Virtually Hers Read Online Free PDF Page B

meeting?”
    “After debriefing.” They walked past the operatives monitoring activity on a series of screens around a larger one with a 3-D world map. Jed paused, half-listening to the background buzz of German, Russian and French being spoken. He eyed the hot spot in Eastern Europe where hostage negotiations were taking place. He’d need to get hold of Flyboy for an update about that situation.
    First, though, he needed to check on Elena. That would mean getting Dr. Kirkland to call her up and if she was still not feeling herself… He briefly reworked his schedule. “Strike that. Change it till tomorrow, if possible. Is T. here today?”
    “Right. I’ll buzz you when I check with everyone’s calendar. T. isn’t at HQ right now. Should I let her know you need to talk to her?”
    “No.” If she was undercover again, let her finish her task. He would discuss Helen’s condition with her later. He stopped himself from asking de Clerq whether he’d gotten any news about Helen, pausing in mid-thought, momentarily tripped by the urgency to check up on her. Why was he so worried? He knew if he voiced his concern to de Clerq, he would be met with surprise; his ability to detach himself was legendary. Instead, he said, “I’ll be at Dr. Kirkland’s office.”
    “Sir, Admiral Madison left a message for you,” a female operative told him as they strode past, handing him a file.
    “Get him on the secured line for me ASAP.” Jed opened the file to glance quickly through the memos as he continued walking. He tucked it under one arm and turned to de Clerq. “Madison’s going to want an update about SEED and Cummings. You know if I hadn’t gotten to the target, he’d send his SEALs after him.”
    “Yes, I know, and they’d have blown the Russian boat to pieces and we’d have an incident.”
    Jed smiled slightly. He’d seen the Admiral’s STAR SEALs in action. “Those boys do like their fire power. Sometimes they’re an asset.”
    “Like our ops in Southeast Asia and Macedonia.”
    Jed keyed in the security code to the higher security section on that floor. The doors swished open. Away from the main activity, it was quieter here.
    “Yes,” he agreed, “Hawk is proving that he can do solo missions when necessary.”
    “Oh, no doubt, even though just to play devil’s advocate, I doubted they could do anything but destroy stuff, the way they eliminated a fucking bridge,” de Clerq said with a wry smile and a shake of his head. “A fucking wooden bridge, at that.”
    “There is that,” Jed conceded with a glimmer of amusement, recalling the dollar amount on the weaponry expenditure sheet for that particular joint venture. “But they completed their mission, which was to stop a certain truck.”
    “Does the Admiral know what SEED can do?”
    Jed shrugged. “The man’s smarter than the others. I’m sure he has a fair idea that SEED isn’t just a password decoder. He’ll be asking some interesting questions.” He changed the subject. “What’s its status?”
    “We’re working on expurgating the datagram.”
    “Good.”
    “I’ll give you a buzz when I’ve looked at everyone’s schedule.” de Clerq checked his watch and gave a nod before heading off.
    Jed’s thoughts immediately returned to Helen as he continued his way to Dr. Kirkland’s offices. As with all the departments at COMCEN, there were different levels to Medic. Underground levels dealt with experimental science and medicine. Only the highest personnel could access Level 3 and higher. Most of TIVRRV was done here. His sleeping quarters, when Helen was under sleeping observation, were here. This was where it had all began, the experiment of synchronizing brainwaves for deep immersive virtual reality.
    He punched in the security code and leaned forward for the pupil scan. Who would have thought that “deep immersion” would mean that when they slept hooked to the same brain entrainment machine, they’d somehow invade each