With few employees left in the office and those all focused on specific tasks, things had been quiet. They didn’t get many guests. Few people knew the two-story nondescript warehouse in southwest Washington, D.C., housed an upscale, high-tech multimillion-dollar security company. No flash on the outside. No expensive cars in the parking lot.

The only hint something more than packing and unpacking of crates happened inside the beige building came from the state-of-the-art security system. The same one that flashed a visitor’s face a few minutes ago. Even now Andy waited in the chair for the unwanted showdown to start.

He heard a beep, and the screen of one of the many monitors outlining the desk snapped to life. One of his mapping experts—a guy with years of technical experience and a brain that left them all breathless—played escort in the hall. Andy hit the buzzer before anyone could knock. He had enough of a headache without adding to it, and this scene would likely do just that.

The door opened, and Andy waved away his employee while Rick stepped inside. Rather than wait for the boring hellos to begin, Andy jumped right in. “Since you’re here, I assume you know Gabe is out of town.”

“Good to see you, too. Interesting you still choose to have your security act as a lockdown to keep you trapped inside.” Rick walked straight in and took the chair on the other side of the desk. “I warned Gabe about that flaw when he set up this place.”

They had contingency plans to escape if that became an issue, but Andy doubted Rick came in and agreed to hand over his weapons at the front desk just so they could talk about the building’s blueprints. “Speaking of Gabe . . .”

“Fine, yes. I’m here about him.”

The day officially turned to shit. They had been at it for a year, Rick and Gabe, locked in a family disagreement ever since Rick dropped his emotional bombshell. Andy dreaded taking a wrong step.

“I’m not getting in the middle of the game of mutually assured destruction you two are playing,” Andy said, even though he had long ago sided with Gabe.

Rick waved off the concern. “That’s not what this is about.”

Andy didn’t want to know what accusations Gabe and Rick were currently lobbing back and forth. But as soon as he thought it, he realized that wasn’t quite true. The unrelenting tension outside the office grew more, not less annoying and Andy wished it would end. “Have you talked to him?”

“Last time I tried he threatened to blow my balls off if I didn’t leave his property.”

Andy laughed. Couldn’t help it. He could almost see Rick standing outside the big gate while Gabe welcomed him with a gun. “You gotta admire the simplicity of his threats.”

Rick leaned forward with his elbows balanced on his knees. “I need you to get in touch with him.”

Just as suspected, Rick wanted to suck him into the middle of this. Andy had no trouble taking a pass on that. His personal life was enough of a shitshow without inviting these two to dump their garbage at his feet. “He’s out of contact.”

“This is about work. He’s guarding Natalie Udall, and you know where he is.”

Well, shit. So much for hoping Rick didn’t know what happened inside Tosh’s walls. Andy always assumed that Rick sat in his top secret, no-one-knows-he’s-out-there-watching office and kept tabs on them, but now he had confirmation.

“I actually don’t.” Andy held up a hand before Rick could call bullshit. “Deniability.”

So much of what they did at Tosh depended on secrecy. Rick might not work for Tosh, but he understood black-ops. Had spent most of his adult life heading up a group innocently enough called The Defense Initiative. He ran assets in the United States and overseas, providing backup on intelligence operations where the government needed a wall between what it could do by statute and what it needed to do to get the job done, legal or not.

Rick’s work helped people sleep better at night, even though they never knew he existed or that he even did the work. Tosh got off the ground as quickly and as successfully as it did because Rick had thrown work their way. Back then Rick and Gabe got along. Now Andy doubted Gabe would accept a ride across town from Rick.

“But you’re in contact.” Rick blew out a long breath. “Look, Andy, this is serious. Gabe’s job and my job just collided.”

Which in Rick-speak meant not “personal” but “work related,” and that got Andy’s attention. “Tell me.”

“Some people are concerned about Natalie’s loyalty. That she was privy to some secrets that she now might be tempted to tell.”

Andy had known Gabe was walking into a fucking mess. Forget the crap about this being a routine extract and hold. All those horror stories Gabe had told Natalie to get her on the helicopter, about the CIA potentially sending assassins to quiet her and eliminate all risk regardless of what her extraction agreement said. None of them had convinced Natalie or warned her about anything she didn’t already know, but it now looked like they could be true. Someone was talking to Rick about Natalie, which meant someone was too nervous about her knowledge of internal CIA workings and the mole and the failures that allowed the mole to work his way onto a black-ops team. Gabe could have more than a lone shooter or group on recon knocking on his door.

The trick was to draw the information out of Rick, something that never came easily. “What people?”

Rick tapped his fingertips together. “People who control drones and have assassins on speed dial.”

“You mean people in the CIA who won’t make it look like she died in a freak accident.” And took Gabe with her. Andy knew how this worked. Most of the team Natalie worked with lost their lives in just that way as the mole had panicked and tried to wipe out all of the evidence against him.

Rick nodded. “Her being out there, not communicating, not where they can see her and watch her, makes some people with a lot of power and even more to lose very nervous.”

Fucking Gabe and this fucking assignment. They dealt with life-or-death situations every day. Gabe never flinched, but in those cases he had a team with him, resources. Open communication. None of that was in play here. “That’s bullshit. She’s not a threat to national security.”

As usual, Rick didn’t show any emotion. His expression remained blank, and the tapping of his fingertips continued a steady beat. “I agree, but I didn’t give any orders here.”

“But there is an operation to locate her and bring her in?” That Gabe could handle on his own. A full-scale attack designed to wipe her out of existence might be a different thing. “This someone in the CIA, or group of someones, hired you to track Natalie, correct?”

“We’re speaking hypothetically, of course.” Rick sat back with his perfect posture honed by years in the military.

Andy’s patience expired. “Rick.”

“It’s a watch-only mission. I send my people in to make sure she isn’t making contact with . . . undesirables.” Rick almost smiled as he said it. “That she isn’t selling information about holes in CIA security that would allow for a foreign government to infiltrate the organization and plant someone inside. That she isn’t talking with the wrong people. Maybe other people who are disgruntled with the CIA.”

“In other words, one of her old bosses fears she’s turned.” The idea was so ludicrous it made Andy want to shoot someone. “Natalie Udall, a woman who’s dedicated her entire adult life to the CIA and the protection of this country.”

“Basically, the job is to make sure she’s out there holding up her end of the agreement as promised.”

Relief flooded through Andy, but skepticism rushed in behind. “Do you believe that? We both know you could find her and then the next order you get will be for you to send someone in to take her out, all in the name of God and country.”