Devin took a seat at the table without washing his hands. He was too tired for basic hygiene at this point. Berg set a can of Joint Resolution Hazy IPA in front of him and sat down across the table from him before cracking open his own beer. Devin followed suit and toasted Helen.

“So. After spending nearly a day in Helen’s mind—what do you think now?” asked Devin.

“I think we have a nightmare on our hands. I kept searching and searching for that one piece of evidence or link that brought the whole wall down. A fatal flaw that I could point to and say, ‘Dammit, Helen! This is where you went off the rails!’ But I couldn’t find it. On top of that, this is even worse than she thought.”

With Berg’s last comment, Devin finished the can and got up. “Can I grab you another?”

“May as well,” said Berg. “This one will be gone soon.”

Devin returned with the rest of the six-pack, placing it on the table before pulling a can free from the plastic binding.

“How does it get worse than a sleeper network penetrating nearly every level of government, the military, law enforcement, and industry?” asked Devin.

“Try tanking our economy, kneecapping our military, and eroding our allies’ trust in us to the point of hostility,” said Berg. “Israel almost broke off diplomatic relations with us over the Iron Dome failure. Antheon’s stock dropped by half overnight, and now their SM-3 antiballistic missile program is under scrutiny. That puts several of our allies in an awkward position, since they rely on those missiles for protection from ballistic missile threats. Not to mention what they did to Boeing, Lockram Industries, and Ampere, if we’re to assume that the Russian sleeper network penetrated those companies and sabotaged their flagship projects.”

It all made sense to Devin. This wasn’t just about espionage. The Russians had a much broader strategic goal in mind. They planned to use the network to reshape the geopolitical world in their favor, by flatlining US global influence.

“I think we have to assume those companies are compromised at the project management, engineering, and software levels. Helen’s list is short on suspected sleepers within these companies, because the personnel information isn’t publicly available. She could search through the government and the military, because much of those industries’ personnel information is publicly available, especially higher up in the ranks. It’s that key software developer or systems engineer working for Antheon on the telemetry components used by Iron Dome’s Tamir missile that she’d never identify. That’s the level she couldn’t access, and that we need to identify. Because this isn’t just about damaging the United States,” said Devin.

“Exactly. This is about the resurrection of a superpower, but this time as a real superpower,” said Berg. “Not as a drab, mismanaged zombie land with nuclear weapons.”