Silent Creed by Alex Kava

his responsibilities.
    “We’re working with DARPA on several projects. Sometimes they can do things we can’t. Many of their remote facilities, like this North Carolina one, work off the grid with little regulation or oversight. Vaccines, protective military gear—there’s a wide variety of projects.”
    “And this facility, what project was it working on?”
    “Unfortunately that’s classified.”
    At first she thought he might be joking. He had a dry, sarcastic sense of humor, but the longer he hesitated, yet again, the more she realized he was serious.
    “Let me get this straight,” and now she couldn’t hide the irritation. “I think you’re getting ready to ask me to go check out why a scientist working for DARPA ended up murdered in the middle of a landslide, but you’re not going to share with me what he was working on? Even though it may have been what got him killed?”
    “I know it sounds odd, but I actually don’t know yet. Details of each operation are on a need-to-know basis. Right now the concern is how this scientist ended up dead. And if there’s still possibly a threat to the others who may have been at the facility.”
    “Is there a chance it was a suicide?”
    “I honestly don’t know. Possibly. Again, details are murky. But you see the challenge. Until we find out what happened, it would be premature to release any information that could be harmful to the success of the operation.”
    He sounded like a bureaucrat. Of course, as the director of a government agency and an army officer, he
was
a bureaucrat. But she still hated when he sounded like one. As an FBI agent for over a decade, she was officially a government official, too, but O’Dell usually found herself bucking the system. In her own defense, she did what she believed was the right thing. Unfortunately, others in the bureau didn’t necessarily agree with her on what was right, especially if it wasn’t politically correct. Unlike Ben, she didn’t always play by the rules. And consequently, she had a reputation for going rogue. Which made her wonder why in the world he’d want her to go down and check on this.
    “Everything has been happening pretty quickly. Peter Logan, a deputy director of DARPA, is trying to find out what happened to the facility, but the FBI will be in charge of the murder investigation. Because of the sensitivity of that facility’s research, Colonel Abraham Hess asked if I could recommend someone we could trust to be discreet, and of course I thought about you.”
    Ah, so there was her answer. It was her expertise he needed as much as her discretion.
    He paused and she wondered if he was waiting for her to feel grateful or flattered. It was O’Dell’s experience that when government agencies needed to keep secrets, it usually amounted to covering their own asses. But Ben had helped her several times, actually saved her life once. He didn’t ask for favors. This had to be something terribly important to him.
    “Of course, I’ll do whatever I can.”
    He surprised her when he said, “You don’t have to do this just because it’s me asking, Maggie. You can say no.”
    And this time his tone was gentle and filled with concern—the Ben she knew and respected and maybe even loved.
    “I’ll leave in the morning after I check in with Gwen.”
    “It should only take a few days,” he told her. “Logan already has some people down there. His assistant, Isabel Klein, is there, and he hired a K9 unit. The dog handler is someone Logan knew in Afghanistan. I believe he said his name is Ryder Creed.”
    She had worked with Creed twice before. The last time only about a month ago. And suddenly O’Dell was glad they were on the phone so Ben couldn’t see her reaction. Because she could feel herself respond involuntarily.
    How was it possible that just the mention of Ryder Creed’s name could send an annoying but pleasant rush through her body?

DAY2

20.
    Haywood County, North Carolina
    D ust blurred