The Ajax Protocol-7 Read Online Free PDF Page B

before?"
    "Because I didn't know how it would affect you. I knew I'd have to give it to you sooner or later."
    "You didn't think I could handle it." Her voice was flat, emotionless.
    "I didn't say that."
    "This says that my father was a double agent, working for the KGB."
    Nick felt helpless. What are you supposed to say when your lover finds out that her father was a traitor?
    "I'm sorry, Selena."
    "I don't believe this," she said. "My father wasn't a traitor."
    "Adam has no reason to make it up."
    "You don't know that."
    "I know everything he's said in the past has turned out to be true. Why would he make something like this up? It's real," Nick said. "The paper is the right age. It even smells like the 80s."
    "Maybe it's a false plant, a trick."
    "Why would he do that?"
    "I don't know."
    She picked up the folder, set it down.
    "This says it wasn't a car accident that killed them."
    "No."
    "The KGB killed him. And my mother and my brother."
    "They would have killed you too, if you had been in that car."
    "Bastards," she said.
    "I'm sorry," he said again. He didn't know what else to say.
    "BASTARDS!" she shouted. She stood and hurled her glass of wine across the room. It shattered against the wall. Then she put her hands over her face and began sobbing.
    Nick went over and put his arms around her and held her close without speaking. He could smell the clean scent of her hair. After a few moments she calmed. She wiped her eyes, used a napkin to blow her nose and sat back down at the table.
    "I want a drink," she said. "A strong one."
    Nick poured a double whiskey for her and another for himself. He gave her the glass and sat down across from her. She took a long swallow.
    "My uncle knew," she said. "He knew all along. His name was on those papers. He signed off on them. I knew he had ties to the CIA, but I didn't know he worked for them. He had friends at Langley. One of them set up the security at my loft in San Francisco."
    "It must've been a hell of a shock when he found out about your father," Nick said.
    "How could my father do that? How could he betray his country? He was a wonderful man, a wonderful father. What makes someone turn on the country that gave him everything?"
    "I don't know. I don't think Langley knew for sure which side he was really on. It looks like he was feeding the Russians false information along with the real goods. That would give the KGB enough reason to eliminate him. He might have been under orders to give them bad info."
    "But if he was passing false information and Langley knew about it, why do these reports make it look as though he was a traitor, another rotten double agent?"
    "There could be a lot of reasons. Maybe someone higher up wanted to cover their ass. Or someone wanted to manipulate the truth for their own advantage. When you start looking at Langley during the 80s, it's all smoke and mirrors."
    "Bastards," she said again.
    Nick wasn't sure whether she meant the Russians or the CIA.
    "What are you going to do?" she asked.
    "About what?"
    "Are you going to tell Harker?"
    "I don't see any reason to," Nick said.
    "You don't think this could affect my clearance? Whether she trusts me or not?'
    "Are you getting biblical on me?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "The sins of the fathers being visited on the generations and all that. You're not your father."
    "You don't think she ought to know?"
    "What good would it do?"
    "Selena held up the file folder. "I want to study this," she said. "There could be something in it to clear my father's name. A detail, a name. Something."
    "Maybe." Or maybe not, Nick thought. But he kept his thoughts to himself.
    "I'm going home," she said. "I need to think."
    Nick wasn't sure what to say. He opted for neutral.
    "We have a briefing at 0900 tomorrow," he said. "You want to pick me up and give me a ride in?"
    "I'll meet you in front of the building at eight."
    "Call me. If you want to talk."
    "I need to think," she said again.
    He watched the door close behind