Page 67 of Midnight Secrets

“So what’s the official version of what happened that night in the ballroom of the Burrard?”

They all looked at each other uneasily at the mention of the termofficial. As if there were several versions.

“The few eyewitnesses who survived said that a group of men dressed in black, with black ski masks and goggles, stormed into the room shouting ‘Allahu Akhbar.’ God is great. They were heavily armed and they opened fire immediately with automatic weapons. AK-47s. Police and the FBI were notified only at 7:32 that there was an attack at the Burrard, via landline. Since the hotel is so close to the White House, the Secret Service was notified and they hustled the president into the war room. By the time we scrambled and were on the scene, the explosives blew and half the building came down. Most of the few people who survived the massacre died in the rubble. There were very few survivors.”

“And the terrorists. They all escaped.”

“Correct.”

“And the lights went out all over Washington.”

“Correct.”

From what Joe had read, it was the lights going out all over the nation’s capital that had brought the situation briefly to DEFCON 3. Even the White House and the Pentagon and Congress had lost power. There had been talk of an invasion of the United States. Martial law had been declared and there was a nighttime curfew. Police officers shot three hundred and forty people who didn’t obey the curfew.

“Flights were grounded. The president was subsequently taken to an undisclosed location where he addressed the nation. Wall Street closed for two days.”

“That’s all correct,” Nick said steadily.

“The country lost three trillion dollars, almost overnight.”

“I heard that.” Nick leaned forward, as did the others.

“Your genius friend, Felicity. Ask her. She’ll have details.”

Felicity looked serious, sad. “That’s right. It’s not a figure that has been officially published. The country was just coming out of the tail end of a recession . But three trillion dollars were siphoned out of our economy. As much as we lost in the decade of war with Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s all over the darknet but the mainstream media hasn’t talked about it at all.”

“Nor will it ever. But that three trillion dollars went somewhere. What does the darknet say, Felicity?”

Felicity looked uneasy. Metal said that Felicity, being Russian, thrived on conspiracy theories but this seemed to spook even her. “Darknet says a lot of things.”

“But the thing it says most?”the metallic voice inquired.

“Well…” Felicity shifted in her chair and looked unhappy. “A lot of money was sucked out of the economy due to the Massacre and that money had to go somewhere, as you said.”

“Yes. Does the darknet say where?”

“A handful of offshores.”

“A handful of offshores suddenly gains three trillion dollars. And no one notices?”

Felicity’s mouth set as her fingers blurred over the keyboard. “Here’s who noticed. I’m sending you a list of websites naming the companies. But no one in the mainstream media even touched this.” She huffed out a breath. “Like after 9/11. Like the collapse in 2008. No one talks about it except the conspiracy crazies.”

“Not so crazy after all.”

“No. So you seem to know a lot about this, too.” Felicity glanced at Nick. “And if you want someone squeaky-clean from the FBI that means you don’t trust the CIA, even if international terrorism is their thing.”

There was a long silence.

Joe leaned forward. “Are you CIA?”

Another long silence. Then: “Not anymore.”

The hairs on the back of Joe’s neck rose. “You contacted me. About Isabel. What does Isabel have to do with this? Are you contacting the survivors?”

“Not all of them.”

Goddamn. Isabel was in the middle of something really fucking serious. “Is there, is there a chance that someone from theCIAcould be involved in this?”

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