Page 103 of Blind Prophet

“You really don’t like me, do you?” On some level, I’ve always known he doesn’t, but I chalked it up to him seeing me as his boss’s son and of no importance to him.

“It’s not that.” He shoves a hand into his trouser pocket and rolls his lower lip. For the first time, I recognize the habit as similar to Dad. “If you want, let’s have dinner next week. I’ll have my assistant coordinate with yours.”

With that, he exits.

What the hell just happened? It doesn’t even matter. I’m over here in my father’s house, and my focus should be on Caroline.

CHAPTER25

CAROLINE

“It’s done.”

“What’s that?” Sophia asks. “What did you do?”

“I told him everything.”

“And?”

“He denied it.”

“As expected. That’s why we need surveillance. Give us time to listen. You didn’t?—”

“No, I didn’t tell him, although he suspects.”

“Wait…where are you?”

“In his house.”

“Where is he?”

“He left to calm down. When he returns, we’ll continue talking.”

“We didn’t pick up a conversation. Are the mics?—”

“We talked in the kitchen.”

“While he’s gone, activate a listening device in his kitchen.”

“Sophia.” My gaze rolls to the ceiling.

“What? That area of the house needs to be bugged, too.”

I pull out a stool and sit, hit by a wave of exhaustion as the adrenaline declines. I set the phone to speaker and set it flat on the countertop.

“There was another attack.” Sophia’s voice sounds hollow in the vast great room.

“I’ve been with Dorian. It wasn’t him.”

“We both know someone with his resources would be the architect, not the trigger man. Satellite networks, quantum computing, global reach—he has the perfect infrastructure for coordinating disparate events while maintaining plausible deniability.”

“And we have no evidence he’s funding terrorists.”

“Simply because we haven’t identified the funding mechanism doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, especially given a funding mechanism has to exist.”

She’s right. But why would someone finance domestic terrorism? As an analyst, we’re taught to study terrorist profiles and motivations. At the moment, we’re at a disadvantage because we’re guessing. We don’t know if it’s a country, a group, or a highly influential whale. Sophia believes it’s the latter.

Others are exploring scarier possibilities: Russia, China, North Korea, extremist groups.

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