“And if Wilson ran the show, he would be able to identify some of the sleepers she hadn’t uncovered. In theory, at least. It’s just human nature to assume that he’s followed some of their careers over the years, if not many of them—to proudly watch the fruit of his labors pay off. Especially since he lost his children.”

“Let’s not get too Freudian,” said Berg. “But yeah, your analysis tracks, and Helen clearly felt the same way. You know what’s really sick? Beyond the whole concept of Camp Stalin in the Ozarks?”

Devin laughed. “Nothing can surprise me at this point.”

“The seventy-three couples Helen identified had one hundred and forty-six children,” said Berg.

“One hundred and nine,” said Devin.

“Thirty-seven of them died in accidents between 1980 and 1989. Kids between the ages of six and seventeen. Most of them drownings on one of the four lakes along the Missouri-Arkansas border. Ozark country.”

“That’s actuarially impossible,” said Devin, the implication of this statistic hitting him like a dirty family secret. “Holy shit. They killed those kids.”

“Culled for security reasons,” said Berg, raising an eyebrow. “Questionable loyalty. Maybe the kid defended Stalin a little too fiercely in history class. One too many slips about their family’s summer-vacation itinerary. Could be anything.”

“Liabilities to the program,” said Devin, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Looks like the same thing happens to the parents. The original sleepers. Most of them seem to expire right around seventy years of age,” said Berg. “Some even earlier. The fewer loose ends the better.”

“The whole thing is monstrous on so many levels,” said Devin.

“That unusually high number of drownings is what convinced Helen to travel the country and conduct interviews in the first place. She’d obviously spent a lot of time watching Wilson and waiting. My guess is the Iron Dome disaster got her thinking about all of the private sector sleepers she hadn’t been able to identify, and the damage they could do,” said Berg.

It made sense. Five hundred thirty-two killed in Haifa when the Tamir missiles that were launched to intercept the largest concentrated rocket attack fired from Lebanon in ten years mostly failed to hit their assigned targets. The Israelis acknowledged that luck alone prevented a direct hit to one of the refineries that could have resulted in a severely lethal chemical leak.

“It probably triggered the kidnapping,” said Berg. “Grabbing Wilson was the only practical move left for your mother, and a pretty good one.”

“And now that Wilson’s dead?” asked Devin.