Page 84 of Silver Fire
“Can we leave Jack out of this,” Maia said, bristling.
“Why are you pushing their buttons, Viktor?” Marissa said in exasperation. “They are not the enemies here.”
Viktor’s eyes bored into Marissa. “So, tell me, is it the CIA?”
Derek frowned. A damned ruse? Did Viktor instigate all this drama to get Marissa Cole to react?
For the first time since Derek had met her, the CIA spook looked uncomfortable. There was no question, something was up. “I don’t fucking believe this,” Derek said in disgust.
“I have no proof,” Marissa stated carefully. “But I was blindsided just as you all were when my handler pulled me out of the zefinium case to work on some drug dealer assignment down in South America. I didn’t think much of it until I got your message about the zefinium cores being stolen. Baines, my handler, is currently on suspension. When the director of Black Ops found out what had happened, he recalled me immediately.” She looked at Viktor pointedly. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
“I may have put in a word or two,” Viktor said noncommittally. “Derek, I still believe the leak came from within Silver Fire Research. Anyone come to mind?”
“No,” Derek said as he took his seat. “They’re a bunch of geeks down there, and Parker is devoted to Sophie. If he weren’t gay, I’d have a problem with him.”
“Tim, any progress on Opperman?”
“Nothing solid. The man is like a traveling and shipping agency. All his transactions seem legit.”
“Any transactions between Blackstone and Opperman?”
“No, but we wouldn’t expect Blackstone to use his own company.”
“Agreed. But is there a way to find out if he was using a shell company?”
“I’m following the trail of one now,” Tim replied. “I’ve hit a highly-encrypted system. We may have to bring in a specialist.”
“Blackstone will be at Senator Robinson’s fundraiser this Saturday,” Maia said. “I can have Jack engage him in interesting conversation again.”
“Jack would love that,” Derek chuckled. “Which reminds me—I may have to keep Sophie here at AGS that night unless she wants to stay at my condo with Taggart. I was too late to add a plus one.”
“Sure, just make arrangements with bunker accommodations.”
“I can’t believe you’re leaving Sophie by herself,” Maia said.
“I don’t have a choice. Robinson expects Jack and me to be there.”
“Does he know you are screwing his daughter?”
“Were. Past tense, Maia.”
“You guys sure have the most fascinating conversations,” Marissa observed.
Viktor smirked. “We like to keep things interesting around here. You know, Marissa, we haven’t addressed what role Blaine had in the cores being stolen.”
Marissa shook her head. “I don’t think he directly had any knowledge of the cores. I think his role was just to look the other way and keep everyone else out of Bishop’s path.”
“So who paid him off?”
“That’s pending an internal investigation,” Marissa said, obviously reluctant to share. “Are we done here, Viktor?
Viktor nodded. “I’ll keep you posted.”
* * *
“We have a problem,”Yuri Demko told Justin. “There is a flaw in the trigger design. It does not produce enough power to initiate fusion.”
Justin narrowed his eyes at the Ukrainian scientist. Had the man not scoffed at Sophie’s capabilities a few days ago, saying that they would not be needing her at all?