Legacy(25)

Breandan frowned. “Is that all? I’ve saved your life.”

“So has everyone else at the table,” my mother said. “It’s like a big, giant ‘We’ve Saved Sienna’s Ass’ club. She’ll forget that at some point, though, mark my words, and probably forget you—”

“If you had my mother, you’d try to forget her, too,” I muttered under my breath. “That is Sierra Nealon.”

Breandan and Karthik looked down the table at my mother and Breandan looked back with a quizzical expression. “Is that your mum?”

“Tragically, yes,” I said before my mother could beat me to the punch. “She’ll be working with us on this.”

Breandan looked back at her again. “Wait, so your name is Sierra, and you named her Sienna? That’s a bit vain. Just a couple degrees off of naming her Sierra, Jr., isn’t it?”

My mother let out that hissing exhale that announced her patience was strained, and I took it as a cue to get us back on track. “We have a couple things to discuss now that we’re all gathered. First on the agenda—Karthik, can you help us locate the remnants of Omega in the United States so we can try and pull their resources together, maybe help us make a better stand?”

“I can try,” Karthik replied. “I likely won’t be much help.”

Reed leaned forward. “Because I’ve been watching Omega operations here in the U.S. for a few years, I have a lot of knowledge about the suspected locations of their facilities. When Karthik and I started comparing notes, it didn’t add up at all.”

“Because you were really lousy at your job?” my mother offered helpfully.

“Ha ha,” Reed said, faking a laugh. “No. I’m actually really good at my job, thank you. It’s because Karthik’s security clearance with Omega is so low he doesn’t have access to anything more than a very basic list of some of their oldest safehouses and facilities.” He looked over at me. “For example, the safehouse in Eau Claire that we visited a few months ago wasn’t on the list. Neither was the Andromeda facility in Eagle River.”

“Site Epsilon,” my mother said. “That’s what they would have called it in their files. Like every super-secret organization, they had ridiculous code-names for everything.”

“I can search for Site Epsilon in the Omega database,” Karthik said. “We left the servers on and connected, so I can access them from here so long as they remain intact. I tried to copy everything we could, but there were so many files, stretching back such a long time ...”

“That should be fine,” I said. “Hopefully Century has better things to do than destroy Omega’s empty headquarters.”

“Even that wouldn’t necessarily put them offline,” Karthik said. “We moved the servers down into the basement before we left, and it has its own power supply and independent data connections. So long as that sub-basement isn’t destroyed, we have whatever limited access I can manage to Omega’s entire library.” A troubled look made it’s way over his swarthy face. “Unfortunately it isn’t much for now, but I can continue to try and work on it.”

“We may be able to help with that,” I said, glancing at Ariadne. “We’re looking to bring on some high-powered IT support, someone who might be able to help you break into Omega’s databases.”

“J.J.?” Reed asked, watching me. “Did you find him?”

“We never lost him,” Ariadne explained. “He was furloughed with the rest of the Directorate staff just before the destruction. I sent him an email last night and he responded. He’ll be in tomorrow.”

“Speaking of old Directorate problems,” Li said, “we need to talk about facilities. We’re running into the end of the FBI’s good graces, taking up all the space we currently are. Your new arrivals will probably push the special agent in charge of this field office over the edge.”

I looked over at Ariadne, who made a little noise as she placed a palm flat against the table. She was back in her normal work attire, looking much more like the Ariadne I knew, her hair straightened and her suit looking appropriately drab. “I’ve looked at a few spaces, but ...” she let her voice trail off, then looked over at me for just a second before shifting her gaze back to the table, “... we need something of suitable size, with a motor pool, preferably a helicopter landing pad—”

“Do you anticipate landing a helicopter on it?” Breandan said, a little glib.

“The Directorate’s Black Hawk is sitting at the airport in Bloomington,” Ariadne said, taking no note of Breandan’s sarcasm. “I’ve already spoken with the pilots; they’re ready to work for us.”