Zero Day

work for him if they tried to kill you and Yona.” Dario turned to Yona. “Speaking of whom, why are you in Prague?”
“Same reason you are.” Yona’s voice was even, giving nothing away.
That was the thing with her. Kelvin could never read her feelings.
“And what reason might that be?” Dario asked.
“You tell me.” Yona stood her ground.
“All I can say is that the CIA wants Kelvin alive, and apparently Aspasia wants him dead.”
Kelvin shifted in his seat. “Aspasia doesn’t want me dead.”
“Had a gun pointed at your head, didn’t she?”
“It was only to scare me.”
“Into doing what?”
“She has been searching the world over for Ulysses.”
“Isn’t that interesting?” Leland glanced at the rearview mirror. “We haven’t heard that name in a while.”
Minutes later, Dario told Kelvin to stay still as he ran a portable scanner over him, head to toe.
“What are you doing?” Kelvin asked.
“Shhh.” Dario read the results on an iPad.
Kelvin waited.
“Okay. He’s clear,” Dario said. “No chips.”
Kelvin flinched. “You thought maybe the FSB injected me with something before they let me go?”
Dario shrugged. “Who knows.”
“Then anyone could have found me.” Kelvin sagged into his seat. “How did you find me?”
No one replied.
“I guess one of you will tell me later.” Kelvin spent the rest of the drive staring out of the window. The city of Prague didn’t sleep. People were still walking about, sitting at outdoor restaurants, strolling by the river. The van went along the river, but Kelvin didn’t ask where they were taking him.
Implicitly, he trusted Leland and her cousin, Cayson. They would do their best to make sure no harm came to him.
“Leland?” Kelvin’s voice was low, but apparently Leland heard him. “I’m sorry.”
“You better be,” Leland replied. “You’re going to get us all killed, and you’ll lose your job because Binary Systems will cease to exist. Then what? Do you have a twenty-year plan before you decide to work on MedusaNet behind our back?”
That woman is blunt.
“I’m sorry.” It was all Kelvin could say at this point, though there was nothing to hide from the CIA or Mossad. They had all read his story. “I know I’m going to jail.”
“You’d rather die,” Dario added.
Kelvin nodded. “Kill me now.”
“Can’t. We need you to help us find the people behind MedusaNet.”
“Is the network…”
“We shut it down with the kill switch in Cayson’s head,” Leland said.
Kelvin flinched. That must’ve been painful. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“Fortunately for you, everyone wants you dead,” Dario said. “Which means you do have something they all want, and therefore it makes sense for us to keep you alive until we figure out what’s wrong. Maybe you can tell us what you know and save us all some time and sanity.”
“I don’t know what they want.” Kelvin didn’t say that they meant many people. If he were to list his enemies, he would need to use all fingers and toes to count.
“We’ll find out,” Dario said.
It could only mean one thing. They wanted to use him as bait. Kelvin wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, although it wasn’t necessarily bad. After all, he had thought he was going to die, so if a short extension of his life could bring the criminals to justice, maybe it would be worth it.
He had nothing left to live for.

Chapter 6
“I’m worried about my cat,” Kelvin said as Dario ushered him into the safe house.
Yona limped along. Her sprained ankle was still hurting a bit. She was sure she’d feel it in the morning.
She watched the conversation with her jaw agape. Right now she wanted to shake Kelvin awake and make him smell the coffee of reality.
His life—and that of everyone else affected by his error in judgment—were all at stake. The last thing he should be worried about was a cat.
“He’s a stray, I know,” Kelvin added. “But Tereza and I both feed him.”
“Tereza?” Yona asked.
“She lives next door and sometimes gives me food and a place to shower.”
Yona didn’t know what to think about that.
“She’s a widow with grandkids.” Kelvin looked intently at Yona, as if he felt a need to explain the other woman in his life.
Yona let it pass.
“Mordecai was with me when nobody else was,” Kelvin continued. “God sent the cat to keep me company at the lowest point of my life.”
“The lowest point of your life is when you’re dead.” Dario cut off the cable tie around Kelvin’s wrist. “Do not leave this house.”
“And go where?” Kelvin asked.
They were inside the foyer of the safe house somewhere in Malá Strana on this new town side of the Vltava River. Dario locked and bolted the door behind them.
Leland had disappeared somewhere.
Dario’s job was to take Kelvin and Yona to their rooms.
In the morning they would regroup at breakfast and figure out everything, if that was even possible.
“Tereza in the next building is pushing ninety. She’s been feeding Mordecai scraps of food, but she’s dirt poor herself,” Kelvin went on. “Her son had been paying her mortgage, but he has been late several times.”
“That’s not your problem, is it?” Dario asked.
“If she loses the house, the cat has nowhere to go.”
“I’m assuming he had been fending for himself before you showed up.”
Kelvin nodded. “He’s a street cat.”
“Where do you plan to take him? With you to jail?” Dario’s sharp tongue sliced and diced the evening air.
“I can ask someone to take care of him until I’m released.”
“Like who?”
“I don’t know.” Kelvin shrugged. His shoulders slacked. He looked defeated.
Yona drew a deep breath. “When this is over I will check on the cat for you. What does he like to eat?”
Kelvin stared at Yona for the longest time, making her uncomfortable.
Yeah, she had just offered to check on the cat.
“Mackerel,” Kelvin said. “If you can’t find that, tuna or shrimp will do.”
“Does he eat out of a can?”
“I put it in a bowl for him.”
“Okay.” She didn’t know what else to say, so she turned to Dario. “I need to shower and rest. Please show me to my room.”
“How’s