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“Yeah. Hard on Metal, too. Felicity hasn’t complained, not once, and has always done as much work as possible, though no one expected her to. It’s Metal who complained. She barfed her way through the first three months, and even now, she’ll throw up occasionally. Metal has lost ten years off his life.”
“He’ll be a good dad.” Riley had never met Felicity’s husband but, by all accounts, he loved Felicity and was looking forward to fatherhood when he wasn’t overwhelmed by her morning, noon, afternoon and night sickness. Felicity loved him right back.
“Yeah, he will be a really good dad once he stops freaking.”
“And Hope and Emma? How are they doing?”
“Just great. They both love it at ASI. It’s a great company to work for. All three of them are appreciated and well treated. We’re all like a family.”
Yeah. That was the impression she’d got when they talked. That her friends were happy. A family … what would that feel like? She’d never really had one. It must be great …
“Eat,” Pierce said firmly. “And drink. You’ve had a traumatic day.”
She speared a bite of tagliata, and oh … it melted in her mouth. “Tomorrow won’t be better. Nor will the day after. And if there is a war that escalates, none of the tomorrows will be better.”
“It won’t come to that. You have a lot of firepower on your side. And we have to hope reason will prevail.”
She sighed. “You’re a Navy SEAL, Pierce. Surely you don’t believe everything ends well.” She knew his story and it hadn’t ended well. Now, of course, he and Raul were with a company they liked and did work they liked, but their Navy careers had ended badly.
“No, I don’t believe everything ends well, but for the moment, our mission is to prove that the video is a deepfake and that everyone needs to step back. That’s a mission we can’t allow to fail. But you’re going to need to be rested and fed to complete the mission. So eat.”
That made sense. They had powerful people arrayed against them. She was counting on Pierce and Jacob Black, but they were also counting on her to be convincing. Even though, at the moment, she wasn’t entirely convinced the sky was blue.
A distraction. That’s what she needed. Putting a forkful of peppers in her mouth, she smiled at Pierce. “So tell me about yourself.”
His eyebrows rose, probably SEAL-speak for surprise. “Are we sure we have exhausted you? Because me? Nothing much to tell.”
“You sailed through SEAL training, which is supposedly the toughest in the world. Best of your class, Emma says Raul says. Top marks in … what would you call it? Gunmanship?”
He was holding back a smile. “Sharpshooting.”
“Right. That. My understanding is that no one sails through Hell Week. You end up gasping and limping.”
“But standing.” He inclined his head.
“And I was told you are an amazing driver, which I saw first-hand. That particularly impresses me because I am a lousy driver. And I don’t actually have a car at the moment because there’s a bus that drops me off at work and lets me off a block from home.” She pointed her fork at him. “Don’t ever let me drive.”
“God, no!” He recoiled in horror. “No one takes the wheel but me. Did you guys have a seminar on me?”
She smiled. “No. But Hope and Emma are fond of you and speak of you often. Emma says Raul claims you are the finest man he knows. And the trickiest.”
Pierce winced. “That’s because I spent a year undercover. And lied every second of every day of that year. I hated it.”
Riley knew better than to ask where he’d been undercover. All she knew was that he had done something incredibly dangerous and had come away with enough information to shut down a big terrorist cell.
“Yeah, she said that too. And that you try really hard not to lie, ever.”
His face was tight. “I had enough lying to last ten lifetimes.”
“Oh man, yeah. I hate lying, too.” She nodded. “It gives cognitive dissonance, which can be painful. In my line of work you can’t lie. Seeing clearly, seeing reality, and reporting it as accurately as possible is the basis of my job. Anyone who lies would be out on his or her ear. And wouldn’t be able to do the job.”
“Which is why you find the deepfakes so awful.”
“God, yes. Not to mention dangerous. We’re in for a world of hurt if we don’t deal with the deepfake problem. No one will be able to read reality. Imagine not ever knowing if a photo or a video is real or fake. Never being able to trust your eyes. It would be horrible. And incredibly dangerous. So—what does tomorrow look like?”
If he found the change of subject surprising, he gave no sign of it. “I don’t know. I do know we’re going to show what you showed us to some people in positions of power. And you’re going to explain it to them, like you explained it to us.”
Riley cleared her throat delicately. “In my experience, being in a position of power doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart or even perceptive.”
