“Michael, what—”
“Go into your settings, open About Phone, and look at the software information.Do you see the sequence one-five-uppercase A-lowercase b-colon-exclamation point-one-asterisk anywhere in the kernel number?”
Faith blinked.She navigated to the kernel, and when she saw the sequence he described, her soul left her body.“Yes,” she whispered.“Yes, I see it.”
“Okay, good.That means your phone is secure.”
“Michael, God damn it!Start with that!Is this one of your stupidpranks?”
“Whoa, take it easy.Not a prank.Just making sure.”
Faith sighed and pressed her left fingertips to her temple.“Okay.Sorry.I’ve been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster the past few days.”
“Yeah, I understand that.I wish I was calling with good news.”
Faith sighed again, but the scare Michael had just given her seemed to have vented most of her nervous energy, so she didn’t react with the fear she might otherwise have reacted with.“Tell me.”
“I did some crawling through some records that I’m not allowed to know exist and you’redefinitelynot allowed to know exist.Had to call in some favors with the NSA, but I got some information on the 93rdTesting Brigade.”
Faith’s brow furrowed.“How does the NSA owe you favors?”
“That’s a long story that I definitely want to tell you another time.The short version is that we’re still having a lot of fun up here in Philly.The point is, the 93rdTesting Brigade really exists, they really are into some crazy shit, and the threat on David’s life is very real.”
Another wave of terror ran through her.Her tongue felt thick, and a headache was coming on.“Um… Can you be more specific?”
“Yeah.The 93rdTesting Brigade isn’t actually a Marine Corps unit.It’s a CIA unit.”
Faith had endured so many shocks in such a short amount of time that she was too numb to do anything other than say, “Ah.”
“Yeah.Officially, it’s a Marine Corps unit, and the staff members are all commissioned Marine officers, but they’re really a CIA experimental unit, just like Area 51 is officially an Air Force base but is actually a CIA facility.”
Faith swallowed.“Okay.So, David somehow stepped into it with the CIA.”
“Yep.Specifically, a PsyOps black project designed to enhance human-animal interactions to improve combat utility and multimission flexibility.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure.That was all the information I was able to find.That, and the identity of the unit’s commander.Colonel Randall Chastain.”
He paused, and Faith asked, “Am I supposed to know who that is?”
“No, but you should become familiar with him because he’s a real piece of work.I can’t get much on him either, but what Icanget suggests he’s a big honcho in PsyOps.That’s Psychological Operations, by the way.”
“Yeah, I got that.”The plastic of Faith’s phone case creaked from the tightness of her grip, so she set it on the table.She swallowed again and asked, “So this is some sort of MKUltra but for working dogs?”
“I think so.Like I said, I can’t find details of what exactly they do, but Chastain’s name is attached to pretty much every CIA black ops project involving psychological experimentation.”
“There are more?”
“Oh yeah.Highly illegal, all of them, but they exist.Sorry if I’m shattering your beautiful image of the world, but the CIA never stopped being unethical pieces of crap.”
Faith’s analytical mind was starting to recover from her shocks.“So, David caught them doing something illegal, and Chastain’s threatening him because he could blow the lid on a whole bevy of CIA bullshit that could get him in trouble.”
“Him, his bosses, and his bosses’ bosses.Needless to say, the CIA tends to take those things seriously.”
Faith thought back to Smythe’s assurance earlier that the Corps would never actually threaten David’s life.He was probably right about that.The CIA, though?They were experts at getting away with murder.It was a big part of their job.They could erase David from existence and leave no trace of themselves behind.
Shit, Smythe.
