HeatedMatch Read Free Page A

minutes.
    Chase stood, stretched and announced, “I’m heading for the
pool.” He looked at Adam. “See you there in a few?”
    Adam also stretched his arms above his head, flexing his
stiff muscles then lowered them. “I’ll meet you there.” He watched with vague
amusement as Shep scribbled onto a spiral notebook. No amount of ribbing would
get Shep to change to a tablet or laptop. He suffered through email as a
necessity, but that was the extent. Maybe it was his way of reminding himself
of his humanity.
    “Tell us more about Loren Stanton,” Shep finally said when
the door had closed behind Chase. “Did you talk to her?”
    “I spoke to her briefly. She left before I exited the
ballroom.”
    “She’s a reporter, correct?” the senior Blacker asked.
    He nodded. “Yes, for The Post ,” Adam said.
    “We’re going to need to get every detail about her. Where
she lives, shops, and what she knows about her father. We know next to nothing
about Robert’s daughter,” William said.
    “It’s possible she knew we were on assignment there tonight
and was sent to follow up on last week’s news story,” added Shep. “I’m sick of
making the news. If she so much as breathes the air near Beltsville, we shut
her down.”
    Adam thought their reaction was a bit overboard. Loren had
seemed annoyed at having to cover an over-the-top first birthday party. More
than likely she had no idea her father had been on the team of genetically
enhanced soldiers who’d made the front cover of every newspaper last week. If a
miniscule part of him wanted her to find the compound, find him , he
pushed that emotion to the deepest recesses of his mind.
    The senior Blacker jumped in. “We don’t want a repeat of
last week’s top YouTube video.” Ever since Ryan’s wife went to the press to
divulge the Program’s secrets, civilians had scrambled to catch glimpses of
Program Soldiers.
    Since the article, they’d had to scale back operations
because it was damn near impossible to operate with people camping outside
their compound, hoping to get a glimpse of one of the enhanced soldiers. Or
worse, crowds of females hoping to be genetically compatible and get selected
as a breeding partner.
    “That’s right,” grumbled Shep. “I’ve never seen anything
like this. Third time this month we’ve been caught on camera. People with their
damn cell phone cameras and Face Space pages. What happened to good old Walt
Cronkite for news? Why does any idiot with a keyboard and internet connection
think he’s a credentialed journalist?”
    Adam didn’t bother answering. Shep was old school and no
explanation would change it. At the same time, a tiny part of him felt Loren
deserved to know more about her family. She had a father who’d served his
country faithfully and died for that patriotism and a brother who still served.
But, nope. Never going to happen. No way Loren would ever discover the truth
about her father unless Adam took out a front-page ad in a newspaper and gave
the whos, whats and wheres. He kept his opinion to himself and got up to leave.
His generation of the Program held their own Thursday night rituals, and he was
late. He took a step toward the door but stopped at the sound of his dad’s
voice.
    “Hang on, Adam. We have one other thing to discuss.”
    He turned around and retook his seat. “What’s up?”
    A silent conversation relayed across the desk between his
dad and commander. He folded his arms across his chest, leaned back in his
chair and waited, sure it would be a request to monitor some minor operation or
training class. But surprise hit at Commander Shepard’s first words.
    “Adam, America changed after the terrorist attacks on our
turf. Attitudes toward security changed. Shake-ups in the CIA, FBI, the
creation of the department of Homeland Security, you name it.”
    He bit his tongue in an effort not to tell Shep to shit or
get off the pot. But he was dying to know where this was headed. His