part0043

CIA Analyst Supervisor Chris Leroux smiled at his girlfriend, CIA Agent Sherrie White, patting her leg, still reluctant to touch her after her recent ordeal. “Yup. It was rare enough on a good day. After everything that happened…well, you know.”

His best friend, CIA Special Agent Dylan Kane, wrapped an arm around his girlfriend, Lee Fang, gently squeezing her, the former Chinese Special Forces operative still recovering from her own recent experiences. “We all got lucky.”

Lee Fang agreed. “Some of us more than others. I don’t recall seeing any real injuries on you.”

Kane eyed her. “Did you see my body the next day? I was a mess.”

Leroux grinned. “I didn’t have a scratch!”

Sherrie punched his shoulder. “I took enough for both of us.”

Leroux’s phone vibrated in his lap and he checked the message, his eyes squinting at the report one of his decoy numbers had just received a phone call from a known contact.

“What?” asked Kane, the trained agent detecting his friend’s change in demeanor.

“Tommy Granger just called one of my decoy numbers.”

“Has he ever called you before?” asked Fang.

“No, not unless I called him first.” He frowned. “This is a little strange.”

Sherrie shifted to face him. “Well, you better find out what’s going on. There might be some emergency.”

He dialed Tommy. The call was immediately answered, a tinge of fear in the greeting. “Hi Tommy, this is Chris Leroux.”

“Oh thank God! I called your number, but it said it was out of service, so I thought I wouldn’t be hearing from you.”

“It’s set up that way. I get notified when there are any calls to it.”

“That’s cool! How do you do that?”

He suppressed a smile at the tech geek’s curiosity. “Is that why you called me, or is there something more important that merits this conversation?”

“Oh yeah, sorry, have you seen the news?”

“No, I haven’t. Why, what’s going on?” He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, flipping to the news.

“There was a terrorist attack at the Guggenheim in Spain.”

The footage on the screen put the conversation in perspective. “Why are you calling me about this?”

“Because Professors Acton and Palmer are being accused of being behind the attack.”

Leroux’s eyebrows shot up. “What! Just a second. I’m putting you on speaker with Dylan, Sherrie, and Fang.” He tapped his phone then placed it on the table. “Say that again.”

“Professor Acton and Professor Palmer are wanted as suspects involved in the bombing. They’re saying they did it.”

Kane leaned forward. “That’s bullshit.”

“I know that, and you know that, but that’s not what the police are saying. Apparently, there’s a huge manhunt on for them now. Spanish police are setting up roadblocks throughout the region, and every car is being searched leaving Bilbao. As far as the world is concerned, they committed this terrorist attack because this Bible was made of calf’s skin and they’re animal rights radicals.”

Kane leaned back, stunned. “What? Where are they getting this garbage from?”

“I’m looking at what appears to be Professor Acton’s Facebook page, and it’s loaded with all kinds of insane stuff. And Professor Palmer’s is the same. But these aren’t their accounts. They’re fake accounts. The press is reporting on these clone accounts. They have a lot of followers. It makes no sense. You know how he feels about social media. He hates it.”

Kane’s head bobbed. “That’s true. He even rejected my friend request.”

Fang patted his hand. “You’re not serious.”

“Well, he didn’t reject it, but he didn’t accept it. I’m not sure if he knows how. I think he said he has like six friends.”

“Is there anything you can do?” asked Tommy. “Maybe tell the authorities that they’re wrong?”

Security footage appeared showing the professors leaving the back of the museum, Acton gripping the Bible, and both of them climbing into the back of a van.

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Sherrie. “Are we sure they’re innocent?”

“What do you mean?” asked Tommy.

“We just saw footage of them stealing the Bible.”

“Yeah, I saw that too. It has to be a fake. They can do that sort of thing now with a deep fake. Is there any way you guys can analyze it?”

Leroux nodded. “I’ll get my team on it right away. If you hear anything else or hear from them, let me know. If they’re not involved—”

“Which they’re not.”

“I know, I said if . Look, I know, you’re right, I don’t believe for a second that they are involved. If this footage is genuine, then either they were trying to escape and save the Bible, or they were coerced into leaving with it. We need to figure out which one. For now, if neither of those are true, and it is a fake, then we have to prepare ourselves for the fact they may be dead.”

“Part of me wishes they were behind the bombing, if that’s the alternative.”

Kane grunted. “I understand that feeling. If they did take the Bible for whatever reason, innocent or otherwise, right now, the police believe they are responsible for over fifty murders. The safest thing for them to do is to turn themselves in. If you hear from them, tell them that, and if they’re afraid, have them contact me and I’ll arrange a safe pickup and handover.”

“Can you go there? Can you help them?”

Kane looked at Fang, concern in his eyes. She patted his knee. “I’m fine. You go help your friends. I’ll be okay. Besides, Sherrie can take care of me.”

Sherrie laughed, raising a weak hand. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

Kane leaned closer to the phone. “Okay, I’m heading to Europe now. Chris is going to go into the office and have his team examine that footage, and see what the source of the fake social media accounts might be. You sit tight and let us know if you find out anything.”

Leroux ended the call then pointed at the screen. “They just updated the death toll to sixty.”

“Unbelievable!” gasped Fang. “I don’t really know them that well. Do you think they could be behind this?”

Kane shook his head. “No way. Impossible. But there’s no way the world is going to listen to us. We’re going to have to figure out who’s actually behind this. We have to prove their innocence, because right now the entire world thinks they’re guilty.”