Jenna sighed, and then said, “Okay, okay. Take a pill. I’ll sit over here and behave.”
Joanna threw her a dirty look but knew that it was pointless. Jenna was so thick-skinned that nothing ever fazed her. She only worried about getting what she was after—no matter what it took.
“You know, I don’t know if Kerim Ilgaz changed his name, because I can’t find much on him,” Jenna said, reaching for her glass and taking a sip.
“Oh?” Joanna frowned.
“He has absolutely no digital tattoo on the internet. No website, no social network. Not even an email account. I asked my contacts in Istanbul to find out more about him. All I could get was that he was in the military for four years. He has no family, no friends, nothing. As far as the database records show, before 2009, he was a ghost.”
Joanna said, “Well, maybe he did change his name. If he was in the military, maybe he was a secret agent or something. That would explain why he doesn’t have a footprint online. For all we know, he’s still under cover.”
“You know what, Joanna, I think you are onto something,” Jenna said, grinning like a kid who had just been handed an ice cream cone. “I’m going to see if my CIA contacts can find something on him.”
“Seriously? You’ve got CIA contacts?”
She gave her a wry smile.
Jenna shrugged. “CIA agents are a dime a dozen these days with all the national security measures that President Roshenbaum brought in.”
“Funny, I voted for Roshenbaum, thinking he’d protect our rights, but it looks like he’s worse than Sanders.”
“Yeah, who would guess that General Sanders would be more liberal than Roshenbaum,” Jenna replied. “But hey, as long as you instill enough fear in people, they’ll all line up and give away their rights like candy.”
The sound of the video chat alert interrupted their conversation. Joanna raised her finger to her lips, motioning to Jenna to keep quiet.
Joanna clicked on Zero’s avatar and the video chat window opened, filling her screen. He was dressed in an ocean blue short-sleeved button shirt, which was opened at the neckline showing off his golden skin.
Harry looks real good with a tan, she thought to herself. She also noticed that his eyes seemed to reflect the blue from his shirt.
“Onyx, I don’t have much time. Do you have the data I asked you for yesterday?”
“Hello to you too, Zero,” she replied.
“Onyx, I need that data now.”
She bit her tongue, trying hard not to glance over at Jenna who was drinking in Harry’s every word.
“Sending it now,” she said in the most professional tone she could muster.
Harry’s eyes looked down until the file was received on his end.
“File received. Good job, Onyx,” he said.
She smiled despite herself, her cheeks probably turning all shades of pink. Jenna was going to harass her later, she was sure of it.
“Lionheart knows about the data that we retrieved from the restricted server. She tasked me to find proof that you and Dr. S. breached security.”
He scowled, absorbing the news.“Stick with protocol. Divert the Lion away from us by using this data I’m sending now.”
She waited until the file downloaded on her computer. “Confirming receipt.”
“Also, if Shadow contacts you, flag it with me. Don’t reveal any intel to him. Until I have cleared him, consider him a hostile.”
She could hear Jenna gasp. Joanna kicked her foot under the table.
“Roger that,” Joanna replied.
She knew not to ask questions, but she could feel Jenna growing anxious.
“Zero, anything I need to know about Shadow?” she asked.
Harry shook his head, but his face look pained.
“Your next mission. Find out the correlation between these numbers…” he said, while typing in the text window.
Zero: 11132013, 56609, 14350109, 57740910, 17300304
“Where did you get these numbers from?” she asked, but then bit her tongue, realizing afterwards that she shouldn’t have asked.
Harry’s eyebrows raised slightly. Preparing herself for the lecture, she was surprised when he smiled instead.
“Yes, it would help put things in context if you knew what the source was. We have been gathering reports of people having dreams or visions since the earthquake. These are the numbers that many have reported seeing in their visions,” he said quietly.
She smiled to herself. This was the first time Harry had shared crucial intel with her.
“We will get onto this a.s.a.p.”
Jenna kicked her under the table. Joanna glanced over to her and realized her mistake before whipping her eyes back to the screen.
Luckily, Harry’s eyes were focused on his keyboard as he was typing.