Free Atomic Beauty by Barb Han

of Jace talking in the next room. She slipped out of bed and followed the sound to the bathroom. His voice was too low to make anything out, so she pressed her ear to the door. All she heard clearly was the name, Sam Carter. Why was that name so familiar?
    She moved quietly back to the bed and slipped under the covers. A few moments later, Jace came out, scribbled a note and left.
    Once Erika had secured the hallway, she moved to the note on the table. He was running out to pick up food. She opened her laptop and searched for the name on Google. He was an American businessman who’d sold his business CorMeds and relocated to Paris three years ago.
    So what?
    Why was that important?
    The company name CorMeds didn’t spark anything significant. They were a small research and development lab outside Atlanta. No alarms sounded. But then, she dealt with international cases, not domestic.
    Something about the name Sam Carter niggled at her subconscious, though. Trying to connect the dots made her brain hurt.
    Erika picked up her satellite phone and called her research specialist, Stacy, asking for all the information she could get on Sam Carter and his business dealings.
    Her next call was to Murdock.
    â€œWhere in hell’s kitchen are you?” Concern laced his irate tone and there was another emotion there, too. Surprise?
    â€œI blew it. He figured me out before I could shoot him just like the message said. I had to disappear,” she said, tensing, hating to lie and ignoring his question.
    â€œSince you’ve been compromised, you need to come back to headquarters. Or do I have to remind you of protocol?”
    She wasn’t about to walk away now. Not when there were so many unanswered questions, Jace was so close and she’d become a target. Plus, she had no idea who’d sent Berlin and someone else in the agency could be compromised. Her rational mind said Murdock would not have sent an assassin to pick her up. And then there was Sam Carter. “Has the lab found anything in the data I sent?”
    He didn’t answer right away. Silence hung heavy on the line.
    â€œNothing yet. It’s too early to tell if there’s anything useful,” he conceded. “But you’ve done your part and your assignment is over.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t tell me if they had, would you?” she asked.
    â€œThe information is above your pay grade and you know it. I know you’ve been poking around in the system.” Stress strained his voice. “You’re done with this mission. Come in.”
    Sanctuary employed the best and the brightest in every field. If there was something in those files, they’d have a decent chance of discovering it given enough time.
    She could almost see Murdock pinching the bridge of his nose as he did when his stress levels hit the stratosphere. He sounded worried, stressed and tired.
    â€œI also don’t have to remind you that unless we know what we’re looking for, we might never find anything useful,” he added.
    No, he didn’t need to remind her of that. She was keenly aware of the fact. But she did have something else to go on. “What does the name Sam Carter mean?”
    â€œNothing. Never heard it before,” he said a little too quickly, and she could tell from his intonation that he was lying. Had she hit a nerve? Or, better yet, given him the missing piece so that he could find what he was looking for on the files she’d transmitted?
    In her job, she didn’t always get to see the whole puzzle. Everything was on a need-to-know-basis and depended on pay grade. But this mission had placed a target on her back and pay grade could go fuck itself.
    If she were going to put herself at further risk, she needed answers. “He’s important to Mitchell in some way and I need to find out why.”
    â€œYou need to come in. Period. Assignment done. I’ll forward the name to the tech guys. See if that helps