Carol Ericson - Delta Force Defender

When she came to the end of the batch, she let out that breath and slumped in her chair.

The most sinister email that had come through was a reminder to submit her time sheet. She picked up her coffee cup and had to set it down as the steaming liquid sloshed over the rim onto her unsteady hand.

“Hey, Martha. Did you have a good lunch?”

Martha twisted her head around and smiled at her coworker Farah. “Errands, you?”

“Hot lunch date with the mystery man.”

“I hope he’s not married like the previous one.”

“The previous one is still in the picture. A girl has to keep her options open.” Farah winked and pushed away from Martha’s cubicle almost bumping into Sebastian.

He held up his hand in an awkward wave. “Everything working okay with your computer after I dialed back that program to the previous version?”

“It’s back up to speed. Thanks, Sebastian.” Martha made a half turn in her chair back to her desktop, hoping he’d take the hint. They’d dated once or twice, but she wanted a relationship with some flying sparks for a change.

Sebastian took a step back, tapping the side of her cube. “Okay, then. Let me know if you need anything else.”

Yeah, sparks .

Martha swung around to fully face her computer and jumped when another email came through. When would this fear go away? Those emails had started trickling into her inbox four months ago. She’d turned them over to the appropriate authorities and washed her hands of them—or tried to.

She chewed on her bottom lip. She hadn’t forgotten about those emails. How could she, when they’d resulted in a huge investigation of some hotshot Delta Force commander, who’d then gone AWOL? How could she, when ever since she’d clicked on those emails, someone had been spying on her, following her?

She glanced over her shoulder at her coworkers in the CIA’s translation department. Why had she been chosen for the honor of receiving those anonymous emails accusing Major Rex Denver of treason and colluding with the enemy?

What would’ve happened if she’d deleted those emails and never told a soul? Would she be the nervous wreck she was today?

She tapped her fingernail against her coffee cup. She couldn’t have ignored those emails any more than she could jump up on her desk right now and scream in the middle of a CIA office that she had a bomb under her desk.

Maybe if she’d gotten rid of the emails like she was supposed to do, the people who’d sent them would leave her alone. But why would that matter? The senders had gotten their desired response. She reported the emails, which prompted the investigation of Denver, which then led to the discovery of his traitorous activities. The man had gone rogue. How much more guilty could you get?

But some gut instinct had compelled her to hang on to the emails. When she first received them, she’d copied them to a flash drive, which she wasn’t even supposed to insert in her computer, and taken them home. She’d told everyone, including her slimy boss, Gage, that she’d deleted them. Then the IT department had come in and wiped her deleted items off the face of the earth.

She had her own suspicions about how those messages had gotten through to her email address at the Agency. It had the fingerprints of Dreadworm, a hacking group, all over it, but not even Dreadworm had claimed responsibility for forwarding those emails.

Martha had wanted to take a more careful look at the messages because of the phrasing. She spoke several languages, and she’d told Gage that the emails sounded like a foreigner had composed them.

He’d brushed her off like he always did, but she’d gotten her revenge by keeping those emails for herself.

Now she had someone stalking her.

Sighing, Martha straightened in her chair and shoved in her earbuds. She double-clicked on the file she’d been working on before lunch and began typing in the English words for the Russian ones that poured into her ears from one of the radio broadcasts the CIA monitored and recorded. After about an hour of translating, Martha plucked out the earbuds and stretched her arms over her head.

She swirled the coffee in the bottom of her cup and made a face. Then she slid open a desk drawer and grabbed a plastic bag with a toothbrush and toothpaste.

When she returned to her desk ten minutes later with a minty taste in her mouth and a bottle of water, she plopped in her chair and tucked her hair behind her ears, ready to tackle the remainder of the afternoon.

She glanced at the bottom of her computer screen, noticing a little yellow envelope on her email icon, indicating a new message. She double-clicked on it and froze. Her blood pounded in her ears as she stared at the skull and crossbones grinning at her from the computer screen, its teeth chattering.

Hunching forward, she resized the window and scrolled from the top to the bottom of it. No text accompanied the image. She scrutinized the unfamiliar email from a fake email account at the top of the window.

She glanced over her shoulder, and in a split second she forwarded the email to her home address. She deleted it and then wiped it clean from her deleted items. She knew it still existed somewhere in cyberspace, but not unless someone was looking for it. And why would anybody be checking her emails? She’d been the good little soldier she always was and turned over the others. The people up the chain of command had no reason to suspect her, and Gage thought she was a lifeless drone, so she didn’t need to worry about him.

If Gage cornered her right now and asked her why she didn’t tell anyone about the skull and crossbones, she wouldn’t have an answer for him. Maybe because she’d been dismissed so thoroughly after turning over the first batch. Not that this message had anything to do with the others—did it?

Of course it did. The same people had just sent her a warning, but she didn’t know why. She didn’t know anything about those emails or what they meant—but she was determined to find out.

The rest of the afternoon passed by from one jumpy incident to the next. Her scattered focus had been worthless in her attempts to translate the recorded broadcast.

Fifteen minutes away from quitting time, Farah hung on the corner of Martha’s cubicle, her dark eyes shining. “I’m meeting my guy for a drink after work tonight. Do you want to come along?”

Martha crossed her arms. “And be a third wheel? No, thanks.”

“He might have a friend.” Farah made her voice go all singsongy on the last word as if to heighten the temptation.

“That’s even worse than being a tagalong. A blind date?”

“Oh my God, Martha. Get used to it. It’s the way of the world now.”

“Seems to me all online dating has gotten you is a couple of sneaky married men.”

Farah pouted. “It’s fun. Not every date has to be a lifetime commitment.”

“Go then and have fun for me.” Martha waved her hand.

Not that she’d have accepted Farah’s invitation under any circumstances, but after the day Martha had just had, she’d rather be home with a good book—and those emails.

She wrapped up her work and logged out of the computer, removing her access card and slipping it into her badge holder.

Waving to the security guard at the front desk, Martha pushed out the front doors and snuggled into her jacket. Winter in DC could be mild, but this November weather was already putting a chill in her bones.

She caught the next plain-wrap CIA van that shuttled employees from Langley to Rosslyn. When the van finally lurched to a stop, Martha stashed her book in her bag, rubbed her eyes and readjusted her glasses. She stepped out of the van and into the cold night, making her way to the Metro stop on the corner.