Juan sighed and nodded. He was so exhausted, he would have agreed to anything.

Worse, he was worried. This genetic material was already out there, in the wild. He could analyze it, sure; maybe even understand it. But what on earth could be done to stop it?

We’re screwed.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Nate followed his supervisor into a secure room, one of several in the building that served as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. As soon as the door closed behind them, Nate asked, “What gives? Why the need for a SCIF?”

Jeff growled, “Because of this!” He handed Nate an envelope. “I’ve already dusted it for prints. There’s nothing.”

Nate opened the envelope, extracted a single sheet of paper, and read it.

“Two agents from German Intelligence have infiltrated the IC. They have orders to retrieve an intelligence asset associated with the DRWN compartment. Deidrick Müller and Hans Reinhardt are two persons of interest. I’m not certain how many assets they control.”

Nate’s pulse quickened. “Where the hell did this come from?”

Jeff raked his hands through his hair and paced the small room. “I have no fucking idea, but I found that envelope on my car’s dashboard. It was put there while it was parked in my garage, at home!”

Nate had never seen the man so agitated. “They broke into your garage just to leave this? Do we know if it’s even legit? We don’t have any signals intelligence on this, do we?”

“We don’t know what to believe right now.”

“Wait.” Nate tapped his foot as something struck him as familiar about that message. The names in that note… “Oh shit. Those names were on the report I got from that coed at Georgetown. The one who got rescued at the island.”

“In that case, I suspect the ‘asset’ they’re talking about is Gutierrez.”

“Do you think we should get the Secret Service involved?”

“I’ve got a meeting with the deputy director later today; I’ll talk to her and see. In the meantime, we can’t afford to have anything happen to him. I’ve already ordered someone to be stationed around-the-clock outside his hotel room. I’ll double that, and make sure he has a two-car escort wherever he’s going. And I don’t want him anywhere without an agent. All of our asses are on the line if anything happens to that guy.”

“What about the two German intelligence agents? Are we going to do anything about them?”

Jeff nodded. “Oh yeah. We need to find these two jokers and whoever else is with them. They were probably the ones who ‘visited’ Gutierrez at his apartment in Arlington. Once we have a handle on where they are, I’ll need you to prepare a team. We need to get them in for questioning, and they might not come willingly.”