Virtually Hers by Gennita Low

assets, especially with the time factor. We’re dealing with a man who uses and sells young girls. It’d be very difficult to get him to confide in a woman about weapons. So inserting Hawk McMillan into Dilaver’s stronghold is the best option. It frees us for the rest of Phase Three, which we’ll run through right now to make sure we’re all on the same page. We have a lot on our plates what with what has happened in D.C.”
    Ever since their team had initiated Phase Three and successfully managed to corner the CIA moles, the rats—so to speak—had been scattering back to their holes. Which was what they’d wanted. COMCEN’s agenda was to follow each trail and infiltrate so they could find out more about this extensive network of spies who had been poisoning the system for so long.
    It had taken them a long time to get to this point and Jed could feel a breakthrough coming. Finally— finally —after all these years, he would be able to crush a few enemies that had cost the lives of his friends.
    “Admiral Madison is doing a great job there too, making sure that the Intelligence Committee investigates all the suspicious cases from the last ten years,” Flyboy said.
    “Yes, having met that man a few times, I think he should run for office,” Sullivan added.
    “Are you crazy, dude? That’s the end of life as he knows it. He can forget about finding out traitors and getting to the bottom of this mess we’re in. We don’t need him running around making promises he won’t keep.” Flyboy scratched his nose with his pen. “No, we want him just as he is.”
    “True.” Sullivan leaned back. “So I gather I keep on doing what I’ve been doing, putting together the missing weapons puzzle, right? Jed?”
    Jed blinked. Part of him had been listening to the conversation, but a part of him was busy registering that strange prickly sensation at the base of his neck. He’d felt it before—when he was looking down at Cummings’ body. What the hell was it?
    He looked at his team. Everyone was at ease, throwing out ideas and speculations in their usual informal style. They were a tightly knit group. If anything was wrong, these men would all feel it. No, this feeling was uniquely his.
    Sullivan was gazing back at him questioningly, waiting for his reply. They were used to his short pauses, so his little silence hadn’t been noticed. He caught Armando’s speculative gaze. Except by one. Armando was looking at him too closely. Did he have the same odd feeling too?
    Jed double-clicked the remote. “Quick update. The missing weapons are showing up at odd places. The explosive device is in Macedonia. We just retrieved the SEED in Germany. What do you have for us at your end, Sullivan?”
    Sullivan and Shahrukh were their weaponry and battle experts. Sullivan had connections with the West and Shahrukh, the East. The two of them worked well together, and in spite of very different demeanors, they had become very close friends, so much so that they were mocked as the twins at COMCEN.
    Sullivan grinned and turned to Shahrukh. “Wait till they hear what we have.”
    Shahrukh responded with a mere lift of his dark eyebrow.
    “First, we’ll simplify each missing element,” Sullivan said, counting off with his fingers. “An explosive device, practically undetectable. A decoder, one that’s being designed by quantum scientists. The entire design of our newest flight simulator. A captured and still missing spy plane. That’s just the big list. Shahrukh?”
    “With some help from T., we’ve traced certain monetary movements through off-shore accounts belonging to some of our suspects,” Shahrukh obligingly continued, his soft accent more pronounced than usual, betraying a little bit of his excitement. “We matched dates and events. There’s an emerging pattern.”
    “Former KGB handlers and their leftover moles in different agencies,” Sullivan interrupted triumphantly.
    “It seems that the fall of the Soviet Union