Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
“Not sure what you mean.”
“With you, Joi. Did you fake your own death?”
“Yes.” She didn’t hesitate. “With the help of the CIA.”
“Why?” My question came out more like a demand. Which it was.
She lifted her chin. “That’s classified.”
“Bullshit.” I didn’t raise my voice, but didn’t let her get away with the cop-out. “You owe me this, Joilyn. You owe both of us an explanation.”
“Look. Both of you were already in the Marines. You were serving your country and proud of it. I wanted to do that too.”
“No one said you couldn’t.” Rattler raised his hands in a pleading gesture. “I wouldn’t have liked it much, but I’d have helped you all I could. What exactly happened?”
She rubbed her eyes tiredly and winced when a bruise on her face protested. “I did enlist. You guys were deployed. I was going to tell you after basic. But I ticked every box the CIA special ops program was looking for at the time. They said my lack of actual combat experience would work in their favor because they could train me the way they wanted me to operate. The only catch was, I had to leave my life behind. Disappear permanently.”
“Christ, Joi! You were eighteen! You couldn’t make a decision like that on your own.”
“All evidence to the contrary,” she replied dryly. Rattler gave her a venomous look and she sighed. “In hindsight, yeah. I can see how it was a bad choice. But I’m not sure discussing it with you would have changed my mind. They were training me to do important things. Things to keep our country safe. I was going to make a difference and I did. The work I did in Oklahoma helped head off at least three different major domestic attacks.”
“The CIA doesn’t operate inside the US, Joilyn.”
“Not usually, no. But there is a domestic division. Project MK-ULTRA and the attempt to suppress the Warren Report are just a couple of examples. Not to mention they had an office under a different name in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Officially, we were operating in Oklahoma because we had tracked a foreign national with ties to multiple terrorist originations.”
Rattler snorted. “That the company line?”
“Exactly.” Joilyn pointed at her brother, like he’d just proved her point. “It was an excuse. A reason for them to be operating in the area when your team got killed.”
“So, if you weren’t there to stop a terrorist plot, why were you there? And why did you stay there after everything went to shit?”
“It was a hit. Pure and simple.”
“A hit. That the CIA took on personally. Even covering and creating excuses for them being there? That makes no sense at all.”
“When have you ever known a government agency to make sense?”
I raised an eyebrow at Rattler. “She’s got you there.”
“Not helping, Falcon.”
“Not trying to. And I’m not buying it.”
“It took me a while to figure out what was going on and who I could trust. And I’m talking about people inside the agency. Staying with this bunch was a calculated risk, but I knew I could manage these guys. They’re mean, resourceful, and great at hunting squirrels and deer. But well versed in covert ops, they are not. Once I was in with them, I played the part easily enough. Since I didn’t have to contact my handler right away because I wasn’t sure I could trust him, I didn’t risk getting caught. By the time I’d worked it all out, things had died down here and gotten back to normal. Normal being a lesson in paranoid delusions within moderately sized groups. They didn’t see women as a threat. Just someone to help them when they needed it. I blended in with the other women, cooking and cleaning and keeping the kids out of the men’s way.”
“How long had you been in place before the raid?” Rattler was starting to relax a little. Like me, I was sure he was feeling the adrenaline letdown.
“About six weeks. Not long. Long enough to establish patterns. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone but the guys at the house the night of the raid. All of the women and children were supposed to be gone on a picnic off grounds. There weren’t that many of us and most of the time, only me and one other woman were there. But that day, it rained. I got word out to my handler, but he said it was too late. The operation had already started.
“I honestly didn’t care if the women were there or not. They knew what they were doing, that those guys were homegrown terrorists, and they chose to stay with them. But there was no way I could let those three kids be put in danger. So I sounded the alarm.” She closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. One tear slid down her cheek, but she ignored it. “I thought if they were ready, the team coming in would see they’d lost the element of surprise and at least pull back and reassess.”