Deep Sleep (Devin Gray #1)(70)

A new set of faces emerged. He recognized one of the faces from the photos he’d taken in front of the Starbucks near the University of Maryland. Gupta nodded at him.

“I thought you might find this particularly interesting,” said Gupta. “We did a deep dive through the bowels of the internet and found three deaths directly linked to patients transferred from the W Hotel to area hospitals on the night of your honey-trap sting. Two men, in their early to midfifties, succumbed to the angel of death the morning after they were stabilized. The angel of death being Jolene Rudd, who you photographed following you a few days ago and who we photographed dead in front of the town house. She was caught on security camera entering and exiting both of their rooms posing as a member of the Howard University Hospital.”

“Busy lady,” said Rich.

“Even more interesting? Her husband was photographed right next to her outside of the town house. Harvey Rudd. Both from Chattanooga, Tennessee,” said Gupta.

“Driver’s licenses collected at the town house put the whole group within easy driving distance around central Tennessee and Kentucky. One from northern Georgia,” said Graves.

“Odd that they would be working this far away,” said Rich.

Devin had a theory. “Not if they were involved with my mother’s situation. The Russians would have wanted some continuity for compartmentalization reasons. Right? If they had something to do with intercepting my mother in Tennessee, it makes sense to use them again on a related operation.”

“Very good point,” said Berg.

“Who the fuck are these people? They look like people you’d trust to watch your house when you went on vacation,” said Alex, one of the most nondescript people Devin had ever met, by design, no doubt.

“Based on their ages,” said Berg, “I’d say they were planted here in the early nineties, right after the Soviet Union collapsed. Possibly for the express purpose of supporting the sleeper network Helen discovered. I think the connection to DEVTEK needs to be considered. What role does Brian Chase fill at the company? The Russians clearly wanted something from him.”

“We weren’t given those details,” said Devin.

“DEVTEK is primarily an information security company,” said Graves. “Deep ties to the Department of Defense and pretty much every government agency that requires secure mobile communications. Rumor has it that the CIA accepted their recent bid on a classified CIA request for proposal—which my research suggests is a groundbreaking, modular communications encryption system. A one-size-fits-all, easy-to-implement encryption solution for computers, office phones, mobile phones, radios. It would basically create an interoperable, secure communications platform usable across agencies and across the spectrum of assets within an agency or group. A CIA officer on the India-Pakistani border could contact an available air-support asset with their satellite phone and direct an airstrike on a high-value target of opportunity. Normally that would require a UHF radio with encryption compatible with the aircraft’s system. A logistical nightmare. This would streamline everything. It’s a game changer.”

“That sounds like the kind of system the Russians would love to corrupt or steal,” said Devin.

“Or both,” added Marnie.

“If they were running a honey trap, sounds like they needed a way into the company,” said Rich.

Berg shook his head. “I don’t know. Why use a team on the verge of retirement for that? I know that springing a honey trap isn’t complicated, but following through with the blackmail side of an operation is tricky. Especially if you’re asking someone to commit a crime. Not something you’d put in Harvey and Jolene Rudd’s hands. I think this was more of a one-and-done situation. My guess is they were trying to get him to quit the company, so someone could take his place. Whoever filled his shoes is most likely another one of these second-generation sleepers.”

“So there’s more of these things out there,” said Emily Miralles.

Devin liked her use of the word things to describe the sleepers. Like manufactured goods.

“We have to assume there are more,” said Berg. “In total, possibly twice the number Helen discovered. The rest of them hidden in tech companies like DEVTEK, where they can remain mostly anonymous—and do untold damage. That’s why it’s so important to get a look at this camp. If it exists. There’s always the possibility that it doesn’t. She spent a significant amount of time looking for it and came up empty handed.”

“Locating the camp appears to be the tricky part,” said Rich. “But Gray has been right about everything else up to now, so this is where we start. Graves?”

Graves started typing, and a list of names filled the left third of the screen. A map of the United States filled the remaining two-thirds—red dots appearing across the country. Devin guessed immediately that they were looking at a list of the 109 sleepers and a map corresponding to their locations. Frighteningly, but not surprisingly, a majority of them resided around Washington, DC. The rest were scattered across the country, corresponding with a major military base, state capital, or larger city.

“For obvious reasons, we’ll remove anyone connected to law enforcement or the military from the list,” said Graves.

About thirty names disappeared from the left side of the screen, their red dots vanishing with them.