Zero Day

your ankle?” Dario asked.
“Still bad. Do you have some stretch gauze or something? I may need to wrap it up.”
“I’ll see what I can find in the first-aid kit.” Dario pointed to the stairs as he climbed it. “You sure you can climb up?”
“Yeah.” Yona limped up slowly. “Where’s Leland?”
“Checking on something.”
“What do you do for food?”
“Thinking of breakfast already?” Dario smiled. “We’ll have to cook. The safe house is low budget and doesn’t come with a personal chef. Also, no swimming pools or hot jacuzzi. Lukewarm showers for everyone. Trust me, you want to be first in the shower or there will not be enough hot water to go around. And do your own laundry. No towel service.”
“What kind of a hotel is this?” Yona laughed. Their small talk took her mind off her ankle.
“The one-star kind.” Dario’s voice softened.
Yona wondered if he was recalling the memories of his fellow CIA officers who had perished in the line of duty. All that was left of them was one star each on the Memorial Wall at Langley. Not a word would be spoken about their service to the country and the world.
Yona also wondered how the tides would turn if it had been eight of Dario’s fellow CIA officers killed instead of Mossad agents. Would Dario feel more urgency?
Here they were, getting rest and sleep, and breakfast.
Meanwhile, the families of lost Mossad agents were still grieving back in Israel.
And Yona was still grieving the death of her mentor. Issachar must not die in vain.
Her eyes met Kelvin’s. For a femtosecond, she wanted to attack him and wring his neck.
However, moments before, she had offered to rescue his cat.
This was no way for an assassin to operate.
Have I lost my edge?
Upstairs, Yona’s bedroom was on the opposite end of the hallway from Kelvin.
Just as well. Yona hoped and prayed that she would not decide to stop weighing all the pros and cons and avenge Issachar already.
Still, the logical mind in her had begun to ask questions.
The logical mind in her had been raising flags all day about Kelvin’s complicity in Issachar’s death. Yona found herself wondering about the extent of his crimes.
Was Kelvin altogether guilty? Partially guilty?
Trapped in a mess of his own doing? Caught in a mess not of his own doing?
Or somewhere in between all the above?
The doubt came when Dario’s men turned on him back at the building.
Wait a minute.
That was what Dario said. His only supporting fact was that people had shot at Yona and Kelvin as they came down the stairs. Who were those people? It was too dark to see.
Yona replayed the entire scene in her mind.
She and Kelvin had gone down the stairs first.
Then shots were fired at them.
After that, Dario came to their rescue.
Somehow, coming down the stairs behind them, he hadn’t been shot at all. Well, that was because he came after the gunmen.
At this point, Yona assumed they were all men because Dario had called them Dmitri’s men.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Dario said as he handed Yona the key outside her bedroom. “Leland’s going to bring you some spare clothes. She always overpacks.”
“Who overpacks?” Leland came up the stairs.
“Isn’t it a good thing? We have guests.” Dario chuckled, and left Yona with Leland while he and Kelvin walked to the other end of the hallway.
“I don’t know if these fit you, but they’re my exercise sweatpants, and they have an elastic waist.” Leland handed Yona a pair of hot pink sweatpants, and a hot tangerine sweatshirt.
“You wear these?”
Leland nodded. “Well, I’m usually indoors in my home gym, so nobody sees. I don’t wear neon outside. I much prefer to blend in.”
“Me too. Thank you.”
“There’s a laundry room on the other side of the stairs if you want to wash your clothes tonight. The dryer works okay but you’ll probably need to go two rounds if you want your clothes to dry properly.”
Yona wondered why they would need to do laundry if they would be here for only a few days. Unless this was Leland’s base of operation.
“I didn’t realize Binary Systems works in Europe,” Yona said.
“We don’t have an office here.”
To Yona, Leland evaded her question. It told her that Binary Systems moved around in Europe.
The safe house meant their current project was classified.
“How long have you been in Prague?” Yona recalled Reuel telling her that Dario was in town two weeks before.
“Long enough. I missed Cayson’s engagement party.” Leland had cleverly deflected her question yet again, and Yona noticed it.
“Engagement?”
“To Stella Evans.”
“Oh. I thought they were only close friends in Project Pericarp. I had no idea…”
All Yona remembered was that while the Mossad had sent her to observe the project, the FBI sent Agent Evans to keep an eye on the hackers as well. There were also a few people from NSA undercover, but Yona hadn’t paid much attention to them.
“Suffice to say that in the year-long project, lots of relationships formed.” Leland drew a deep breath. She lowered her voice. “Look, I don’t know what your relationship is with Kelvin, but I wondered why you’re in town. Were you trying to protect him from someone? Maybe we can work together if our goals intersect.”
Protect? It had been the opposite, but now wasn’t the time for a confession. Yona had to find out more about what was going on.
“I came here to get some information on who might have wanted my mentor, Issachar, murdered.” It was the truth.
Even though Yona had jumped to the conclusion that Kelvin was blood-thirsty guilty, she had done so due to the intel that Reuel had given her.
Speaking of whom, she’d better call him. He’d want to know if she had dealt with her prey.
She had a burner phone, untraceable. It wouldn’t lead anyone to their safe house if she called Reuel—at least text him.
“Until we know more, let’s keep everything to ourselves,” Leland said. “We’ve already seen that Dmitri’s men can’t be trusted. We’ll not even contact him until we find