“Me? Oh, yes, fine, it’s just that…well, I’ve seen you here plenty of times with Denise, and I’ve never seen you at one of these terminals. Is your computer at home broken?”

“Well, it’s been giving me some hiccups, and I was running some errands and—”

She puts her hand on my right shoulder and says, “I hate to interrupt you, but your daughter was asking me about getting a book for her from the interlibrary system, and darn it, I can’t remember the title. Do you know it?”

“No, I don’t,” I say, conscious that with every passing second, every passing minute, Tom and Denise are farther away from me. If they are still in the back of the van, each sixty seconds of blather with Sue is taking them a mile farther.

She gives my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Well, I’m sure Denise is home right now. If you want to give her a text, I’ll wait here.”

“I’m not really sure…” and I was about to say, where she is, but I can’t say those words out loud—no, I refuse to say those words out loud.

“Oh,” Sue says, smiling widely. “It’ll only take a second. I can wait. Then I can take care of her.”

“Sue,” I say, also conscious that with every passing minute, my presence on this parallel classified computer system is being recorded, “I really don’t have the time.”

“Amy, just a quick text, that’s all.”

“Sue…”

“Amy, just a quick text, and we can take care of it right here,” she says, and she quiets her voice—I suppose so the other computer users around us don’t hear. “I’m sure Denise will be happy to see how thoughtful you are.”

Thoughtful. Sure. How thoughtful. I should have left the Army after having her and gone into private industry, and she and Tom would be safe at home, with better clothes, better gadgets, fatter savings accounts, and above all, safe.

Safe from her mom’s sins.

“Sue?”

“Yes?”

I crook my finger at her, so she leans down, still smiling.

I lift myself up so I can whisper in her ear without anyone else overhearing.

“Sue,” I say, choosing my words carefully, using my best parade-ground command voice. “Leave me the hell alone or I’ll hurt you.”

CHAPTER 13

WITHIN TWO seconds I’m back at the screen, face warm, back tingly, knowing I’ve just tossed a hand grenade into the comfortable civilian life of one Sue Judson, and right now, not particularly giving a crap.

I double-click on the icon for GILLNET and go to the hit, indicating some sort of audio or visual surveillance system at or near Morgan Airport, and a lit acronym comes up.

USFWS.

In this man and woman’s Army, I’ve come across and memorized scores of acronyms, but this one is a puzzle until I click on it and come up with…

US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Well.

Not really part of what one would call the nation’s intelligence agencies, but I navigate GILLNET and find a video system piggybacked on a cell phone tower, used to film certain patterns of bird migration. How fascinating.