You Can Run by Karen Cleveland

Author:Karen Cleveland [Cleveland, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2021-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Jill

Of all the things I expected to hear, imagined hearing, this wasn’t one of them. I feel like the floor has dropped from under me.

“You think we’re running this source?” I say it quietly. I shouldn’t be having this conversation out here. Shouldn’t be having it over the phone. Shouldn’t be having it at all.

“The messages are being sent domestically. The source, if he’s a dangle, is a perfect avenue for stealing our new COVCOM, and no one’s tried.”

My mind is spinning, trying to make sense of this. “Agency?”

“It’s Agency hardware. Seems likely.”

I feel like pieces are snapping together in my mind. If it’s us, if it’s people on the inside, that explains how they knew about me, about my role. How they knew the cable would end up in my queue.

And when they told me to put the phone in my pocket, it’s because they knew I was wearing pants and not a skirt, because they were watching me. They were probably right there in the building.

They weren’t bluffing when they said they’d know if I didn’t follow their instructions. And they weren’t relying solely on my phone, either. If I’d have slipped someone a note in the office, there’s a good chance they’d have seen it.

The thought chills me. Thank God I didn’t try anything.

That means this is coming from the inside. Intelligence about another country possessing a weaponized strain of anthrax, intel that’s leading to a troop buildup in the Middle East, that’s leading us ever closer to war. It’s fabricated, and my own country is fabricating it.

My own country had my son kidnapped to keep the truth hidden.

The thought makes me sick to my stomach.

“Coordinated, or some rogue operation?”

“No idea. I don’t even know for sure it is the Agency, or even the U.S. That’s just my guess. Because nothing else makes sense.”

I watch a seagull drift by slowly overhead, almost like it’s lost, like it’s strayed too far from home.

He’s right. This makes the most sense. Syria couldn’t pull this off, and the source provided information Damascus wouldn’t want us to have. More sophisticated intelligence services would be making a play for the new COVCOM system—

“Jill, will you tell me what’s going on?” he asks.

The sliding door of the next house over opens, and old Mrs. McIntosh steps outside onto her screened-in patio.

“Listen, I need to go,” I say quietly. “Let’s chat soon.”

I end the call and stare out at the lake. It’s still and peaceful, just like before. But now it doesn’t seem calming, reassuring. Now it seems dangerous. Like the calm before the storm.

What am I supposed to do now? My plan was to go to the authorities, the FBI. But the authorities might very well be behind this. Anything I say might be shared with the wrong people.

I can’t trust our own law enforcement agencies.

I don’t know who I can trust.

No one can protect us from the entire CIA. I need to know exactly who’s behind this, or talking to the authorities is just going to put my family in grave danger.

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