GEN13 - Version 2.0 by Unknown Author Page A

happens again. Privately, we work our butts off to find out who did this and take our damned nuke back.” “Hmmmm,” said Lynch. “There’s still one thing that bothers me.”
    “Just one?”
    “This doesn’t add up as an isolated incident. Have there been any other . . . unusual events lately?”
    Greenberg laughed without mirth. “If ‘unusual events’ like this were going on before, I’d have quit by now. Nah, it’s been downright dull around here.”
    “Well, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help out with this thing.”
    “Gee, you could find the nuke,” Greenberg said, with more than a trace of sarcasm in his voice. “That’d be good. Yeah, that would be a big help.”
    Lynch smiled. “I’ll see what I can do. Thanks, Kal.” Greenberg hung up. A moment later, Lynch did the same.
    Lynch sat in the chair with his fingertips pressed together, deep in thought. So, he had been right, after all. There was more going on than met the eye. Somehow, though, he didn’t take much satisfaction in being right about this one. Given the way that the stakes were rapidly mounting, he would just as soon have been wrong.
    It wasn’t just that, though. He still believed what he said to Greenberg. It didn’t make sense for this to be just one isolated incident. With something so big brewing, there had to be other pieces falling into place, other traces to be found.
    Lynch looked back at the computer screen. He’d scanned yesterday’s news index while talking to Greenberg, but nothing exceptional stood out there either.
    Lynch clicked back to the day before. And there it was, splashed across the front page:
    MURDER ON CAPITOL HILL!
    Sturmer Dead Police Seek Mystery Slayer
    Washington was rocked this morning by the brazen murder of Representative Charlene Sturmer (D-Colo.). Not only was reaction provoked by the death of the popular Congresswoman, but also by the location where the crime took place: the halls of the Capitol building itself...
    Lynch stared at the account, his jaw hanging open. How could he have not jumped at this story before?
    Then he remembered. Two days ago, he’d been boarding an airplane under an assumed name, for a twenty-hour flight back to the United States. He’d never seen the news that day. Since then, the follow-up stories had just made reference to Sturmer’s murder without giving details. He’d assumed it was a more run-of-the-mill crime, albeit with a famous victim. Sturmer wasn’t the first famous person to be murdered, and she probably wouldn’t be the last.
    Lynch cursed himself for not checking into the details sooner. The crime bore atl the signs of being committed by a super-powered being—possibly a gen-active like Gen 13 and himself—and the incident on the Kolodny did, too.
    How many others have I missed? he thought.
    Lynch was devouring every word of the article on Sturmer’s death when J. B. walked in. “Knock knock,” J. B. said. “Okay to cpme back now?”
    Lynch replied without looking up. “How do I perform a general search through the archive?”
    J. B. stepped around the desk and placed his hands on the keyboard. “What are you looking for?”
    “Politicians who’ve died in the past six months.”
    By the time they finished the search, Lynch had what he was looking for. Four Senators and Representatives had died within the past six months. The deaths happened in various parts of the country, and were spread over time. Five months ago, Representative Evan Lowenthal of Missouri died in a car accident on a dark country road. Four months ago, Senator Hilton Wong of California died from complications stemming from a stroke. Two months ago, Senator Martin Cheswick of New York committed suicide, a tragedy that was being blamed on a secret addiction to pain killers; apparendy, he’d developed a dependence on them after a recent bout of surgery. Finally, two days ago, there was Charlene Sturmer’s murder at the Capitol.
    The different settings and