Matty frowned glancing over at her passenger. Bozer sat staring out the passenger's window of Matty's purple Prius. Matty sat back in her specially designed seat as they came up to one of the bajillions red lights between Phoenix and the Bosnian consulate. She studied the younger man for a long minute. Bozer looked tired, worn. It didn't take much to figure out what was gnawing at him.
"Bozer, did you see Mac last night?" Matty asked. Bozer looked over at her, his expression blunted.
"For a little while, Jack was staying there, and I figured that I'd need some sleep." Matty stared at him. Bozer sat up as if he was in trouble. "Not that I'm not tired, I'm always up for my part of a mission." Matty slowly pulled forward gritting her teeth and glancing at her watch. She hated LA traffic, and the Consulate just happened to be in the middle of the worst of it. When she glanced over at Bozer, he'd drifted back to staring out the window.
"Ok, Bozer, what's up with you?" Matty said deciding to cut through the bull crap. She needed Bozer focused. Bozer looked over at her, and his eyes dropped, and his shoulders slumped. Matty let out a long breath. "You don't have to do this if you aren't up to it…" Matty said her voice and eyes soft with kindness. Bozer's eyes widened.
"No, no Matty I want to do this, I'm glad you gave me a chance to help find the people that did this to Mac and stop them. It's just…" Bozer sighed then looked at Matty his eyes confused. Matty waited with a raised eyebrow. "I was researching what Mac had said about Plum Island and Lyme disease."
"Researching? From where?" Matty frowned. Riley would just hack the CIA if she could and get direct access, but Bozer? Where the hell did he get classified information?"
"Online-"
"Online? Bozer, you know-"
"I know, I know. You can't believe everything you hear online, but a lot of conspiracies people believe ended up being true." Matty opened her mouth to protest then sighed.
"I know Bozer. So what did you find?"
"I looked up what was confirmed by the CIA. There really is an Animal Disease Center of New York there that was founded to test and prevent agricultural animal diseases. The CIA admitted that it was used to experiment on bioweapons during the Cold War."
"Ok?"
"They were studying animal to human disease transmission, even looking at Ticks as useful vectors to pass on diseases. Some sites even said the place was set up by a Nazi who was brought over during WWII and the experiments he'd done over in Germany! A Nazi!" Matty swallowed and glanced over at Bozer whose eyes were wide with alarm. Matty took a deep breath but hesitated. She loved Bozer's innocence and naivete. It had bothered Matty more than she could admit when she'd been forced to disavow him on his first mission. Matty thought of Mac, the young man who'd been aged decades instead of years by what he'd seen and done. Matty didn't want Bozer to carry the same weight Mac does. Although Matty admitted, no one ever truly understood the weight Mac does, nor does it so well. Matty thought about what she'd seen Mac do in the short months she'd known him. Over and over he brought it, miracle after miracle. It takes a lot to impress Mathilda Webber but damn if the blond twenty-something didn't knock her socks off, but the cost? Matty glanced over at Bozer who looked at her puzzled.
"Bozer, you know history isn't black or white."
"You mean it's true?" Bozer looked at her paling. Matty made a decision and pulled over into a strip mall's parking lot. She slid the car into park and turned to face Bozer.
"Bozer during WWII America was desperate to get the nuclear program viable, so yes they did bring Nazi scientists over. It was an operation called Paperclip. Many different scientists came over. Some were academians like Einstein and Oppenheimer who wanted to stop the Nazis, but some were Nazis who wanted to continue their research or share their research, and the US made a lot of shady deals."
"How can you be ok with this?"
"Bozer, not everything is clear cut. A lot of the information we know about saving people from hypothermia came out of sick experiments the Nazis did. Should we ignore the information that can save thousands of lives because of the way it was obtained?" Bozer swallowed, looking like he was going to puke.
"There has to be a line." Bozer husked. Matty reached over and put her hand on his forearm.
"There are lines, not always where we like…" Matty sat back and stared out the front window thinking of the damage Valhalla had done, "and there are a lot of times you get a crazy nut job making decisions they shouldn't be, but that's why we're here. We are the line in the sand Bozer."
"But they say Plum Island worked with Hoof in Mouth disease, West Nile, Lyme and a whole bunch of other nastiness... All these had their first outbreaks less than a hundred miles from that place…"
"You're right, it could be a cover up and conspiracy-I'm especially worried about it especially if it's connected to Valhalla, but Bozer it was a high-level CDC lab, maybe there were breaches in protocol-"
"Which the government covered up." Matty took a deep breath reminding herself that Bozer had never had to navigate the murky world of intelligence agencies.
"They probably did, just like Project Tantalus may have infected millions overseas, or like the countless ways, the US has handled itself around the world propping up dictators or worse. Bozer, I won't lie to you, bad things happen on all sides. America isn't the white hat the media makes us out to be, no one is. But you will go insane if you chase every thread that might be true, might not be true-"
"So we just ignore all this? Go along with it?" Bozer's voice raised in anger. Matty held up a hand.
"No, Bozer. You have to do what you can within the limits of your power. At Phoenix, we have the luxury of self-direction. We have more discretionary powers than any other intelligence agency, that's what makes us able to do what we do, but there are times we can't do anything, sometimes we have to wait until we have actionable evidence."
"It's like the cops having to catch a crook red handed?" Bozer looked down at his hands. Matty thought he looked very young but was aging fast. Matty faced forward and closed her eyes. The worst part of this job was the disillusionment. It was so hard to justify the unjustifiable.
"It's like that, Bozer, except sometimes it's hard to see which side of the line we're on. Take Mac, he won't carry a gun, but at the same time he knows some of the explosions he's caused left collateral damage." Matty turned and backed out of the space, turning them back into traffic. Bozer frowned at her.
"How do you live with it?" Matty sat back thinking a long minute. She looked over at Bozer and smiled sadly.
"How does anyone? You do the best you can with what you got at the time, I guess." Bozer nodded and turned to watch out the window considering what she'd said.
"I don't know if I can do this," Bozer said his voice barely audible. Matty nodded.
"I understand, and if you ever get to the point you can't…" Matty stopped at a light and met Bozer's worried gaze. "You can go."
"Just like that?" Bozer swallowed thinking of the three days detention Thornton had put him through. "I mean what happens to spies who retire?" Matty's face soured. She looked away.
"Most spies don't get a chance to retire, Bozer." Matty's voice was thick with years of losses. Bozer's mouth opened then closed. He nodded and took a deep breath. Matty pulled into the Consulate parking lot. "It's something everyone in this kind of job has to define for themselves, Bozer."
"Whether it's worth it?"
"That and what we are willing to do to defend what we love." Matty met Bozer's gaze for a long minute. Bozer nodded and took off his seatbelt. He grinned.
"Let's go do some defending." Matty rolled her eyes, glad to see the Bozer spark undiminished. They crossed the lot. Bozer pulled on her sleeve.
"Hold up, what's our cover?" Matty raised her eyebrows and smiled.
"Cover? Bozer we're here as US government officials."
"Oh. Do the bad guys know that?" Matty shook her head and pushed him ahead of her.
"Just follow my lead, Bozer."
"Sure, but…"
"Bozer, it'd probably be better if you didn't speak." Bozer grinned.
"So I'm like the strong silent muscle." Matty closed her eyes and flipped a long strand of hair back from her face.
"Don't make me regret this, Bozer."
"Don't worry, boss, I got this."
"Bozer…"
"I can do strong and silent, like Batman! You just…"
"Bozer! Strong and SILENT!"
"Right, right. Sorry." Bozer held the door open for the diminutive woman. Matty strode across the lobby her heels tapping on the well polished tan stone floor. The receptionist looked up at her from a central desk behind thick glass. Matty held out their documentation. The woman studied it very carefully then squinted at their IDs noting every detail while her eyes traveled from one to the other and back. She nodded and lifted the phone she spoke a long string of rapid fire Bosnian, she listened a long minute then nodded and hung up the phone.
"Consul General Cengic will be out in just a minute." Matty nodded and stood waiting. Bozer wondered around the small lobby occasionally reading the signs under paintings and photos describing the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He shook his head.
A man Bozer's height with a balding military cut from another decade slowly walked out with a limp. He was round and wore a pinstriped suit. Bozer raised an eyebrow and met Matty's gaze. She shook her head and scowled at him. Bozer nodded and tried to stand behind her. Strong and Silent. He told himself. The man scanned both of them his wolf gray eyes taking in more than an X ray luggage scanner. He bent and held out a hand.
"I am Jeremy Cedric." The man had a thick Slavic accent. Cedric led them down a large open hall to the left. The hallway looked like any other public government building Bozer had ever seen, but the scattered military looked much more attentive than their American counterparts. Bozer frowned. They either really got into their jobs, or they were on high alert for something. Bozer opened his mouth. Matty gave him a pointed look. Strong and Silent, right. Bozer sealed his mouth and followed the pair into a good-sized office with thick red carpet. A large desk with an organized immaculate top covered most of the back half of the room. A smaller desk buried under piles of papers and files scattered around it huddled in the corner to the left of the door. Bozer swallowed. The man looked exactly like Jack described, right down to his hippie-hair and terrified shaking. Cedric waved a hand at the man as he walked by without turning his head.
"My assistant, Homer Chester." Bozer frowned studying the gangly man. Chester looked like he'd rather be at ground zero of a nuclear blast than anywhere near his boss.
"Uh...Sir, there's that...that thing…?" Cedric settled into a throne-like chair behind the desk. He nodded and waved a hand. Chester vanished faster than a fleeing rabbit. Bozer watched him go wondering if he should do the whole,'where's the bathroom' routine to follow him.
"Bozer," Matty said her voice sharp as a strict teacher. Bozer straightened and nodded taking a seat in one of the two plush chairs opposite the man who seemed to absorb the entire room in his presence. He smiled awkwardly at the Consulate General. Cedric ignored him studying Matty. Bozer blinked watching Matty. The small woman smiled sweetly as if she were visiting a friend's summer cottage.
"What can I do for the beautiful US government today?" Cedric said sitting back and pyramiding his fingers. Matty leaned forward.
"Project Tantalus." She said without preamble. Cedric sat straight up and leaned forward scowling.
"You aren't CIA. Who are you?" A laugh escaped from Bozer.
"Seriously dude? You aren't even going to pretend to deny anything?" Matty shot Bozer a blistering glare. Bozer looked down and bit his lips. Strong and Silent, whoops. Cedric glanced at Bozer and dismissed him. He knew the real threat came from Matty.
"Of course I don't. Our governments have been working together for many years...but now…" The man sat back and lifted his phone speaking in it rapidly. Bozer glanced over at Matty nervously. Matty didn't turn from the large man, and her expression didn't falter. Cedric sat back and tapped his fingertips together.
Bozer's heart thudded at the sound of boots outside the door then the door opened, and soldiers lined the door way. Matty never turned, merely studied the man opposite her unruffled.
"Uh, boss?" Bozer squeaked as a tall blond man walked through the uniformed soldiers-a man who looked exactly like the picture in his file.
"Ah, Halil come in." The man nodded and walked into the office. Halil Gauric stepped in and nodded at the men behind him. The soldiers closed the door then stood in front of it, eyes watching Bozer or Matty waiting for any reason to shoot the pair.
"I told you that'd be a piece of cake," Jack whispered as he crept ahead of Riley his M-5 leading the way. Riley glared at him.
"Great, now you jinxed us." She whispered. She knelt and checked the schematics she'd downloaded onto her small tablet. "Take the next right." Jack nodded, and he slowly inched forward, his eyes constantly roved the narrow hall in front of them as well as behind them. Jack felt a nibble of unease at Riley's words. She was right; it had almost been too easy. They had come in through the motor pool. Despite being the middle of a business week, they'd seen no one. No mechanics, no clerks, no guards, no nerds. Jack swallowed and paused at the door way to his right.
Jack could feel the familiar hum of fans and feel the latent heat associated with a room of servers. Jack motioned for Riley to wait. She nodded. He silently glided in and cleared the room. He walked out back to her and motioned with his chin. She came inside the door. Jack was about to close it when raised voices echoed down the hallway.
"No, we have to go now!" The voice was familiar, but Jack couldn't place it.
"Homer, we can't leave without it, it has to be here." The second voice was female and familiar.
"Fai!" Jack called moving to open the door. Riley shoved him aside and shut the door glaring at him. Jack's jaw clenched. After taking several deep breaths, he nodded. Riley cracked the door. They could hear the pair's shoes run down the hallway.
"Fai, we have got to go! The Americans are here…" Jack shared a look with Riley who nodded. Matty and Bozer.
"No, we have to go back. This will never end…" A loud shout came from the direction the pair had emerged.
"This way!" Homer yelled. Fai screamed as gun shots bounced off walls and floor. Jack shoved the door completely closed grabbed Riley and pushed her in a dark corner behind a stack of servers on the other side of the door. Jack bent putting himself between her and the stomping feet coming their way and raised his M-5. Riley swallowed and breathed through her mouth. Her heart thudded louder than the running feet. She closed her eyes, her hand automatically reaching out to grab Jack's arm. Jack smiled but didn't split his attention.
There was a pause. The door opened. Two shadows loomed along the light coming in from the hallway. Two men had a quick conversation in Bosnian, turned and left closing the door. After waiting a long minute, Jack breathed out relaxing his grip. Riley grinned and crept over to the nearest server pulling cords out of her back pack and hooking her computer to the server. Jack only half watched his eyes always scanning. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up. He silently crept to the door and opened it a crack.
Jack cried out as the door was slammed open and smacked him in the knot on his forehead. He stepped back bringing up his rifle. A shadow danced in kicking him solidly in the middle pushing him to the floor on his back. Jack cursed and looked up into the dark eyes of Rijad Dedic. The assassin smiled and raised his silenced pistol. Instead of the fear he was expecting, Jack shot the man a grin.
"Well look, now I don't have to go looking for you, asshole."