Page 70 of PSYCHOlogical

“Fuck you, Sir.”

* * *

“So, I meet Martin at this bar, and I ask if he wants to grab something to eat. He said, ‘No, it’s pizza, night, remember? Oh, by the way, did you order Shephard killed?’”

“You?!” Val snapped. “He thinks you’re the one that ordered Shephard killed?”

“That, and he thinks I’m McMurphy. He said there are only two people that he knows for sure that aren’t this McMurphy character, and that’s Wallace and Pike. He said in the next few days, his contact at FBI will know for sure who McMurphy really is.”

“Oh really?” She pulled open the refrigerator and peered inside. “But, if he’s already accusing you, he’s made up his mind. You’re going to need to be extremely careful around him.”

“I’m not going to have to worry about that. I’m done with that son-of-a-bitch after tonight.” I poured a cup of coffee and turned toward the kitchen table. “We need to be on the offensive instead of the defensive. If we continue at this pace, we’re going to end up like Wallace and Pike.”

She closed the refrigerator and sat down across from me. “The offensive?”

“We’ve got five issues,” I said. “McMurphy—who sees to it that the DNI Office’s orders are executed, someone at New Dawn who might be leaking information, anyone at New Dawn that might follow McMurphy’s orders, Martin, and the Director of National Intelligence himself—who will have us hunted down if we walk away from the program.”

“You’re right,” she said. “As soon as they think we’re not team players, they’ll do to us what they did to Shephard.”

I gestured toward the security monitor on the kitchen countertop. “If anyone comes around here, we’ll know it.”

“Think about how we’ve eliminated some of our targets. Staged car wrecks. Drug overdoses. Accidents. Muggings. Burglaries. Allergic reactions. They could do any number of things to us and no one would see it as anything other than life taking its course.” She lowered her head. “I’m so nervous I can’t even function. I think it’s time we make some changes.”

“I need some time to think,” I said. “I don’t want to act based on impulse. It’s highly possible that they’re not going to do anything until someone else tries to leave the program. We might be safe for a long, long time.”

“I can’t even comprehend what you’re saying. I need to get something to eat before I collapse,” she replied. “I’m starving. Did you eat?”

I lifted my coffee cup. “I’m going to stick with caffeine. I don’t have much of an appetite. I’ll gladly cook if—”

“I’ll just run and grab something.” She stood. “Are you sure you aren’t hungry?”

“No, thank you.”

“Sushi?”

“Sushi does sound good,” I replied. “I’ll just go with you.”

“You stay here,” she insisted. “Someone out there doesn’t trust you. Nobody’s after me. At least not yet. I’ll get the sushi and be back in no time. Then, we’ll make a plan to get our lives back.”

“Be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said with a smile. “I’m tougher than I look.”