In the Grey Read Free Page A

gestured for her to get on with it, and she
nodded.
    “ It’s less than I
thought,” Alex turned back to look at the room. “More than I’d
hoped.”
    Alex tried to give a
reassuring smile.
    “ Are there other results?”
Alex asked.
    “ About a third were given
calls to activation,” Vince said. “I have a list of their
assignments. If I may, sir, what concerned me was how many were
triggered but told to wait. It’s almost as
if . . .”
    Vince flushed and looked
down.
    “ You may speak freely,”
Alex said.
    “ It sounds crazy, but it’s
almost as if he wanted an army of talented operatives waiting in
the wings,” Vince said.
    “ Like the Star Wars drone
armies,” US Marine Sergeant Michael “MJ” Scully, Jr.
said.
    “ Or Saruman creating
Uruk-hai in Lord of the
Rings ,” Captain Christopher “White Boy”
Blanco said. “You know, those big black goblin man-dudes with the
white hands on their faces?”
    White Boy put his hand on
his head to demonstrate.
    “ Orcs,” Troy said.
“They’re half-Orcs.”
    Alex shook her head at
Troy and White Boy to stop their tangent. They looked at each other
and shrugged.
    “ I agree,” Vince gave a
sly smile. “Except this army is human, and very real, not half-Orcs
at all.”
    The team
chuckled.
    “ An army of seasoned
professionals on the side; so noted,” Alex said. “Thank you,
Captain Hutchins. Anything else?”
    “ I think it’s worth noting
that our efforts at contacting the subjects last summer were
effective,” Vince said. “Almost everyone we’ve spoken to so far was
aware that they might receive a phone call, voice imprint, email,
or other contact. They are following the protocol we set out
including the face-to-face contact via the video feed.”
    “ So we’re certain we
actually contacted who we think we contacted,” Alex
said.
    “ Yes, sir,” Vince
said.
    “ I’ve received fourteen
emails with video feed and voice imprint data since the start of
this meeting,” said Alex’s assistant, US Army Sergeant Alexander
Roger Ulysses “Dusty” Cummings III.
    “ An army of seasoned
professionals,” Alex repeated. “This is good.”
    “ I think we can expect to
hear from most of the people on our list,” Vince said.
    Alex nodded. She knew his
words should reassure her, but the gnawing feeling in the pit of
her stomach didn’t ease.
    “ Do we have a sense of
assignments?” Alex asked.
    “ Assassinations of key
players in a variety of projects, including this one,” Vince said.
“Royce noticed that each assignment is a perfect fit for both the
operative and the target.”
    “ How so?” Alex
asked.
    “ Royce?” Vince
asked.
    “ What I meant
was . . . ,” US Navy Chief Petty Officer Royce
Tubman stood up. He glanced around the room and cleared his throat.
Alex gave him a reassuring nod. “It seemed like this individual did
a lot of research or knew a lot about each of the operatives. Like
one of my jarheads. His assignment was to engage a guy during his
morning run. You know, run by him. Pop. Pop. But he got his carbon
running blade three weeks ago. His first. He’s been out every day
since he got the blade, but how’d he know my guy was running? How’d
he know the target ran to work on the Custis Trail? The target had
just started training for a Triathlon. He picked up running to work
less than two weeks ago. We’re talking thousands of targets,
thousands of operatives. The level of detail
is . . .”
    “ Unnerving,” Troy
said.
    Alex glanced around the
room. Her team’s heads nodded in agreement. She glanced at her
father’s team and saw blank faces and staring eyes.
    “ Eniac has planned this
for a long time,” Vince said.
    “ Or it came together
fast,” US Army Captain Matthew Mac Clenaghan, Alex’s
second-in-command, said. She gestured to him and he joined her at
the front.
    “ Or both,” Alex said. “He
seems to have access to a depth of information
that . . .”
    “ And the girls?”