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“It stands for ultra secure, ultra secret,” Ted Whitling explained. He gave both women a smile. “The naming committee worked overtime on this one.”
They were in New Mexico now, according to Ted. Somewhere on the southern side.
Alice looked around as she and Marnie Stemple exited the plane.
The temperature was colder than it had been in Nevada, at the facility called the Aviary. Here they might be at higher altitude, or maybe the late-December cold was just naturally colder than it had been a few days before.
She wore jeans and sneakers and a long-sleeved black T-shirt with a black fleece vest over it. She wished she had a warmer coat, but whoever packed her clothes after the shooting in Alice’s apartment must not have expected her to leave San Diego.
Alice looked over at Marnie Ste
