Page 75 of Thorn

Thorn nodded. “White military uniforms, she had said. Okay. What was that case about?”

“Whales.” Lynx smiled. “I’ll give you the highlights, but I’ll stick this in your cloud file in case you want to read deeper. I honestly don’t see that you’ll have time. We have a lot to cover.”

“Roger,” Thorn said.

Juliette lay panting in her stupor, and Thorn was anxious to get to the information about her blood draw.

“Okay this was out in California and it had to do with low-frequency active (LFA) sonar that naval ships were using for training. The Navy was hauled in to court because it was violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. From what I culled from Dr. Khouri’s documentation, the LAF was having a negative impact on the animals like walruses, whales, and dolphins that are dependent on sound for navigation. It’s messing up migration and reproduction. It separated mothers from their calves and stressed the animals out. Well, the sounds basically torture the animals. These sounds can travel hundreds of miles and can be found in seventy percent of the oceans.”

“This trial was a while ago?”

“Years ago. Yes. The courts are trying to balance needs. The Navy is developing a plan to use the LAF more carefully. It’s in study.”

“And Dr. Khouri’s written testimony was there, but she wasn’t on the witness list. Did you take a look at that list?”

“I did,” Lynx said, “and guess whose name was there, in defense of the Navy?”

Thorn didn’t need to guess, he knew in his gut. “George Matthews.”

“Bingo.” Nutsbe looked at his watch. “I need to run to a meeting. Lynx is going to finish your briefing.”

“Roger that.” Thorn plunged on. “All right, George Matthews and Arya Khouri are on opposite sides of a major military trial. He goes, she does not.”

“I need you to put that to the side.” Lynx tapped at her keyboard, and Thorn watched as her focus scanned over the information she’d brought up. “The possibility that Juliette is Arya Khouri is one part of the puzzle. We know she’s genetically tight with the other two Dr. Khouris, We know that her physical appearance has been changed. We know that she seems to have disappeared from research before the naval trial. I’m working on timelines of Arya Khouri, George Matthews, and David DuBois, and finding locations and intersections. Here’s an important piece of information. Arya Khouri was born in Syria. Her father was a professor of medicine, and he spent time with his family in both France and America. Arya Khouri spoke Arabic, French, and English fluently, as does Juliette. Arya Khouri returned to the United States for her university studies, eventually getting her PhD in zoology. Her dissertation was on subsonic communications in large mammals. She became a United States citizen. She’s an American now.”

Thorn stalled. “And Brigitte knows that. Brigitte must know Juliette’s true identity.”

“How do you come to that conclusion?” she asked.

“When Brigitte and I were in the hotel room when I first met her, I asked, ‘Do you know where they took Juliette? Would you help us get her back? She’s an American citizen, we won’t let that go.’ And Brigitte’s response struck me as really odd. She said, ‘You either know that is the truth or you’re trying to play me.’”

“Interesting. Yeah, I’d interpret that the way you did. Brigitte knows Juliette’s true identityandthat includes her American citizenship.” Lynx looked down, tapping at her keyboard. “Another tick in the box saying Juliette is Arya.” She brought her gaze back up. “Now, I need to shift gears and talk about her blood samples.”

Thorn sucked in a lung full of air and braced himself. Fear − just raw primal fear raced beneath his skin.

Lynx stopped to look at him. “We’re doing our best to get her home. I promise you, Thorn. Everything that I can think of is happening. Okay?”

“Lynx, I…” The sensations running through him were so intense that they threw him completely off balance. Just like in his dream.

“Right. I get that.” She nodded. Her smile was sad. Her eyes worried. “I’ve seen this a time or two before. Honey when he met Meg. Gage when he met Zoe. I think it’s a thing with people who have their lives constantly in danger. They don’t have time for personal drama or games. I haven’t quite worked out a theory in my mind of why this is how things play out, but go down the list Brian and Sophia, Deep and Lacey, Jack knew with Suz, Gator and Christen. Across your team, across my team, the operatives are humming along and then its−"

“A kick in the balls.”

“It can feel that way. Love isn’t the same thing as joy.”

“Love? No. This happened before I met her. It’s a mind game. Not anything real. It started when I saw−”

“Her photo,” Lynx said. “Haven’t you heard that same story from Honey? Randy showed Honey a picture of Meg, and it was a done deal. His heart didn’t belong to him alone anymore.”

Thorn nodded. “It seemed more believable when it happened to Honey. He was more−”

“Deserving of happiness? Is that what you were going to say?”

Thorn rubbed his hands over his face and shifted on the wall. “It’s just not my style,” he said. “I don’t do relationships, and I certainly don’t do falling in love. What I do is I complete missions and enjoy what the moment brings. And that’s not even diving into the whole it takes two to tango thing. Back to the mission. You were about to give me a medical update on the precious cargo.” Thorn glanced over to Juliette to make sure she hadn’t heard any of that.

She lay in a ball at the bottom of the bed, mouth slack, eyes in REM.

“Well, since we aren’t sure of her name, ‘precious cargo’ will work. And I won’t even pause to tell you that you can run but you can’t hide. Giving her an operator’s term to keep things from becoming personal is too little, too late. Now, as to her blood − we got the test results back. Everything seems to be normal as to her health – her white counts were elevated, but we’d expect that with her temperature so high. Two substances of interest were flagged. First, there are traces of a sedative which might have been used in this instance for chemically restraining Juliette. This drug is a very effective rapid tranquillizer used in emergency departments for psychiatrically agitated patients. By its half-life we believe she was tranquilized in the last twenty-four hours. Not knowing the original dosage, it’s impossible for us to tell.”

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