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“But it isn’t a myth,” Devon said. “Not from what I found.”
“Exactly,” Conner said grimly. “I didn’t expect you to react like you did.”
Devon nodded. “I remember that. I got a few laughs at the office when I went after it.”
“Are you sure this was real? It had always been considered a boogie man kind of story for agents. Like to scare us into being good little spies,” Alicia said. “I know my father dismissed it for years. But something changed his mind when he started to research old cases.”
“I know it is. I had too many reliable sources not to believe them. Plus, when I presented the information, the higher ups got very quiet,” Devon said. “It was a little eerie the way all contact was broken off from them.”
“Oh, that’s not good,” she said. “When a spook goes silent, that’s usually a very bad thing.”
“Why did you latch onto it?” Conner asked.
Devon shrugged. “Not entirely sure. I’ve always been a geek and there were a lot of little places on the internet that chatted about it. The complexity of it intrigued me. Like a puzzle. The prevailing opinion was that they resurrected the name over and over to use. That it was a family kind of thing.”
That made sense to her. In fact, it was a bit brilliant. “So, like Menudo?”
“What?” Conner asked. Devon was looking at her like she were insane.
“Like the boy band from Mexico. When a band member would get too old, they just replaced them with another boy. That way they kept it young and maintained teenager interest.”
Devon smiled. “Odd, but yes, that’s what they did. Or what I could discern. Maybe it was that fact that made it seem unbelievable. Since the rumors had been around more than twenty years, it seemed implausible. But what if the same people—or in this case country—used the name over and over, then that would make sense. It would seem that the spy never aged.”
“Yes, and apparently, it was sent to England. It was their issue after all. And, that’s where your father comes in, Alicia.”
“I’m seeing where this is going. The CIA handed it over and nothing was done right away. They let it sit there for a few years, but my father was semi-retired. His mind was as sharp as ever, and he had the right security clearance. He’d been going over old information, looking at missions that went right, those that went wrong, and writing up reports. I think he said something about using them for training. Father was one of the few agents around who could remember some of those days and he still held his security clearance. So, this must have hit his desk.”
Conner hit a few things on his tablet then handed it to them. “This is apparently where he got, and Devon’s name came up.”
He handed it to Devon and he shared the screen with her. The file was American in origin and Devon’s name was blacked out.
“How did he find out it was you?” She rolled her eyes. “He called someone. Dad knew someone in every bloody spook agency around the world.”
He nodded. “That’s the report I made up on it. It was right before my life went to complete shit, so I completely forgot about it.”
Conner’s mobile rang. He answered.
“I told you I wanted to stay off the phone for security.” He rolled his eyes and listened to whoever was on the phone.
“Okay.” He handed the phone to Devon. “It’s Rory. He wants to talk to you about this report. He can only find what I have there and he wants to know if you remember anything.”
Devon took the phone and moved away from them to talk.
Alicia glanced at the clock and realized it was probably before sunrise in Florida. “I hate that Rory is up this early working, but I really appreciate it.”
Conner gave her a sardonic smile. “First, I always like bugging Rory. He’s involved with my sister and well, I like screwing with him. Plus, he’s on Miami time so it’s not that early.”
She nodded then continued to look through the report, noting some of the sources. Then, there was a name that stood out amongst the notes.
Xan Winslow.
A chill ran down her spine, seeping into her soul. All the moisture seemed to evaporate in her mouth and she found it hard to swallow.
What a bloody, bloody mess. All the sounds around her seemed to fade away and she felt the room spin. She gathered up enough strength to draw in a deep breath. She realized then that Conner was still talking.
“And, someone has a huge hard-on for you, Alicia. They’ve been looking for you the last few weeks; I pinpointed their traveling IP. They were on the west coast, but the latest is Honolulu.”
“Here?”
