Oracle began reading out information regarding several matters of grave international importance. The Seif al Din plague, which coincided with the opening of Ledger’s file. There were others, all high profile. The shutdown of the ultrasecret vault in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania; the famous Jakoby-Mengele file; and others, leading up to the Seven Kings event last December. The records were spotty and included more speculation and unofficial information than hard evidence. As the Italian woman well knew it was virtually impossible to prove anything about the DMS. Very often files of this kind suddenly vanished from even encrypted hard drives. There were rumors of a DMS supercomputer called MindReader that had an aggressive search and destroy subroutine for ferreting out this kind of information.

“Oracle,” she said, “have you been attacked in any way since this file was opened?”

“No.”

“Isn’t that unusual?”

“There is a note in the file stating that any questions of this kind be directed to Lilith herself. Your mother does not permit additional speculative notes to be added to the file. Would you like me to pass along a request to your mother?”

“God no,” said the sniper before she could stop herself. “No,” she corrected.

“Shall I continue reading the subject’s service record?”

“Yes.”

Ledger reached out and pulled his dog toward him, wrapping his arms around the animal and laying his head on the dog’s shoulder. What an odd thing for a man like him to do, she thought. A strangely human act, totally at odds with the things Oracle was saying: that he was emotionally fractured, that he was utterly ruthless in a fight, that he had killed people with guns, knives, explosives, his hands. However, the way he held his dog and stroked the animal’s fur and spoke to it—even though she could not hear his words—made her smile.

“Oracle, stop report,” she said. “How did my mother obtain the information for her file on Ledger?”

“That information is in a subfolder marked eyes-only. Would you like to request temporary clearance to read that report?”

The sniper took a breath, then let it out slowly. “Yes.”

“That request has been forwarded to the Mothers.”

“Continue report.”