Page 84 of Shielding Instinct

Hawkeye thought he knew why he was on high alert. He had questions. Lots of them. “In the lobby, you were talkingto Rowan Kennedy?” Parts of their whispered conversation had floated over to him.

“I was,” Petra crossed her legs in front of herself, then pulled the towel into a cape over her shoulders to catch the dripping water.

“It seemed intense. Did I hear right? He’s coming to the island?” When he said that, Hawkeye’s muscles banded, and he didn’t know why. Had he stepped into her op somehow? “Are you here working?”

“I didn’t lie to you,” Petra said. “I came in service of a friend. I just happened to see something I wanted to bring to the Bureau’s attention, which I did earlier today. Something else came to my attention tonight. I let Rowan know, and he leaped on it. Do I understand what it is? Not at all. The thing I brought to Rowan’s attention was not what he reacted to.”

The comb hit a snag, and Hawkeye held her hair as he worked the teeth through. “I’m not sure that I can follow that sentence.”

Petra didn’t answer, but he could feel the sleepy energy she walked in with shift to wariness.

“Can you tell me what you do for the FBI?” Hawkeye asked. “You were tracking queen bees, but you don’t do that job anymore.” When the comb slid easily through that section, he moved to the next.

“My title is ‘supervisory special agent’ in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit.”

“Supervisory, behavioral analysis. That’s a mouthful,” Hawkeye said. “What does it mean?”

“I’m a brain researcher in a lab. I’m working on the emerging concept of brain security.”

“But you’re not in the field now, tracking and observing.”

“My observations will now be centered on content that Rowan and others gather, and when applicable, I’ll study willing volunteers.”

Hawkeye exhaled. “Safe, then.”

She looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. “Has Rowan told you what he does for the FBI?” She faced forward again, and Hawkeye continued to leisurely comb her hair.

“He told me he has a doctorate in propaganda, but he was smiling when he said it, so I assume that wasn’t quite it. I know he works over in the post-USSR countries studying how Russian psyops affects the world at large, but the United States in particular.”

“That’s right.”

“I know that when he started dating Avery, she worked with him on some big case that included Panther Force, and after that, they got married and she became an Iniquus consultant. But you know that. That’s why you asked her to identify Cerberus at the airport.”

“That case you mentioned is an interesting one. Ongoing. Partly to watch it and see how that group adapts and what they do next. Partly because the laws haven’t caught up, and a lot of what they do, while evil, is lawful.”

“And somehow Avery was involved with that?” Hawkeye asked. “She’s a romance editor.”

“Mostly classified. I can’t speak to that,” Petra said. “What I can tell you is that the Russian psyops machine is extremely effective in some countries like ours.”

“But not all countries, is what I’m hearing.”

“Bordering countries like Estonia and Finland have worked to inoculate their people against the effects of psyops. They teach the subject in school from a very young age. Once you know how it’s done, it’s harder for the psyops to work. I spent a good deal of time over in that region learning from their experts about mindmanipulation. And don’t get me wrong, all mind manipulation isn’t bad.”

“How could it be good?” He pulled the comb from crown to the tips, and she hummed a little under her breath as if she had enjoyed the sensation.

“Okay, here’s an example—scientists have been studying how different sound frequencies affect the brain. Right now, you can pull up an app that will play sounds to help you get into the mind space you need for deep focus, creativity, or meditation,” she said. “By manipulating the environment, you can budge yourself toward a desired state of mind. That helps in so many ways. I use it when I need deep focus at work or when my mind is on a gerbil wheel and I can’t get to sleep. The music is specifically designed as a manipulation of brain waves.”

“Do you do what Rowan does?” An existential threat painted over him. Could Petra become a target? “Are you going after Russian psyops?” He asked directly. Hawkeye was starting to see how Petra would sidestep a subject. It might not be that she was hiding something; it could be the direction in which her brain ricocheted.

“I’m a research scientist. As I try to understand how modern brains adapt to innovations, I focus my study on cult techniques.”

“When you were a kid, you had to stand up and tell the class what you wanted to be when you grew up. Is that what you said? Not doctor or ballerina, you said cult scientist?” Hawkeye chuckled.

“I said I wanted to be smart and have fun doing things I like.”

Hawkeye held for a long moment while he processed how extraordinary that answer was. He blinked. “Wow, that went through me like a bolt of lightning. I never would have thought to answer that way.” His hand held still in her hair. “I have to sitwith that for a minute. It’s a radical response. How old were you when you said that?”

Petra looked up to the ceiling, remembering. “Mmm, kindergarten graduation?” She lowered her chin again. “Yeah. I think it was graduation from kindergarten. The parents were there. I was standing on the blue rug in that itchy, yellow flower dress I hated.”

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