamlet called Melide. It’s about—”

“It’s four hundred and eighty miles from where your hike started, and twenty miles from where it ends, I know.”

“How do you know that? Is NSA tracking me? Do you have a drone up there or something?”

“A drone, that’s not a bad idea. Why didn’t I think of that? No, of course I don’t have a drone tracking you. A guy could get in trouble for tracking his girlfriend with a government-owned surveillance drone.”

“Cade, my cell coverage sucks out here. You need to call this in. You need a security team around you. This is not a joke.”

“I hardly think Jarrah is going to go to all the trouble to kill someone like me, Jana. It’s too risky. Besides, Jarrah isn’t into that. He masterminded the only nuclear attack that’s ever happened on American soil. Killing someone like me isn’t his style.”

“You didn’t hear his voice. And besides, he’s a nutjob, remember? He’s completely insane. I’m telling you, he’s going to kill someone close to me. He sounded like he was going to do it immediately. If not you, who is he talking about? My parents died when I was a child. My grandparents are gone . . . and Jarrah wouldn’t have called and given me much advanced notice. He would have waited until the last second, right before he did it, you know? Cade, if it’s not you, then who? Jarrah is about to kill someone. We have to think!”

“It could be Kyle,” Cade said. “But hold on, I think he’s still here too.”

“Still there? What do you mean? Kyle is FBI. He doesn’t have an office inside The Box.”

“Jana, you and your gorgeous blonde hair have been out of circulation for two months, traipsing your way across the Camino trail in Spain, remember? You’ve been away from me for two months, which I’m still mad at you about, by the way. Kyle is not FBI anymore. Not that it matters much. In the wake of the nuclear attack, the lines between what is FBI, CIA, and NSA are blurring. He’s technically considered CIA now. He was appointed four weeks ago. Has his own team.”

“CIA? Kyle hated those guys.”

“No, he didn’t,” Cade said. “Once the majority of CIA’s leadership was gone, killed in the blast, the power vacuum started. The whole organization is a shell of its former self. And, it’s different. Kyle will be doing field work. He’s a very focused individual, if you recall.”

“All right, all right. Find him, right now. Make sure he’s okay. And have Uncle Bill get on the line to Director Latent. We’ve got to get the full weight of the FBI on top of this thing—” But before the rest of the words could roll off her tongue, a thought hit her, freight train-style.

“Oh my God. I know who he’s going to hit!”