Page 18 of Dublin Debacle

“I came to your pub because the WIFI there has been identified as one of the IP addresses for a series of online propaganda being spread through Dublin, Ireland, and the UK. The people who sent me suspect that propaganda is designed to recruit and enrage. If the source can’t be identified and snuffed, the peace agreement ending the Troubles could go up in flames, and violence will return to Ireland.”

For a long moment, Emily remained silent.

About the time Jack realized he was holding his breath, Emily spoke.

“I think you’re too late,” she said softly. “It’s already happening.”

“It’s not too late if we can find who’s sending it out and expose them for what they’re doing. You see, whoever is pushing the rhetoric is playing both sides against each other. We don’t think it’s coming from within the parties but being fed from external sources.”

“Someone is stirring the pot?” Emily asked.

“Something like that,” Jack said.

“The Troubles didn’t go away completely,” Emily said. “It wouldn’t take much for the peace agreement to fall apart.”

“I know. But what’s happening now is engaging young people who didn’t live through the violence and teaching them that violence is the only way to right whatever wrongs are being preached. If we can find the source and nip it in the bud, we might avert a full resurgence of the hostilities.”

“You say the WIFI at the pub is linked to the propaganda?” Emily’s voice said into the murky darkness.

“Yes.”

“You don’t think one of my employees or family is responsible, do you?”

“I don’t know. I just started my investigation.”

“Who sent you?” she asked. “Was it the Brits? Are they worried their precious peace might be disrupted again?”

Jack smiled. “No. Not the Brits. I work for a private organization called the Brotherhood Protectors. Normally, we work with individuals who need help, usually as a bodyguard or in a rescue or extraction capacity. This particular mission is an intelligence gathering mission.”

“Which turned into a protection mission tonight,” Emily observed.

He smiled into the dark. “Yes, it did.”

“Does your organization help find missing persons?” she asked, her voice so soft that he strained to hear it.

“We have helped locate missing or exploited individuals,” he said. “Do you know of someone who has gone missing?”

“Maybe,” she said. “I could be wrong, or it could be wishful thinking.”

“What’s her name?” Jack asked.

“Not her,” Emily said. “Him.”

Jack’s chest tightened. Did Emily have a missing loved one? A boyfriend or fiancé she wanted him to find?

Why that bothered him, he didn’t know. He’d only met the woman less than twenty-four hours ago. “Who, Emily?” he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

“My father.”

Jack frowned, strangely relieved the missing person wasn’t her lover. But her father? “I thought you said your father died a month ago in an automobile accident.”

“That’s what they told me. The car burned so hot, there wasn’t much left of the body inside. I couldn’t identify him at the morgue. Because it was his car, they assumed it was him.”

“What makes you think otherwise?” Jack asked.

“No ring,” she said.

Jack turned on his side, facing Emily, though he couldn’t see the expression on her face in the darkness. “What do you mean?”

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