He wasn’t even thinking about his own safety or national security at this point, he was worried about her, that Nils doing something with this could push her over the edge, to say nothing of the fact that that police report being made public could easily be used to discredit the Photograph—her behavior is not heroic, her behavior is unhinged. These are not the actions of a brave soul embodying the best of humanity, these are the actions of a crazy person.

He noticed Brigadier General Porter on the other side of the room talking to Sol Kaplan, and for a fleeting moment, he considered telling Kaplan everything. Even though Nils was a huge thorn in their side, the CIA still had incredible power. Perhaps they could do something about this mess if they had the upper hand. He got up and approached the two, Porter with his haughty, above-it-all attitude, Kaplan scribbling something onto a notepad.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Agent Kaplan. Could I speak to you alone for a sec?”

Kaplan turned to him, looking at him like he was the help who’d just interrupted two aristocrats at a ball. “Wow, this doesn’t concern you.”

Kaveh replayed the moment in his mind’s eye a few times before accepting that yes, that had actually happened. Kaplan did actually say that. Kaveh turned without a word, heat creeping up his neck, and crossed the room back to the folding chair next to Nikola. Unbelievable. The arrogance, the fucking arrogance of this guy.

Then he cast a glance to Nikola, the machine this person inhabited. He had no clue as to the limits of the capabilities of this machine, but he was pretty sure that Nikola could give the U.S. surveillance state a run for its money.

“Nik, the guy Kaplan is talking to—can you hear what they’re saying?”

q

The crest on Nikola’s head stretched out, and the focus of his eyes darkened. Kaveh knew by now that meant he’d been doing something in his internal space and hadn’t been paying attention to the physical world. “I can.”

“Can you tell me what they’re talking about?”

Nikola paused, looking almost thoughtful. Then, “PERHAPS IT WOULD BE SIMPLER IF I RELAY TO YOU WHAT I AM HEARING THROUGH YOUR AURAL DEVICE.”

Nikola’s voice went silent, replaced by light static, and then Kaplan’s voice was in his ear, thin like it had gone through several rerecordings on a VHS tape. Kaveh whipped out his pen and notebook, jotting down notes in a code only he understood in case they confiscated it.

“Defense has all the dirt they need,” said Kaplan. “I don’t see what they want from us. We had absolutely no control over what happened at NORAD.”

“But there’s still Bedford,” said Porter.

“What about Bedford?” Kaplan sounded almost nervous.