Page 55 of The Lazarus Protocol

Adam saw on Ash’s face that they had. “What happened?”

Ash didn’t like it. “A woman and two kids. We helped them get from their home to a vehicle, and they left.”

“It was her.” Steph sat back in her chair.

The guys didn’t agree. Even Dan looked up from his laptop, his jaw set. Ice came back in, carrying his phone and an empty plate. They filled him in, and he slumped into his seat. “No way. How’d she even know we were there?”

Steph just shrugged.

“How can you be sure it was her?” Adam could tell she was certain, but was it only what she wanted him to see? He liked to think he could read people. But it wasn’t a foolproof science.

“She took your guidance system. Doesn’t matter if she knew you were there or not.”

Kai said, “She must’ve been there before us anyway. Chasing the drone, one step ahead.”

“You’ve met her before?” Adam watched her features tighten.

“What I know is from personal experience, yes.”

“But it’s classified?” Adam figured they could argue about who had higher clearance later. “Who is she?”

Steph set her fork on her empty plate and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “If I still had access, I’d be able to pull CIA files and show you what I know. But it’ll all have been revoked. Like access to my funds and any property I have that the CIA secured for me.”

“But you have money and a place to go outside of what they provide, right?”

“It’s complicated.” She grasped the small vial, a cylinder, hanging from her necklace.

“We can help you,” Adam said. “If you need help. I figure we can work together on this, share information. When it’s done, we could work something out?”

“If she has a name, I don’t know what it is. Most people in the intelligence community call her Vesper.”

Ice typed on his computer, and the LED wall displayed the search results for the name “Vesper”—including news articles on a bus bombing in Silicon Valley a few years ago.

“She’s part of an anti-tech group. True believers fighting a holy war type of thing, like ecoterrorists, but they believe that AI will destroy the world. That the more we hand over our decision making to a computer, the worse it will get. That we’ll eventually realize we’re being controlled.”

Adam said, “A few years ago there was a group that tried to destroy fiber optic cable in the ocean, with this massive explosion.”

“That was their group,” Steph said. “Any indication the drone you guys were tasked with retrieving was connected to artificial intelligence?”

“Maybe in that guidance system she took.” Adam remembered something Johannsen had said to them. “The system at the server farm learned from us. The point of it was to see what we did so it could understand humans better.”

He explained about the job they’d done in Argentina, and how they’d met this Vesper.

“There’s no way she followed us here, right?” Steph glanced around.

“If Marina was at her computer, we’d know for sure,” Ice said. “But other than that, no. I’d say there’s no way she followed us. We have security protocols, and safeguards, and the skies are clear.”

“Ice, she said to you that she was after a book?”

Adam glanced at Steph. “That means something to you?”

“I need my CIA files.” She lifted her mug, looked inside, then set it back down. “There’s a rumor⁠—”

“In the intelligence community?” Kai saluted with his coffee cup.

“You have your world, and I have mine.” She almost sounded sad.

Adam shot him a look, and Kai turned back to his plate. “What’s the rumor?”