Extinction Machine

Chapter Sixty-one

The Warehouse

Baltimore, Maryland

Sunday, October 20, 10:48 a.m.

Rudy Sanchez perched on the edge of the visitor chair, feeling immensely useless as Mr. Church and the rest of the DMS threw its resources against the current problem—including the loss of communication with Joe Ledger. Rudy’s stomach was turning slowly to a soup of hot acid.

Across the desk from him, Church was making a series of phone calls. To the acting president, to Linden Brierly, to Aunt Sallie, to two members of the Joint Chiefs, to four separate DMS station chiefs, to the Coast Guard and the Maryland State Police. At least half of his efforts were bent toward getting help out to Joe Ledger, but so far there was nothing Rudy could do to help. His advice was not even sought.

In a moment of dismal depression he mused that, as a trauma specialist, he might only be able to help Joe after this whole thing was over. Or, worse yet, to help those who cared about Joe if this situation continued to spin downward. He wished Circe was here. She was one of the world’s top analysts in matters of terrorism and, no matter whatever else this was, this matter was terrifying. Privately Rudy admitted that he simply would not mind having his hand held by the woman he loved.

Then the screen on the wall flashed and Bug reappeared. “Boss,” he said to Church, “we got a problem. Actually—maybe two problems.”

“Of course we do,” Rudy said to himself.

Church took a breath. “Tell me.”

“This is about our expert. It’s about Junie Flynn. I’ve been doing deep background on her, and you know she was adopted, right?”

“Yes.”

“No, she wasn’t.”

Church said nothing.

“I ran her adoption records and they’re passable fakes. They used that old trick of lifting a Social Security number from a real orphan who died a few days after being born. Junie was never in an orphanage. The paperwork was entered into the system by someone who’s pretty good at this stuff. Good enough that it took MindReader to figure it out.”

“Then who is she?” asked Rudy.

“Good question,” said Bug. “Here’s more. She was homeschooled until she went to college.”

“So…?”

“I went into the system to pull any records I could find on her. Medical, vaccination, anything.”

“And?” asked Church.

“There’s nothing.”

“I don’t understand,” said Rudy. “Have her records been removed?”

“No,” said Bug, “if they’d been expunged it would leave a trace in the system and MindReader’s programmed to look for that sort of thing. You can’t hide from MindReader…”

“But…”

“Unless you’re not in the system at all, and Junie Flynn is definitely not in the system. She’s never been in a hospital, at least not under that name or the name on the phony birth certificate. She’s never been to a dentist, she’s never been vaccinated, she’s never been to an ER. Never been to a shrink, as far as I can tell.”

“How thoroughly have you looked?” asked Church.

“I got a couple of guys on this and they’re going all the way down the rabbit hole, but Alice isn’t there.”

Church pursed his lips and said nothing.

Rudy asked, “But what does that mean? Is she … a spy? A mole, or something like that? Is she operating under a false identity?”

“We don’t know,” said Bug. “It’s not Witness Protection or anything like that, and I don’t make her for a deep-cover mole.”

“Doubtful,” agreed Church.

“As far as the system goes,” continued Bug, “prior to entering college she didn’t exist. Most of what we have is really recent stuff, what she put on her Web site and the content of her podcasts.”

“Put people on those podcasts,” said Church. “I want summaries of everything she’s said.”

Bug made a strange face. “Way ahead of you. I have a whole bunch of my guys on that. I started them on the podcasts as soon as Joe headed out to Turkey Point. Most of the stuff is general conspiracy theory material, and a lot of speculation on the Black Book, M3, all of that. But then Joe suggested we listen to last night’s podcast. If the thing with the president wasn’t already taking up so much manpower we’d have gotten to this sooner. But man-oh-man-oh-man.”

“What is it?” asked Rudy, gripping the arms of his chair.

“Last night Junie Flynn announced that she has obtained a complete copy of the Majestic Black Book and that tonight she plans on sending it to every newspaper and university in the world. And to every nonprofit organization, every grassroots organization…”

Rudy gasped. “She … she lied to us.”

Church sat back in his chair. “So it seems.”

“I’m embarrassed to say that,” Rudy said, “except for the obvious deception about her source, I believed that she was being straight with us. I caught none of the eye shifts, body language changes, or facial tics typical of someone who is lying. And considering the pressure of the situation, at least some of those elements should have been there.”

“What do you infer from that?” asked Church.

“That she is either a very practiced liar, or she is—for some reason—unaware that she is lying.”

“No other options occur to you, Doctor?”

“Not immediately.”

Rudy saw a twitch on Church’s mouth that might have been a smile. “Let me know if you have any additional insights to share.”

“If I may,” said Rudy, “Bug—could you go through those podcasts more carefully? If she’s made this bold a move then there may be some precipitating event. She may have hinted at it in some way that will give us a clue as to what she has planned.”

“‘Planned’?” asked Bug. “I told you, she’s going to release the Black Book.”

“There has to be more to it than that. She’s openly challenging M3. Surely she knew that they would respond. If they killed her parents, then she would have to be aware of the threat to herself. Until now she’s only talked about the Black Book. Now she not only claims to have it, but has threatened to release it in a way that will force M3 to move against her, to stop her.”

“I agree,” said Church.

“We need to figure out what game she’s playing.”