Deep Sleep (Devin Gray #1)(38)

“I was more concerned about the grimy glasses in the cabinet,” said Devin. “I bought some paper cups.”

Berg laughed and shook his head. “Your mom has a hundred thousand dollars sitting in a five-thousand-dollar safe, and we’re afraid to drink the water from her apartment. The world is a strange place, my friend.”

Devin took a seat at the table without washing his hands. He was too tired for basic hygiene at this point. Berg set a can of Joint Resolution Hazy IPA in front of him and sat down across the table from him before cracking open his own beer. Devin followed suit and toasted Helen.

“So. After spending nearly a day in Helen’s mind—what do you think now?” asked Devin.

“I think we have a nightmare on our hands. I kept searching and searching for that one piece of evidence or link that brought the whole wall down. A fatal flaw that I could point to and say, ‘Dammit, Helen! This is where you went off the rails!’ But I couldn’t find it. On top of that, this is even worse than she thought.”

With Berg’s last comment, Devin finished the can and got up. “Can I grab you another?”

“May as well,” said Berg. “This one will be gone soon.”

Devin returned with the rest of the six-pack, placing it on the table before pulling a can free from the plastic binding.

“How does it get worse than a sleeper network penetrating nearly every level of government, the military, law enforcement, and industry?” asked Devin.

“Try tanking our economy, kneecapping our military, and eroding our allies’ trust in us to the point of hostility,” said Berg. “Israel almost broke off diplomatic relations with us over the Iron Dome failure. Antheon’s stock dropped by half overnight, and now their SM-3 antiballistic missile program is under scrutiny. That puts several of our allies in an awkward position, since they rely on those missiles for protection from ballistic missile threats. Not to mention what they did to Boeing, Lockram Industries, and Ampere, if we’re to assume that the Russian sleeper network penetrated those companies and sabotaged their flagship projects.”

It all made sense to Devin. This wasn’t just about espionage. The Russians had a much broader strategic goal in mind. They planned to use the network to reshape the geopolitical world in their favor, by flatlining US global influence.

“I think we have to assume those companies are compromised at the project management, engineering, and software levels. Helen’s list is short on suspected sleepers within these companies, because the personnel information isn’t publicly available. She could search through the government and the military, because much of those industries’ personnel information is publicly available, especially higher up in the ranks. It’s that key software developer or systems engineer working for Antheon on the telemetry components used by Iron Dome’s Tamir missile that she’d never identify. That’s the level she couldn’t access, and that we need to identify. Because this isn’t just about damaging the United States,” said Devin.

“Exactly. This is about the resurrection of a superpower, but this time as a real superpower,” said Berg. “Not as a drab, mismanaged zombie land with nuclear weapons.”

“But the conspiracy was obviously conceived and implemented during the Cold War,” said Devin. “Russia has come a long way since the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

“Really? They export oil and weapons. Same as before. And when the price of oil craters, their economy tanks. The Russian economy has been stagnant since 2014, when oil prices dropped below one hundred dollars a barrel and never rose again above sixty dollars for any appreciable length of time. The Chinese have crushed them recently in the discount-arms trade market, with far less expensive, comparable weapons and technology—a lot of that based on research stolen from us. Russia’s arms exports have flattened for the first time since 2001. Sabotaging our top defense industry exports kills two birds with one stone. It gives their arms industry room to grow and weakens the US economy, which weakens the dollar—resulting in higher oil prices. The US dollar and the price of oil are directly correlated.”

“Russia gets richer and stronger while we get poorer and weaker,” said Devin. “But they’re still just exporting oil and weapons, and the difference between our two economies is massive. They can’t possibly catch up.”

“Nobody can catch up, except for maybe China,” said Berg. “Putin and his cronies know that. This is more of a diversified reboot.”

“I like that term. Even if I don’t know what you mean by it,” said Devin.

“I’m just riffing off what Helen started, framed by thirty-plus years of experience working the Soviet-Russian problem from a national intelligence perspective,” said Berg. “The Russians have been playing a very long game, and it’s about to pay off in ways we haven’t anticipated.”

“Beyond taking us down several notches and raising themselves a few?”

“Well beyond. Have you kept up with the situation in Hungary?” asked Berg.

“Assume I haven’t kept up with anything outside of my immediate personal life and work.”

“Fair enough. I spend far too much time analyzing this stuff. Like I said, old habits die hard,” said Berg. “So. Orbán and Putin have been pretty cozy over the past two years, right? Especially since Orbán announced Russia’s significant investment in Hungary’s soon-to-be-launched electric car industry. Two state-of-the-art factories to open a year apart near Budapest, the first going live in two years. University programs in Russia and Hungary specifically tailored toward the industry. This is a big undertaking, almost entirely underwritten by Russia, leveraging Hungary’s skilled and relatively inexpensive workforce. The target market is obviously Europe. Funny how Ampere’s latest-generation battery was a flop. Random overheating issues.”