Tesla, Jason Walker [reading cloud ebooks TXT] 📗

to lie down either. And then all through the day, I’m just tired. Bloody exhausted.”

Anna’s whole face softened. She pulled Darren into a hug. “I’m sorry, honey. I know that sort of thing. It’s hard.”

Darren already felt guilty. He didn’t like lying to Anna. In fact, up until today, he had never lied to Anna.

But this last week, his entire world had been rolled on end. Sometimes, he still felt a strange compulsion to find a body of water and submerge himself. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could almost see the conversations between Tesla and his business partners playing out in real-time.

He said none of that.

He settled for a half-truth. Darren told her, “This last week’s just been hard, love. All that happening, and then only getting to see you for a day on top of it. And what with the baby coming and all of that. I’m just frazzled.”

“I understand,” said Anna. “I am too. Go get your shower, honey. Let me think. We’ll get through this together. I promise.”

By the next morning, Anna had reached out to her handler and requested extra leave for the both of them. She pulled off the feat by telling her boss over a secure phone line that Darren Mathews was showing signs of fatigue. He needed a break before he crashed, she told him.

Over lunch in the town, she told her boyfriend that she’d asked for extended leave and had been granted some extra time for them both.

Darren told her, “You didn’t have to do that just for me, love.”

Anna admitted, “It’s not just for you. We’re both at the end of our ropes, Darren. And . . .”

She trailed off.

Darren frowned. “And?”

“And I’m not sure that I want to continue working for the CIA,” said Anna. She started talking quicker, as if afraid she might change her mind about telling Darren this. “I know that they want me to keep on working for them. But it’s not just about me anymore. Alan—you know how my handler is.”

Darren frowned. Alan Schiff had been a point of contention between them for a while now. He wasn’t just a handler. He was a controlling rat of a man who thought that he owned anyone and everyone that worked for him.

Anna said, “I know he’s been trying to monitor the baby. And while you were gone . . .”

“What happened? I swear, Anna, if he did something—“

“No, no! Not like that, at least. Fuck no. But he asked me . . .” Anna took a deep breath, stealing herself. “He asked me why I’m so interested in the origins of the CIA.”

It took a moment for that to sink in.

Darren said, “He’s been listening to our conversations?”

“He knows that I’ve been talking to you about it somehow,” said Anna. “He’s worried that I’ve revealed information to you about the Grand Canyon and other things about Pine Gap. Things I haven’t told you.”

Darren’s paranoia ratcheted up. He was suddenly very, very glad that he hadn’t said anything to Anna about the Tesla documents, the pictures he’d taken, or the pocket-sized notebook he’d decided to take with him from the silo. That could have ended with them both being escorted to a wet room.

“I’ve stopped using my laptop,” continued Anna. “And I found a bug in the last place they housed me. I’ve told him that I’m just doing my reports, but he’s starting to think I might be a problem. He’s growing more and more suspicious I think.”

“But if you use the baby as an excuse . . .”

“I might be able to get out before anything else goes wrong,” said Anna. “I might be able to get away with going to Florida if I say that I want to raise the child near my own parents.”

Darren wasn’t sure that would actually work. Who knew how long Schiff had been listening to their conversations?

Anna and Darren were sometimes lax when no one else was around. He thought back to when they had been looking up records on Anna’s home computer in her apartment that the CIA had provided her with in New York, to their conversations about the things that they have both seen and done over the years.

Those things could get them both killed, whether they were active in the CIA or not.

For the moment, though, all Darren could do was echo Anna’s sentiments from the night before.

He pulled her into a hug and said, “Don’t worry, love. It’ll be all right. We’ll get through this together. I think it might be time for a trip to see the old man.”

Darren rarely spoke about his father. She wasn’t sure what that would entail.

“Where’s your father?”

Darren laughed. “I haven’t got a clue. I need to track him down somehow.”

Anna gave him a hug. “That sounds a lot like you. A chip off the old block,” she said smiling.

Things didn’t get better for them, though.

In fact, they got worse—fast.

Schiff made it clear through backhanded comments that he was well aware of the fact that Anna knew more than she let on. Anna and Darren’s conversations had been picked up long before they realized that they were being listened to.

The Orange Corporation wasn’t loyal to anyone but themselves either.

Anna had started to worry about that when she realized that General Chen might not be happy about how much time they were taking off from working on secret projects around the world. She wondered if she had been too loose-lipped, sharing all that information with Darren? If the people listening in had picked up their intimate conversations, they were in big trouble. Especially about General Chen being a clone and that she had confirmed that the Orange Corporation was part of the Industrial Military Complex of the United States or China—they still hadn’t figured that out.

Anna started wondering who was really getting all of the recovered materials that Darren brought back. Who was really benefiting from the re-engineered technology? Who would be using it? Why wasn’t it being used to help mankind evolve into something better? The answer she came up with was that the people that were members of the Order of the Black Sun had no intention of freeing the slaves on planet earth. They had a purpose to make them money that could be used to build things that would help them branch out into space and expand their empire.

And Schiff had found out they were asking those kinds of questions.

The longer they were back at work after their leave, the more heat Schiff put on Anna, and Darren finally commented that something had to give—and soon.

Two weeks after their return to work, Darren caught Anna and told her, “I’m going to South Africa to see my dad. I finally found him, and I want you to come with me.”

Anna’s hand moved to rest on her belly. “What?”

“Come with me,” said Darren. “I’ve got a friend. Bill Jenkins. He’s going to come by and check on your apartment right away to check whether or not the place is bugged. I’ll pick him up at the airport and bring him here. It’s a good idea, love. He’ll do a complete sweep and let us know what he’s found.”

Bill Jenkins was a personal friend of Darren’s who he believed he could trust. And while they were away in South Africa, Anna would be able to stay in the hotel and catch up on her work.

At the time, it seemed like the perfect plan.

Bill needed time away from his wife. When Darren called him to ask, “Can you come and apartment-sit Anna’s place in Florida, mate?” Bill replied that he’d be happy to help out.

That evening, Darren took his beautiful girlfriend out for a lovely meal, and then they went to see her parents who lived in a town not too far from where they were. The country life was relaxing and Darren enjoyed a nice drive in the rental car that Anna had gotten. It was a Toyota Corolla, which relaxed him somewhat because he knew that he was in a reliable car. When they got there they decided to stay for two days and nights in the guest room that Anna’s parents had.

A few days later, Bill arrived right on time—not even a minute late. Darren met him at the airport, and then they caught a taxi back to the apartment building.

“Nice place,” commented Bill as he looked up at the building, and he saw pigeons flying around in the air.

Darren agreed, “It worked well for us on this trip even though we didn’t stay here a lot. Anna doesn’t own it though. The company she works for provided it for discrete pleasure. So, watch what you say when you get up there, okay? The place should be considered compromised until you check every nook and cranny for us.”

Bill looked at his friend cautiously and shook his head as he stopped in his tracks and faced Darren for a moment. “Why would you stay in a place like that? You know they’ll be listening to everything you say in there.”

Darren nodded his head as he exhaled a deep sigh. “I know, mate. I know. It wasn’t me who got the accommodation. It was Anna’s conversation with her boss. He wanted to keep tabs on her after she requested to leave Pine Gap and requested a trip to the United States to see her parents who live close by. She’s over there right now.”

“Darren, there’s a lot of stuff that goes on in this place that’s pretty dodgy. Tonnes of smuggling happens in this state. Just that is enough of a reason to put you guys in a safehouse and monitor everything that you say. I wouldn’t come back here to stay if I were you,” Bill suggested as he started walking again toward the main door of the apartment building.

After coming through the front door, the two men spent a few minutes touring the apartment not saying anything while Bill pulled out a device that detected electric-magnetic disturbances in the air. The apartment was painted white and was elaborately decorated and was no doubt used for high-end assignments. “To live here month to month would cost a fortune I reckon,” Darren said as he walked to the bathroom to take care of some personal business.

Inside the bathroom, sitting on the counter was a small book that Anna had obviously been reading. Darren picked it up and read the cover. “The Book of Enoch, huh?”

A few minutes, later Darren left the bathroom with the book in hand. He walked around until he found Bill, who he gave the hand signal not to speak as he walked over to a lampshade and pointed thumbs down, which meant enemy. Darren nodded to show that he understood what Bill was trying to show him as he watched his friend move to the air vent in the wall. Again, another thumbs down signal.

Darren was then given the signal to come out onto the deck outside the apartment as Bill unlocked the sliding door and stepped out onto the balcony. “If you stay out here for too long, you could be a target for sniper fire if you’re being hunted, but this is the only place where I’d feel safe to have a conversation with you. I can stay here for a couple of days, but I think you should let this place go. Give it back to Anna’s boss and get out