Project Apollo

Chapter 20

Safe House #29

South DC –7:30 AM

Cusick joined his fellow computer nerd, Mac, to offer field support to the more capable operatives. As a former blackhat hacker he was recruited by Colonel Jackson Hardy to aid in the training of the recruits of Project Sparta. From that moment on, Mac had become his protégé and together they defended America's digital infrastructure. Over the years they had prevented more attacks than all of the Spartans combined, but the attacks were of a different, more cyber nature. Without a doubt Mac, the apprentice, had surpassed his mentor by this point, but they had a strong friendship, because they both spoke the same language – binary.

Cusick sat at a finely varnished oak coffee table with a laptop before him, while Mac controlled the large computer console against the window.

"Alright I just got off the phone with Xander and it's our job to investigate some lose ends he had from Geneva. The last words that his mark, Gregory, said to him was 'Apollo is upon us', the same words Azir said during the heist of the NIH. The mission in Geneva is somehow related to today, we need to figure out how." Mac spun in the chair toward Cusick.

"Alright..." Mac approached a white board on the wall next to the computers. He wrote two names in large-capital letters.

Henry Bosco, Caroline Keener

"These two names were exchanged for a large sum of money in Geneva, we need to find them. They are somehow connected to all of this." Under the names, Mac wrote three bullet points.

- Who are they?

- Where are they?

- How are they involved?

Cusick investigated the white board before him as Mac continued to write down his points. He wrote another word: Scientists.

"Four scientists, prominent in the field of infectious disease went missing. Xander was pursuing a lead on them that led him to Geneva in the first place, again another connection. We need to figure out where they are," Mac instructed.

"We've been looking for them for months and turned up nothing," Cusick explained.

"Yeah but we know now that they are related to this crisis. This narrows our search. Keep them in mind as we look for Azir. They should turn up," he explained, writing another name on the board, Mohammad Azir.

"If Ezra is behind all of this, he must have someone on the outside carrying out his plan," Cusick explained, clarifying Azir's role.

"Yeah and it is safe to say that he is in the city and has transported the disease here, since one target had already been hit," Mac added.

"So, how do we find them?" Cusick asked.

Mac scribbled underneath the name on the whiteboard a ten digit phone number.

"Gregory texted these names, Henry Bosco and Caroline Keener, to this number. Look at the area code."

"240 is Bethesda...Could this belong to the Azir?" Cusick asked.

"I think so... I ran the number but it didn't bring up anything, must have been a prepaid phone— " Cusick cut him off.

"Oh, that doesn't matter..." Mac paused a moment and swiveled in his chair to Cusick.

"What do you mean? It's not registered to an address, how am I supposed to track it?" Mac asked.

"Hack into the NANPA... It will take a fair amount of time, even for us... but it should give us what we need."