Page 94 of Jonesing for a Spy

The shredding of my heart is a physical pain. I fall to my butt on the sofa and spear my hands through my hair, tugging at the roots.

June gives me more time than I expected. She also studies me as I come to terms with the failure in my relationship with her daughter.

My brain whirls and spins, my anger bubbles, and my soul shatters into more pieces than can be placed back together. Finally, I flop back onto the sofa.

This is a fitting end to the weeks of hell I’ve been living.

No escape. No relief. No light at the end of the tunnel. Just the utter devastation of the future I wanted being ripped from my grasp, leaving me in the quagmire of this meaningless life.

After a few minutes of my thoughts and emotions warring, June cuts in.

“Mirri would be fired—or worse— if she told you. But she’s been agonizing over how to keep her job and keep you. She has these conversations with her father. He’s the sentimental one. I told her to fight for her job.”

Lovely. The mother-in-law lottery just keeps getting better and better. My face must say it all.

“Don’t look at me like I betrayed you. I didn’t know you—I don’t know you—and Mirri isn’t like other girls.”

“Understatement,” I cut in, scrubbing a hand down my face.

“Here’s where things get dicey⁠—”

“They weren’t already?” I interject.

She bobs her head left and right, neither nodding, nor negating my statement. “She has told the agency she can’t work on your case.”

My case? My case? “What case? What are you talking about?”

“Yeah. It shocked us too. And tipping you off is treason for both of us, so I’m counting on your discretion.” She looks away, and I’d swear she mutters, “I’d hate to have to kill you” under her breath.

I don’t ask for clarification, because I can’t help but believe June Jones is who she says she is. And my life can’t get any weirder.

“So, let’s talk about what could be happening inside Electric Peoria, why that happened”—she nods to my throat—“and how we clear your name so my daughter isn’t pining for a man in federal prison for something he didn’t do.”

“What, may I ask, am I being accused of doing?”

“Plotting to take out the U.S. electrical grid.”

What. The. Fuck.

Mirren

Janis is getting blown up on the chat boards. Apparently her anti-government, anti-capitalism speech resonates with the crowd that’s never gone a day without technology at their fingertips. I wonder if they know how this all works.

Fighter2389

Yo. We want you with us in Texas. You down?

I aim for nonchalance in my reply.

Wouldn’t miss it. When?

Fighter2389

No. No. No. No. First, a test...

What do I have to prove?

SallyIsAMenace