The Valkyrie Project Read Online Free PDF Page B

electric energy shot through Ana. She jumped slightly forward in her chair as the shock of recalling her dream made her muscles tense. "It appears to be a professional snatch-and-grab," Malcolm continued. "Not that it was that difficult. The victim was—excuse me, is—a three-year-old."
    A picture of the child appeared on a large screen behind Malcolm. There was something very familiar about him. It didn't take Ana long to nail down the origin of the feeling —he looked like he might have more than a few genes in common with her brother. Was it possible that her brother had fathered that child? At twenty-five he was more than old enough to have a child. But Malcolm had said he was the son of a Senator. Ana would know if her lost brother had become a Senator. She had been looking for him for fourteen years.
    Could the Senator have stolen the kid from her brother, and now Memo had taken his child back? Was her brother capable of what Malcolm termed a "professional snatch-and-grab"? Her mind had turned into a helicopter with half a rotor and started spinning out of control. Of course, all of it was ridiculous. It was her dream. She'd just dreamt about him, and now her mind was trying to make associations that weren't there.
    Ana pushed the clinging thoughts of her brother to the back of her mind and focused on the picture of the child in front them. Malcolm was still talking, and while usually Ana was able to half-focus on his briefings and still absorb a hundred percent of the information, this time, her focus had been completely diverted, and she realized she had retained nothing.
    He ended with, "Your hovercar is prepped and waiting."
    Ana, Marisol, and Justin stood, and filed out. When they were well clear of the briefing room, Ana whispered, "Can you guys fill me in en route? I missed the info."
    "You missed the info?" Marisol was shocked. "I thought you were just doing your half-paying -attention thing, and was just glad that Malcolm has given up calling you out when you do that."
    "I know. I just" —she hesitated—"I got distracted by the picture of the kid."
    "No problem, Ana," Marisol said. "It's just a bit of a follow-up for now. Unfortunately for the good and honorable Senator, I don't think anyone is going to find his kid unless the 'nappers want them to. Even us."
    This time Ana was the one taken aback.
    "What did I miss in there?"
    "Not much. That's my point, I guess. There's not a lot to go on. Aerin is running all kinds of analysis, but he hasn't had a lot of time yet."
    Justin chipped in . "Kid was taken straight off the playground at his school and disappeared in a black van. The teacher didn't notice he was gone until the other kids started yelling. By then, too late."
    Ana imagined the rippling wave of fear and surprise, of worry and wonder, all of which would crest into a tidal wave that crashed on the poor boy's teacher. She could relate all too well to the panic that teacher must have felt. And getting pulled into a black van. It was too similar, too familiar.
    "So where are we headed first?"
    "School. Check with the kids and the teacher to see if we can get any details."
    "So, are we detectives or babysitters?"
    "Come on, we play detective half the time here anyway." Justin's tone was playful, but there was a definite edge of anger. Ana wondered for a moment if he was mad with her for not paying attention, or with the Agency for sending them on a task of such apparently little importance. She knew which bothered her more.
    "But usually it's undercover detective to dig into the seedy underworld of assassination plots and global conspiracies. The last time I interviewed anyone who hadn't yet been through puberty it was because he'd witnessed a murder. It was like pulling teeth to get the kid to even acknowledge my existence."
    Marisol let a terse laugh rip through her vocal cords. "Ana, you are evil. You were interviewing a little kid who'd just seen someone killed right in front of them. How are they