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I looked at Gray as he sat on the desk next to where Sydney worked. “You said you have news to share? Maybe we recap everything we know first.”
Gray gave Sydney the cue to take the lead on the summary of our shit situation, and she hurried through the details. “Monday night both labs were simultaneously hit. Equipment was destroyed. The lead scientists were taken as hostages, and what we know because of Diana, were then split up and in the process of being moved to new locations. No demands have been made, and we’ve picked up no chatter about who’s behind this. All we know is that a group of highly trained Serbian human traffickers were in possession of Diana, preparing to place her on a ship for Oslo. Final destination unknown.”
“Now it’s Friday and . . .” Mya checked her watch. “Well, I guess it’s technically Saturday, and Alyona allegedly needs to turn Diana over to an unknown blackmailer before the end of the weekend.”
Based on the tight lock of Gray’s jaw, he was about to add more to the equation. “What I’m about to share with everyone is classified and doesn’t leave this room,” he began. “The United States, along with eleven other countries, was part of a classified and top-secret joint project to do two things.”
That much we know.
“Was the Netherlands part of the project?” Diana asked him. “Now that I think about it, though, no one I worked with was Dutch.”
“No, they weren’t. The Dutch were uninvolved and unaware, which was why it was chosen as neutral territory to host the project,” Gray answered. “There were concerns that if one of the twelve countries housed the central project, it might increase the risk of betrayal. The leaders of the countries involved were already paranoid about having their own labs operating separately from the main project as well, so it makes sense they chose a place like Amsterdam.”
“Looks like someone screwed everyone over anyway,” Oliver said, taking a knee by one of the weapons bags off to the side of the room.
“POTUS won’t confirm your bunker theory in Montana, but given the second lab was there, I can see them choosing a location for the project in proximity to an underground site like that,” Gray shared.
Diana stopped petting Dallas for a moment. “And our project wasn’t focused on cold fusion, right?”
“Yes and no.” Gray’s nonanswer had Diana frowning.
Sydney picked up the train of thought. “Scientists have been pushing politicians for years, issuing warnings about a massive solar storm coming in the next decade. One that could effectively knock out more than just Wi-Fi, but destroy the entire power grid. A storm like that could set us back years. And we all know what will happen if people lose electricity and Wi-Fi.”
“Talk about chaos.” Oliver stood, holstering a Glock 19 at his side.
“What are you trying to say?” Diana asked.
A direct hit from Gray was coming, I could feel it.
“Your wife’s company, Barclay Energy . . . well, your father-in-law pressured the government to do something long before anyone else.”
Not what I’d been expecting Gray to say, and my pulse quickened at the news.
“After your in-laws died, the work at Barclay Energy shifted direction, and the concerns about a solar storm went quiet for a while,” Gray continued. “Then in 2018, your wife started asking questions. Speaking up about it again. I’m not sure why, but she was pushing the government to get on board with creating countermeasures for a possible solar storm, as well as how to deal with an EMP weapon. She believed a breakthrough in cold fusion was the answer.”
I felt Diana’s gaze on me and I peered her way, remembering her words to me earlier. She was right. Everything did keep circling back to Rebecca. “What are you saying?” I asked Gray, my eyes still glued to Diana as her hand hovered over Dallas’s head.
“Susan Mackenzie confirmed that’s the real reason your wife told her she sold off almost all of her business holdings except The Barclay Group,” Gray revealed. “She wanted to focus on her father’s clean energy ambitions, and she was also worried about an impending attack, either from Mother Nature or from an enemy.”
I turned from the room, unable to look at Diana, Gray, or anyone in there for that matter. I needed a moment to think. To process the bomb he’d dropped on me.
You didn’t sell everything off because of Andrew Cutter and the blackmail? Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this? I shook my head, realizing I was acting as though Rebecca could hear me and might miraculously provide an answer. Susan lied to me. I asked her point-fucking-blank at the funeral reception if she knew what had been going on with Rebecca. What else was that woman keeping from me? Hell, the both of them.
“I didn’t know.” My shoulders collapsed at the soft tone of remorse in Diana’s voice.
I slowly turned to face her, recalling the rooftop on the day of Rebecca’s funeral. Somehow, staring at Diana managed to dull the sharp edge of pain inside me. All it took was her eyes on me to get my heartbeat to work at a more normal rhythm. How was that possible? “I’m guessing my ex-wife . . .” Did I just accidentally call Rebecca that? I’d never made that mistake before. I pushed aside that thought and recalibrated, doing my best to keep my tone void of emotion. “I assume Rebecca went behind my back and invested in the government’s top-secret Montana bunker—the one they don’t want to admit to yet—before she died, too.”
After an uncomfortable amount of silence passed, Diana peered at Gray and asked, “You said the project was twofold. Does that mean we were working on both an EMP weapon as well as a countermeasure to safeguard from a weapon or storm? Is that why your yes or no response to me about cold fusion?”
Once Gray nodded, I followed up with a question of my own. “If the government didn’t seem pressed to do anything in the past, why the sudden change in heart? Rebecca’s been gone for years.” I suppose Pierce Quaid took the helm of Rebecca’s “passion project” along with Susan, but still.
“Six months ago, it was confirmed the Chinese government was on the verge of a breakthrough with an EMP weapon that could take down not just a city, but an entire country. Even one as big as ours,” Gray shared. “That’s why they began the joint project among twelve nations, hoping to beat them to the punch. Pull together resources and the brightest minds in the world.”
One of those bright minds was on the floor with sad eyes petting my dog.
“Like with the nuclear arms race,” Diana said softly, “we’re now in a race to make an EMP weapon in hopes that if we have one, the enemy won’t use one against us to avoid a counterattack.”
“If it was the Chinese government, they wouldn’t care about keeping Diana and the other physicists on the project alive, right? They’d want to kill them along with the research.” Sydney closed her laptop and added, “Well, unless they haven’t had success yet. By stealing the world’s best scientists, they not only set back the rest of the countries in the race for a weapon, they get help to finish first.”
