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“I was off the list. It’s complicated.” Carter’s words sent a fresh wave of chills over my skin. “Can you get the broth from the kitchen before I burn the priest’s home down?”
Priest?
“Sure.” Griffin unfolded his arms. “Easton will be here in five minutes with her things.”
“My things? What things?” I asked him after Griffin left us alone.
“I didn’t look inside the bag your mom gave us, but I assume clothes and spare glasses.”
I doubted my mom planned to share more about what was going on than these two would. Why in the world were we taken?
When a new memory from the night of the attack surfaced, I shut my eyes to latch on to the details that I must’ve suppressed during the chaos of being held captive.
“I think someone was poking around my computer.” It wasn’t a tech issue. It was a cybersecurity one. “A hacker, maybe.” I opened my eyes. “Why do that if they could just take my computer, though?” I shared my concerns out loud, hoping Carter would have an answer. “And, oh, God, if they were monitoring my keystrokes, then they’ll have seen the equation I stumbled upon before the sirens went off.” I went to stand, shock propelling me up, but I fell backward.
Carter immediately snatched my wrist as if worried I’d go down three flights instead of having a bed cushion both my fall and embarrassment. Once releasing me, he drew his brows together and prompted, “What equation?”
“Not the answer to making cold fusion a reality.” I’m going to be sick. “The equation is still theoretical until tested, but I’d always feared my work could be altered to create a weapon.” I did my best not to slip back into a state of panic. After everything Carter had done to calm me down, I didn’t want to regress.
“Diana.” My name was a rough plea from his lips that time, worry cutting through.
My eyes fell closed again as I revealed, “I think I accidentally solved how to devise an EMP weapon.”
28
CARTER
This genius woman was staring at me with big, blue eyes, and I wasn’t sure how to tell her the project she’d been working on was exactly what she feared. The good guys had set her on that path without her knowing. And now the enemies might be in possession of it. The lines were murky as fuck.
Diana was Einstein smart—possibly with an even higher IQ than him—but not even the smartest people could always see what was right in front of them. I’d been guilty of the same. I hadn’t seen all the signs and clues about my wife’s secrets over the years. People tended to overlook things and make excuses when they trusted someone.
“You don’t look shocked,” she said, breaching the quiet first. I’d left her revelation marinating in the air between us for too long, lost to my thoughts.
I slid my hands into my pockets, fighting the wet fabric, which also reminded me I was still shirtless. That wouldn’t be ideal for a call with her mother and the President. “I’m not. Not exactly,” I reluctantly tossed out. “I’d thought you were going to say you could perfect a neutron bomb, not create an EMP weapon, though. I guess it makes sense since you’re working in energy.”
She wiggled her fingers as if trying to rid herself of tension before working that plump bottom lip of hers between her teeth.
“The use of an electromagnetic pulse weapon has been a concern of the government for over two decades now.” I opted to remain standing, even though part of me wanted to sit beside her and pull her close to me. I had to stop treating her like anything other than part of my mission. I couldn’t lose sight of the op because my head was off. Her life and national security depended on me remaining focused. “There are trade-offs with everything,” I went on. “Even with the seemingly good inventions. The greener we get in energy, the more vulnerable we become to these new-age types of attacks.”
“Voltage surges in our electric systems could be catastrophic,” she said softly. “End-of-days kind of bad. An attack could take the power grid down for years.” She was trembling again, and my hands strained in my pockets as I resisted the impulse to offer to hug her and provide a hit of oxytocin for the both of us. “I knew the risks of working with fusion, but I was trying to help make a difference.” She opened her palms and looked down at them as if she were the Lady Macbeth of clean energy.
I couldn’t handle that sight, so against my better judgment, I sat alongside her. “You are making a difference.” I took her hand, so much smaller than mine, and our palms slipped into what felt like the most comfortable position in the world, lacing together and resting on my thigh. I forced myself to ignore why things were so effortless with her, needing to get to the reveal of what I knew instead.
“What is it you’re afraid to tell me?”
Ripping off the Band-Aid, I shared, “I found out this week that a shell company for the CIA was responsible for the takeover of The Barclay Group. They were only after Barclay Energy, but couldn’t raise red flags by making it look that way.” My pulse quickened when she pointed her beautiful blues at me with nervous anticipation. “Those eleven other companies you were partnered with represent eleven foreign governments. The President said it was a classified cold fusion project, but given how terrified they are about the lab hit, and the fact they brought me in, would suggest you were working on more than cold fusion. They kept the truth from you and everyone else there.”
It wasn’t a move I’d have expected from President Bennett. It made me wonder if his predecessor had orchestrated the plans long before he took over, and Bennett had only assumed the mantle when things were ripe to unfold.
Diana applied a little pressure to our clasped palms and whispered, “The Manhattan Project.”
I waited for her to continue, familiar with America’s nuclear program during World War II, but unsure where she was going with that comment.
“Compartmentalization,” she murmured as if expecting me to understand. “If you’re right, then Amsterdam wasn’t their only lab. Like the nuclear arms program back in the day, the government would have at least one, maybe two additional clandestine sites in operation.”
I bowed my head in understanding. “That’s what they did with the Manhattan Project.” Pretty sure there was a movie about that recently, not that I’d seen it. I took a few military history courses at Columbia, though, so I was knowledgeable enough on the subject matter. “In case of an insider or a spy, as well as not completely trusting their own physicists, they divided up the work into different locations.”
“The sum of all parts equals the whole. If one site falls into enemy hands, the project is still safe from being stolen,” she whispered. “I don’t think I was supposed to stumble upon a way to make that weapon feasible on my own, though.”
