MIDNIGHT QUEST: A Short 'Men of Midnight' Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

metal-clad. They sat down at the conference table under a glass umbrella and Felicity brought out Puff. SCIFs were air-gapped, no-internet zones—no info went in and none went out. But Felicity could go on the net with Puff with no adverse consequences.
    Felicity was scary sometimes.
    She placed her hand on the matte silvery-gray surface of her laptop and waited for Jacko to tell her what this was about. Confidential briefings were nothing new for her.
    Jacko swallowed. This wasn’t business and it was fucking hard.
    He looked Felicity in the eye, then glanced away. “You’re used to keeping secrets.” It was a statement.
    She nodded. “My blood is Russian,” she said calmly. “We keep secrets for generations.”
    Yeah. Felicity had grown up in the Witness Protection Program. She’d had three names before the age of twenty. She knew how to keep secrets.
    Jacko met her eyes. “Lauren’s pregnant.”
    Felicity didn’t blink. “Congratulations. I’m not hearing happiness, though.”
    He couldn’t talk, simply couldn’t get anything past his throat. She didn’t fill the air with chatter, just sat in silence with him.
    Finally, Jacko dropped his gaze. “I’m glad. I think. But…” He waited until the boulder sitting on his chest shifted enough to get words out. “I never knew my father. Never even knew who he was. My mom never told me. I think she didn’t know either. She was a drug addict and there were a lot of men passing through her bed.”
    Felicity didn’t change expression. Her light blue eyes were friendly and calm. The lack of reaction helped him get the rest of it out.
    “My mom was troubled.” He shrugged. “She was a junkie. They are the definition of trouble. I don’t know much about her. I don’t even know who her parents—my grandparents—were. She never told me, never talked about them. That never bothered me until Lauren told me she was expecting. My mom’s blood and my father’s blood will flow through the child’s veins. And that scares me shitless. I’m okay. I know I have my faults—”
    “You sure do,” Felicity said. “You’re a real sore loser.”
    “Yeah.” He and his ASI buddies had rolling poker games, and he always lost to Joe Harris and he hated it. He hated losing. “I am.”
    “I don’t think that’s hereditary,” she said.
    “But a lot of other bad shit is,” he answered.
    The tips of her fingers ran over the laptop cover as she nodded. “What can I do to help, Jacko?”
    Jacko blew out a silent breath. “Find her. Find out who my mother was. Who she came from. Can you do that for me?” It wouldn’t be easy. Jacko knew nothing about her life. “No matter what you find, knowing is better than not knowing.”
    Felicity opened the laptop and Jacko could swear the air shimmered above the keyboard. She poised her fingers over the keys. “Let’s start with what you do know. When did she die and where?”
    “She died either the 8 th or 9 th of October, 2000. She died while I was in BUD/S. During Hell Week. The instructors knew we weren’t close. A lotta guys in my class weren’t close to their folks. A couple had something like my situation back home. The instructors knew the Navy was our family. They waited until I passed BUD/S and then told me. They said it took the authorities a couple of days to track me down. So that would put it at the 8 th or 9 th .”
    “You never saw the death certificate?”
    Jacko shook his head. “Nope. Never even occurred to me to ask to see it. It certainly wasn’t offered. I hadn’t spoken to since I left to join the Navy.”
    Felicity didn’t react in any way. “So what was her name and where did she pass away?”
    “Sara Jackman. Cross, Texas.”
    Her fingers started blurring. He had no idea how she could work that fast, but she did. Almost immediately, she halted. “Okay, this is what I have on the death certificate. Your mom was born in Rancho San Diego, California. Jackman was her married name, she was