MDF headquarters was sparing nothing to try to track down Alexei and Sean. Anyone not tied up in critical jobs was focused on trying to find their two missing operatives. Kyle knew that much manpower being freed up to search was a rarity. If they weren’t entrenched in the Pavluhkin mission, things would be different. A small task force would have been assigned to track them down if possible, but too much was at stake to abide by the usualprotocols.
“You get any rack time, at least?” Annabelleasked.
“No.”
She didn’t push him to leave, for which he was grateful. With Jamie in Boston, his family here, and his brother missing, Kyle was feeling more than a little unmoored. Standing watch was the one thing hecoulddo since the director didn’t want Alpha Team to leavethebase.
A flurry of movement out of the corner of his eye had Kyle turning his head to watch as an analyst flagged down the supervisor. He took a sip of synthcaf, eyes narrowed as he watched them confer for a couple of minutes before the supervisor straightened up, head slightly tilted in a way that meant he was talking overcomms.
Annabelle perked up as well, peering around Kyle at what was going on across the room. “Hopefully it’sgoodnews.”
“Yeah.”
Kyle stepped away from his borrowed terminal and strode over to the tense circle of agents, Annabelle right on hisheels.
“Did you find them?” Kyle demanded once he was withinearshot.
The supervising officer shook his head. “No, but we foundalead.”
The analyst seated at the terminal blinked up at Kyle. She was young-looking, but he had faith she was good at her job. The MDF had high standards in its supportstaff.
“We’ve been having Ceres run facial recognition on anyone who’s entered and left the parking structure twelve hours before and after the abduction time, sir. It’s linked to an office building, so that’s quite a bit of identities to run through, but these two are coming up as possible suspects,”shesaid.
“Not a sir,” Kyle said absently as he watched her rotate around a holoscreen showing the holopics of two young women. “Not anofficer.”
“Yes, sir. I mean, staff sergeant.” The analyst bit her lip as she stared hard at the holoscreens while typing out commands on the opaque control board on her terminal. “Anyway, these two are students at Georgetown University and are members of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Wouldn’t be noteworthy except our data mining program uncovered ties to the Sons of Adam through their social media posts. Nothing overt, but specific symbolic jewelry and tattoos that have always been associated with that group. A further review of their family shows even more discreet ties to the group, and their finances are rife with donations to companies owned by Sons of Adammembers.”
Kyle dragged the holoscreens closer, studying the two college students. Young, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, the ideal kind of women the Sons of Adam would recruit into their cause. The pair didn’t look dangerous at all, and he could see why Alexei and Sean may have discounted the women as athreat.
“Any chance the two might be metahumans?” Annabelle wanted to know. “We know the Sons of Adamrecruitthem.”
“No way to tell for sure without DNA, but nothing in our search indicates they are at the moment. That couldchange.”
Kyle’s fingers twitched, itching for his rifle. “Wake up the director. He needs to knowaboutthis.”
Government was known for its glacial pace and layers of bureaucracy, but when the need required it, the MDF excelled at cutting right through any red tape. In this instance, the proverbial ball got rolling as soon as Nazari was informed of what the analysts on duty had found. By 1000, one of the MDF’s many attorneys had convinced a federal judge to authorize an arrest warrant and Nazari issued a team of agents their retrievalorders.
Kyle was not part ofthatteam.
“I should be the one to bring them in,” Kyle said, scowling at the live feed from the cameras embedded in the agents’sunglasses.
“Honey, weallknow you’d shoot them on sight first chance you got,” Annabelle drawled, giving him a comforting pat on theshoulder.
“I’d shoot themafterwe got what we neededfromthem.”
“That doesn’t help your argument,”Donovansaid.
“Ask me ifIcare.”
No one did. Kyle shifted his weight on his feet and kept scowling at the feed. Every remaining member of Alpha Team, except for Jamie, was gathered in the war room, hovering over the analysts’ shoulders, and generally making everyone nervous. Nazari hadn’t ordered them out of the room though, so they stayed. Kyle honestly would’ve fought a dismissal at this point. He needed to know what was happening in the search for his brother and Sean or he’d gocrazy.
“Looks like they’ve arrived at campus,” Madison said. She leaned forward in the chair she’d purloined from a nearby terminal and rested her elbows against the table. “Do we know if the targets are inclass?”
“They share a morning poli-sci class, two lecture classes, and a dorm room,” Katieabsentlysaid.
“That sounds creepilycodependent.”
“Good news,” Nazari said as he returned to the central work table they were all crowded around. “Ovechkina, I’ve been informed we’ve been approved for a Telepathy Warrant. When the two targets are escorted back here, you have permission to scan theirminds.”
