The Ties That Bind. Cliff Ryder

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СКАЧАТЬ worked for the CIA, he had very little downtime. Room 59 operatives had mandated time off between missions. He’d been surprised by the intensity of the training period, including his first posttraining assignment—a final exam, of sorts—that involved him assassinating a target. It had been a simple assignment, really. More the kind of thing assigned to a rookie than an old hand like himself.

      In the darkness of the car, Jason laughed to himself. Home was just a place to sleep between jobs. He wondered if any agents had a wife and kids in this line of work. He shook his head. It didn’t make sense to have a family. Not for people like him.

      And yet…family was on his mind more and more lately. Despite his son’s death, Jim Miller had wanted to live. He probably had a wife, maybe other kids—people he counted on and who counted on him. When he’d left the orphanage, Jason had no idea who his real family was or even if they were alive. All he had was his last name, which was on his birth certificate. He’d tried to find out more a couple of times, but other than learning that his mother had been an Inuit from somewhere in Alaska and his father was unknown, there’d been precious little information. After a time, he’d given up on the idea and, considering his profession, it was probably the wisest course of action. Being responsible for his own life, taking his own risks was one thing, but adding a wife or a child or some other family member to the mix, putting them at risk, seemed the very height of irresponsibility.

      Still, he was alone and, he admitted to himself, lonely. It would be good to have someone he could count on. Someone to come home to.

      He turned the corner close to his apartment complex and pulled into the parking lot. He shut down the Volvo, locked it and headed inside. He’d grab a quick bite to eat and then rack out for the night. His mandatory downtime was over, and he expected that an assignment would be heading his way soon enough.

      Once he was inside, his thoughts turned again to the idea of trying to find his mother, his family. Why had she left him at the orphanage in Seattle? Why didn’t she want him? Did he have other family members—a brother, a sister, someone? The questions plagued him even as he heated a bowl of soup and cut a few slices of bread.

      He knew he couldn’t live the life he did forever. Sooner or later, he’d get older, slip up and get killed or have to find something he could do that didn’t involve fieldwork. Would he be able to have a family then, or would it just be more of the same? What kind of woman would ask about his day and accept the only answer he could give—“I can’t tell you or I’d have to kill you.”

      Sitting at the kitchen table, Jason pondered the questions and wondered why they were coming up again now, so soon after starting a new job, but his mind didn’t have very long to linger on them. Halfway through his soup, the pager on his belt began to vibrate.

      He pulled it free and looked at the display.

      His first assignment, Jason realized, was right on time to distract him from these notions.

      2

      The next morning found Jason up before his alarm clock sounded. It was a few minutes before six. He went through his usual routine—a five-mile run, a quick shower, a breakfast of oatmeal and eggs, with grapefruit juice and a cup of coffee.

      He took the time to scan the morning paper and found a short note in the local section on page six about the robbery. Miller had stuck to the story Jason had given him, and the police were calling him a “tough citizen” and a “hero.” The man he’d killed was wanted for two other robberies and a suspected homicide. Good riddance, Jason thought.

      When it was about time for him to go to work, he sat at the small computer console in his apartment and booted up the system. In all his years as a CIA operative, he had worked with a lot of gadgets and toys, but when compared to the Room 59 equipment, it was apples and oranges. They were years, perhaps decades ahead of what other agencies were utilizing in the often silent war to keep America safe. The virtual conference room used by field agents was just one of the more unique tools in the Room 59 arsenal.

      Once the computer was booted up, Jason slipped on a pair of glasses that projected the virtual world onto the lenses. He clicked on the launch icon. This was the first of several layers of security he would have to pass through in order to report in. The icon opened a window that appeared on the lenses rather than the screen itself. All that was visible was a large text block requesting his password.

      Jason typed it in, and the launch console flickered once, then vanished and was replaced by what appeared to be a long hallway. The walls glowed a faint green color and reminded him slightly of the look of the old Tron video game. This, of course, was much better. He was now simultaneously sitting at his desk and walking down the hallway. His avatar, which he’d designed himself, appeared much like he himself did. A six-foot-two-inch-tall man with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His black hair was cut short and neat, and his eyes were a cold, faded blue. He preferred to dress in a sport coat and dress shirt, with pressed slacks and polished shoes. Jason believed that looking professional was the first step to being professional, so he dressed the part every working day. He knew he was considered handsome by most of society’s standards, and had no problem finding female companionship when it suited him. He enjoyed the sex, but that was all it ever was.

      Love, he knew, was out of the question. Just like family.

      He knew that some people created fanciful avatars or added personal touches like wings, but for himself, he saw no reason to change who he was or how he looked. The people who ran Room 59 knew what he looked like, and it was highly unlikely that anyone he might encounter in the virtual world would care how he appeared, let alone actually see him in real life. Part of the job was not interacting with other operatives unless a mission specifically called for it.

      At the end of the hallway he came to a simple door and next to it, a hand and retinal scanner. As he approached the door, he stopped.

      A female voice said, “Place your right palm and eye in front of the scanner for identity confirmation.”

      Jason raised his glasses and held his hand up to the scanner that appeared on his computer screen.

      The voice said, “Please hold still while the scan is in progress.” A brief light flashed over both his palm and his eye. The voice said, “Scanning.” Then it continued, “Identity confirmed. One-hundred-percent match to existing record for Siku, Jason, field agent. Voice confirm?”

      “Siku, Jason,” he dutifully said as he adjusted his glasses. “Reporting for virtual conference scheduled for 0800 hours.”

      “Voice confirmed,” it said. “Have a nice day.”

      In front of him, the door unlocked and Jason opened it, stepping into an office building that extended as far as the eye could see. He’d been told that some of the security protocols were new, but he had to admit that any system that could scan his palm, voice and retinal prints from a distance was pretty impressive. He’d also been told that anything less than a one-hundred-percent match would result in bad things. What those bad things might be, no one seemed to know.

      The conference room was down a row of cubicles and to his left, and he moved there, not bothering to greet the other avatars working around him. He stepped into the conference room, and saw that his boss, Denny Talbot, was already seated at one end of the table, talking to someone on the floating screen in front of him. Denny waved him in, and Jason stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.

      “He’s here now,” his boss was saying. “I’ll get back in touch right after we’re done here.” Denny looked up from the monitor, then stood and offered his hand. СКАЧАТЬ