Page 57 of Thorn

Zoe smiled her cupid bow smile at him then turned to the computer and waved. “Have fun in Germany, Gage. I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Thank you,” the team all chimed in.

“Hey, Zoe,” Thorn said. “Before you go, can I ask you something else?”

She gave him a tip of her head by way of response.

“Just generally, is there anything you can say about David DuBois’s work? He has his DARPA lab up at Montrim, doesn’t he?”

Zoe was quiet for a long moment, and then she offered up, “I’m sorry, I can’t say anything about his work for DARPA. But I can tell you, since it’s in the news, that I was at the meeting here at Montrim where the problem with the diplomats from Cuba was addressed. It was all of the scientists on the campus who went to the lecture, not just DARPA scientists.”

“This was when?” Thorn asked.

“Oh.” Zoe stalled. “Yeah, it was back when the diplomats were first calling in to report physical issues. Montrim asked us if we had any recommendations for avenues of research, and who we might know with expertise. There was a guy, George Matthews − a Montrim scientist who worked on a Pentagon contract, who suggested we bring in David DuBois from AU in Beirut. That was the first time I’d heard David’s name. And very quickly after that, maybe a couple of months? David was on campus.”

“Nutsbe, George Matthews is in the wind, isn’t he?” Honey asked. “Did anyone ever track him down?”

“Nope,” Nutsbe said from somewhere over Zoe’s shoulder. “As far as I know he still has a nice little bounty on his head. The CIA and FBI would be happy to pay up, too. Matthews is either swimming with the fishes, or he’s the fish that got away.”

“To China?” Honey asked.

“That would be a good guess.” Nutsbe posted his hands on the back of Zoe’s chair, leaning down to get his face in the camera frame. “But I wouldn’t think so. Something about the China thing seems off. But that’s personal opinion.”

“The diplomats were having issues there.” Thorn pointed out. “What would a sound scientist and a PTSD Traumatic Brain Injury specialist have in common?”

“Explosions,” Zoe said. “Well, they’d affect the ear.”

“Concussions,” Honey added.

“Flashbang.” Thorn was thinking back to the team that tried to pull DuBois out of their hands at the safehouse, about the ringing, disorienting tinnitus. “We’ve all been through it.”

“But you know you’ve been flash banged because of the light, sound, and the smoke,” Zoe pointed out. “If they could isolate – well, create – if they could create the air concussion without the explosion.”

“That would be an invisible assault.” Thorn reached out and adjusted the screen as the light shifted outside, reflecting off the monitor. “A neuroweapon. Hey, Gage, I meant to ask you. Montrim and Senator Billings’s name came up along the way. Last year when…” Thorn paused, he didn’t want to bring up anything that would cause Zoe harm.

“When Rex Deus was trying to kidnap me?” Zoe asked.

“Yes, sorry,” Thorn said. “But as I remember it, you overheard Senator Billings begging for help bringing down Montrim. They had a doomsday device they were developing?”

“Yeah, something about killing everything in an area that was warm blooded,” Gage said. “Whatever it was wouldn’t take out infrastructure. Just kill anything mammal.”

“Did you hear the name George Matthews? Anything about sound?” Thorn asked.

“Negative. Nothing like that.”

“Why would this guy, Matthews, who is suspected of Chinese espionage−” Gage started.

“I’d say from the evidence it wasn’t just suspected,” Nutsbe cut in.

“Fine.” Gage scratched his forehead. “Split hairs, unindicted conspirator, then.”

“Better, thank you,” Nutsbe said with a grin.

“Why would he know and suggest Dr. DuBois?”

“I’m going. You guys keep talking,” Zoe said as she got up from her chair and walked out. A thoroughly Zoe thing to do.

Thorn smiled. He liked that she was quirky. And he liked that she was a freaking genius and was able to point them to two women who might be able to give them background on Juliette.

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