Awakening Book One of the Trust Series - By J. E. Swift Page 0,57
knew that he would have no problem getting the funding needed for his project when the training was completed. However, when he went home at the end of the night, he was often bombarded by messages from his father, the Council, and other people of rank. And it was beginning to wear on him. He knew he was beginning to wear thin and needed to rest soon. Tonight would not be that night, however.
Declan had no sooner popped into his house, as he noticed his father was waiting in the hallway, almost lurking in the shadows. It should have surprised him that his father was here, this late in the evening, but it didn’t. In the past couple of months, it seemed to be the only family interaction face to face they had anymore. Declan hugged his father briefly and led his father into the kitchen. Declan peered at his father as they both stood by the countertop, and he couldn’t help but notice his father’s heavy bags under his eyes and the wrinkles that were becoming more prominent on his face. He wondered when it was that his father began looking old and why he had never noticed before.
“Dad. What brings you here?” Declan began rummaging through his kitchen cabinets for something edible. He wasn’t much of a cook, but he was tired of ordering out, and he was home so rarely anymore that he couldn’t see the need to hire a chef, since he was lucky if had five meals a week there.
“I came to see you.” Declan's father gave a knowing look and produced a bag and held it in front of him. “It’s leftover from dinner tonight at the house. It’s just lasagna.”
He grabbed the bag gratefully. “Thank you.” He emptied the contents of the bag, setting it on the kitchen table. “As much as I would like to think that you just wanted to have a nice visit with your son, I know better. You look worried. What are you really doing here?”
His father took a seat. “There has been another security breach.”
Jonathan McPherson was never one for mincing words. Declan mumbled through a bite of the food. “How big?”
His father ran his hands over his face, before rubbing at his temples. “It’s big. Passwords, lists of names of Potentials we have identified for the Inception, but worst of all are the names, locations, and missions of several of our spies that are currently in Cine Tofa territory. I don’t need to tell you that puts them in immediate danger.”
Declan’s eyes opened wide. His thoughts were no longer on his food. “Which ones?”
“Smith, Torres, and DeMartino.”
Declan dropped his head. They were three of their top spies. “When was the breach detected?”
“Seventeen hundred hours.”
It was now nine o’clock, that was four hours ago. “We could probably reach Smith and Torres regarding the compromise in time hopefully, but DiMartino has been off the radar for some time and would be near impossible to warn.”
“I know. We have confirmation that Torres got the message regarding that she was compromised and she is on her way back now. Smith we have tried reaching and despite our best attempts, have been unsuccessful. DiMartino has not reported in over a week. We are not sure where he is at the moment, but we knew his assignment would cause his updates to be few and far between. We are pretty sure we will not be able to reach him. Our only hope for him is that he is a damn good chameleon.”
“Any leads on where the breach came from?”
“None. We have several people working on it.”
Declan raised his eyes to meet his fathers. “What do you need me to do?”
“Get Caleb to work on this quietly. There are too many people that are aware of the security breach for my liking and I do not necessarily trust those that they put in charge to work on this. If Caleb finds anything, only you and I are to know about it, understand?”
“Okay. Anything else?”
Jonathan McPherson nodded, “As soon as I get confirmation that one of our spies has indeed been compromised, I need you to set up negotiations immediately with the Cine Tofa.”
Declan placed his hands on the table. “That might be more difficult than you anticipate. They have denied the past three requests for renegotiation.”
His father’s mouth set in a hard line. “Do what you need to. I do not want those spies in the hands of their Inquisitors. Especially DeMartino.”