New Arcadia: A Technothriller (An Alicia Yoder Novel Book 1) by M.A. Rothman & Steve Diamond

Author:M.A. Rothman & Steve Diamond [Rothman, M.A. & Diamond, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Primordial Press
Published: 2023-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Thirteen

Alicia and Lucy sat in the SCIF at the Taiwanese embassy, watching the secure video feed of a conference room broadcasting from the underground headquarters of the Outfit. Alicia leaned over and hit the mute button, shutting down the microphones hanging from the ceiling. “Do you recognize everyone?”

Lucy shook her head. “Not everyone. You obviously recognize Mason and Brice on the far end of the table. The black gentleman to Mason’s right is Sekou Cooper, he’s the Director of Intelligence for all operations in Africa. Next to Sekou is Richard Wong, Director of Intelligence for Asia and the Pacific Rim. The woman opposite him I don’t know, but if I had to guess, she’s probably the replacement for Adam McCallister, the DI for the Americas who was really old and ready to either keel over or retire.”

“Out of curiosity, what’s Mason’s official title? Does he head up the whole thing?”

“No, but listening to him you’d sometimes think he does.” Lucy gave a sour look at the video screen. “Doug Mason is officially the head of OCID, the Organized Crime and Intelligence Division. His jurisdiction is a bit odd, because he handles issues that happen in pretty much every part of the world, but he mostly deals with assets the Outfit has coming out of organized crime. He’s also the senior person Stateside, but there are others he reports to. I have no idea what the hierarchy of the Outfit looks like above Mason, I just know there are people above him. Everyone has to report to someone, Alicia. That’s the number one constant in this business.”

“Interesting.” Alicia pondered what Lucy had just said and it made sense. Especially with Lucy’s past dealing with organized crime, that’s likely how she got sucked into the Outfit, even if only on a freelance basis.

Another person walked into the conference room on the video screen and Lucy said, “That’s Gregor Manheim. DI for Europe and Eurasia. I think he has parts of the Eastern bloc, including the former Soviet breakaway republics, and Russia itself, while Richard handles all the rest of Asia and the Indian subcontinent.”

Alicia felt the butterflies in her stomach dancing a jig as she realized that everyone in that room had probably read the report she’d put together about what the Taiwanese spymaster had told her. What if it hadn’t been good enough? Clear enough. What if—

“Okay folks, we’re all situated in DC.” Mason spoke with a calm, yet authoritative voice. “Taipei, I see you folks are ready. Alicia, I believe Lucy has already filled you in on who everyone is except for Bridget Litchford. She’s the new DI for the Americas.”

Alicia stared at the control console which showed the microphones as still being muted. “How did he know?”

Lucy sighed. “The man reads lips.”

“Yes, I can read lips fairly well, but the rest of the team here can’t, so you can come off of mute. I’m locking us down.”

Alicia reached across the conference room table, toggled the mute button, and heard the sound of metal sliding against metal.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.