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"Noelle," said David, in a low, coaxing voice "Don't be so stubborn Just listen to him, please?"

She looked across the room at David He looked tired, worried She realized that heher She wanted to repay hi herself to coh, she resigned herself to another two hours penned up in this stuffy rooe ht be tired of answering, but the anson't change"

Monroe nodded, giving her a look of newfound respect "Just how far did you get with the encryption algorithrant to develop?" he asked

Noelle looked at David, suddenly re from her She was in a position of power here She was se

Noelle crossed her arms over her chest and offered Monroe the sa "No First you tell me where I am"

Monroe looked over his shoulder to where David was lounging against the wall, looking bored The older man's expression ritten clearly with a this-is-all-your-fault look

As he turned back to Noelle, a faint, indulgent sed at Monroe's mouth "Okay You're in southern Colorado at a CIA safe house"

Noelle felt a surge of victory, but tried to keep it fro on her face "Who were those men who broke into my house?"

Monroe shook his head "First, you answer otten in your developue enough answer Truthful, but holding no real infora would it take you to complete the work?" Monroe asked

"Who were those men?" she countered

"They were roup called the Swarueness and raising her an ounce of frustration

At this rate, they were going to be here all night, and neither one of theain any truly useful information

She decided to throw him a bone in the hopes that he would do the same "It would take me two months,on At the end of that ti of code based on the over three thousand variations possible in the saiven to me and have a solution" It was a fairly siure it out in a feeeks

"And if you were given a different saer would it take you?"

Noelle shrugged "I can't say without seeing it"

Monroe opened his jacket and pulled out an envelope that contained a folded piece of paper He opened it carefully and slanced down at the page and instantly, her heart began to pound with excite like this before--fro with The symbols were the same, but their use was entirely different She could already see a coue and elusive, but definitely there

"This isn't just text," she stated "It's mathematical"

Monroe frowned "How can you tell? You've been looking at it for all often seconds"

Noelle pointed toward several symbols "These are Greek, not Cyrillic Their sequence and placement leads me to believe that the other symbols are variables in some sort of an equation Or equations I can't be sure"

David and Monroe shared a guarded look "Noe knohy they wanted her," said Monroe "The Swarle and knew she was one of the feho could pull it off"

Her palrab the paper This was the kind of puzzle that Noelle loved to solve She could feel it already This was soht Ie, and Noelle loved a challenge

Before she could begin to see the pattern, Monroe slipped the paper back inside his jacket and leaned back

Noelle tamped down her disappointment

"We need you, Dr Blanche We've had a teaotten as far as you did in a few seconds"

Noelle sed and tucked her hands under her thighs so she wouldn't reach out for the paper "And you think I can do better than your tea ed his wide shoulders "You already have This is i-a-nuclear-disaster-important This text contains the location of several misplaced weapons from the Cold War"

War It always seemed to come back to that with the military

Her stoet a chance to seeto be able to tear it apart into the right pieces and put it back together so it ned frustration burned hot in her belly, but there was nothing she could do about the way she felt She'd have to settle for being disappointed

"I wish I could help," she said, et involved withto need to develop sooritheneralized enough they could be used again I can never be assured that my on't be used offensively"

Bath men clenched their jaws in frustration and the roo for violence Probably against her