“The most commonly repeated code is AO,” she said. “There’s also a few references to the AO or TAO, which is probably the same thing. Based on the Croatia documents, we had very little to go on, but in the notes Joe gave to Toys, there are references to ‘the American Operation.’”

“Which is…?” asked Wilson.

“Beats the living tarnation out of me, duckie.”

“We can conjecture that it involves a deployment of the other technology,” said Church.

“Sure, but how can we pinpoint the target?” asked Isaac.

“Without a time frame, we cannot,” Church said glumly. “We’re early in the summer, and with COVID restrictions lifting, baseball season will continue in earnest, with sentimental fans now flocking to the stadiums. The same goes for concerts, and there are outdoor events like Coachella, Burning Man, and many others. If we go into fall, there’s football season, schools reopening, election rallies…”

He left the rest hang.

“Moving on,” said Doc. “There are a few references to G-55. Isaac thinks it’s another product line that we don’t have specs on yet. Ronny-bear thinks it’s a code for a generation of a bioweapon. But we’re just guessing.”

They all batted theories around, but again, the lack of context foiled them.

“Then we have R-33,” said Doc. “That is a chemical, and there were extensive notes in the Croatia papers. There were even some samples of earlier versions of it—notably, R-16 and R-31. But I’ll let Wooly Bear tell you his theory.”

Ronald Coleman got to his feet. He was relatively new to Rogue Team International and not used to giving presentations to Church and his chief of operations. But he took a breath and plunged in.

“I have a theory about R-33,” he began. “There are several references to R-33, Relentless, and the 33 Protocols in the notes we recovered in Croatia, and I believe they’re all the same thing.”

“Excuse me,” said Wilson, “but ‘Relentless’?”

“Yes. It appears to be a category of designer drug therapies in the eugeroic category. What some people call nootropic. Wakefulness drugs. Modafinil is the best-known drug in this category of drugs. It was developed to work for people with narcolepsy. It’s now used in all kinds of contexts where people need to stay alert for long periods of time. The air force uses it as a ‘go pill’ for certain situations. They did a really interesting test where they kept pilots awake for thirty-seven hours and made them fly in a simulator under the influence of it. That has real benefits for the military on long missions, and I know that it’s been tested in some countries to help firefighters on long shifts, emergency room staff, and so on. There are clear benefits, but as with all drugs, there are both known side effects and potential misuses. Not accidental … I mean deliberate uses for less-than-admirable purposes.”