Read Wired for Free Online

the slightest pause.
    Desh
placed the photographs back inside the folder and reinserted it into the
accordion file. Before arriving at Fort Bragg he had already felt dead inside. Being
on the grounds, a reminder of a past he so desperately wanted to forget, had
made things worse. And now this. He felt ill. He needed to conclude this
meeting and get some air. “So tell me,” he said pointedly. “Why am I here?”
    Connelly
sighed deeply. “Kira Miller has been off the grid since her brother’s murder—for
about a year now. She’s vanished. Like magic. We have reason to believe she was
in San Diego last November, but she could be anywhere now. Only Bin Laden and a
few others have been the subject of bigger manhunts, and we’ve basically gotten
nowhere. There are those who think she must be dead, but we can’t make that
assumption, obviously.”
    “I
ask again,” said Desh. “Why am I here? Plan B? Send in a solitary man when
entire armies fail?”
    “Believe
me, we didn’t wait until now to try the Lone Ranger approach. We’ve been
sending in individual agents for several months. The best and brightest. They’ve
gotten nowhere.”
    “So
what am I, then,” remarked Desh. “Plan E? What do you expect I can do that your
first choices couldn’t?”
    “First
of all, you would have been my first choice had you remained in the
military. You know that, David. You know my opinion of your abilities. I didn’t
think I could get authorization to recruit a civilian, so I never recommended
you.”
    Desh
looked confused. “Then how am I here?”
    “Someone
up the food chain realized your value and asked me to recruit you. I was
thrilled that they did. Not only are you unequaled as a soldier, you found more
top-level terrorists on the lam than anyone when you were in the service. No
one is as creative and tenacious on the hunt as you are. Kira Miller has a
knack for gene therapy. You have a knack for finding those who are off
the grid.”
    Connelly
leaned forward and fixed an unblinking stare on Desh. “And you’re someone I
trust absolutely, someone outside the system. This woman has massive amounts of
money and is quite persuasive. I wouldn’t put it past her to have found a way
to monitor us, or to compromise some of our people.”
    “So
you think you have a mole?”
    “Honestly
. . . no. But with the stakes this high, why take chances?”
    Desh
nodded. He couldn’t argue the point.
    “We
failed as an organization. The individuals who have tried have also failed. There
could be many other good explanations for this, but now it’s time to try
something different.” He rubbed his mustache absently. “You have a singular
talent for this and you don’t report through military channels. Let’s keep it
that way. Use your own resources, not ours. In the file you’ll find the reports
of your predecessors: all the information they gathered on Kira Miller.”
    “I
assume it will also detail their attempts to locate her?”
    “Actually,
no,” said Connelly. “We don’t want you to be polluted with what came before. You’ll
be starting with a clean slate. And don’t communicate with me. I don’t want to
know what you’re doing. You’ll find a contact number to use when you find her. The
person at the other end will handle the rest. Follow his instructions from
there on in.”
    “ When I find her?”
    “You’ll
find her,” said Connelly with absolute conviction. “I’m certain of it.”
    “That’s
two questionable assumptions you’re making,” said Desh. “The first one is that
I’ll agree to take the job in the first place.”
    Connelly
said nothing. The silence hung in the room like a thick fog.
    Desh
was torn. There was a significant part of him that just wanted to walk away. Connelly
would find a way to solve his problem—or he wouldn’t. But the world would keep
revolving, with or without Desh on the case. There were other talented men
outside the system. Let someone else be the hero. He