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After more than an hour of waiting, Viktor opened the door to the situation room, letting a brunette in a dark gray, expensively-cut pantsuit precede him. She had flawless, light olive skin and the most amazing green eyes. Right now those green eyes were focused on Sophie. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I’m Marissa Cole.” Sophie doubted if that was her real name.
As the brunette took her seat at the head of the table, Viktor walked to the corner of the room and just leaned back to observe. A trace of annoyance flashed across Ms. Cole’s face. Derek cleared his throat, causing Sophie and Marissa to look at him. Derek had been controlling a grin.
“Something funny, Lockwood?” Marissa asked sternly.
“No, something just snagged in my throat,” Derek replied lamely. Viktor remained expressionless.
Great, Derek just annoyed a CIA agent. Sophie wanted to roll her eyes but considered that the tension was high enough in the room.
“We just finished interviewing Nash Becker,” Marissa said. “He did not want to give us descriptions of the men who blackmailed him, not until we offered him protective custody. That the Beckers were left alive did not make sense. The perpetrators didn’t seem to care if we have their descriptions.”
“No masks?”
“None.”
“Viktor told me that you built the cores,” Marissa said curtly. “The CIA had suspected as much.”
“Do you have bugs in my office?” Sophie snapped.
“The NSA intercepted chatter between Blackstone and an as of yet unidentified contact in South Africa. The line was secure on the other end, but we suspect it was Damian Stoltz, the principal at SASTac, a security firm in South Africa.”
“Why is the CIA even interested in Blackstone and SASTac?” Derek asked.
“We want stability in the region,” Marissa explained. “That can’t happen if foreign companies keep exploiting towns and taking their natural resources. People like Abu-Haxa are the good guys for now, but if the US turns a blind eye to what’s happening there, Africa will become another hotbed for terrorism, and America will be branded again as the great Satan. We’ve already seen what Abu-Haxa was willing to do. They were willing to send their Brotherhood to the US to eliminate a threat—you.”
Derek stiffened beside her; he obviously did not want a reminder of the numerous attempts on her life.
“Well, I’m not a threat anymore, the research is gone.”
“How easy is it to follow the blueprint in the documents and build a bomb?”
Sophie had made cryptic notes in the document detailing improvements in the design, but she did not trust the CIA just yet.
“They have their hands on it, they can build it,” Sophie replied as she tried to hold the piercing green eyes that were boring into her. She couldn’t.
Marissa cursed. “Damn it, Dr. Leroux, I’m trying to protect you. Would there be a reason for them to come after you to finish the zefinium bomb?”
“Sophie?” Derek prompted when she did not reply.
“I honestly don’t know,” Sophie said quietly. “If their technicians and physicists are competent enough, they’ll figure it out. I do have some proprietary methods that improve the design, but that wouldn’t stop construction. They may end up with what you call a dirty bomb.”
A knock sounded on the door before it opened. Manning walked in and handed Viktor a folder. The AGS head inspected it before handing the contents to Marissa Cole.
“Tim is running facial recognition now,” Manning said before exiting the room.
“Do any of these men look familiar?” Marissa laid out three composite sketches of the men who had threatened and coerced Becker.
Sophie felt the blood drain from her face as she recognized the middle picture. Apparently, Derek did too because he exploded from his chair and started pacing the room.
“Fuck!” Derek growled. “Fuck!”
Marissa’s brow shot up. “I guess you both do. Which one? All three?”
“The middle one.”
“The guy named Justin?”
Sophie was confused. “He gave me his real name?”
