110

DSS HEADQUARTERS, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

“Agent Ryker, the director will see you now.”

Marcus nodded his thanks to the man’s executive assistant and glanced at his watch. It was precisely 10 a.m. Marcus had come alone, urging Jenny to crack the whip back at Langley and keep their team focused on hunting the Kairos cells.

Carl Roseboro greeted him with a bear hug. “Didn’t think this would be a good idea last night in the Sit Room,” he said with a laugh.

“No, probably not,” Marcus agreed. “Especially after I crashed and burned.”

“It wasn’t a pretty sight,” the director said as he motioned for Marcus to take a seat near the plate-glass windows overlooking the Potomac River and the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument on the other side.

“The president is making a serious mistake.”

“I agree,” Roseboro said. “But it’s his call, not mine, and certainly not yours.”

“Doesn’t he realize this story is going to leak?”

“It better not come from you.”

“It’s not me or my team he needs to worry about. Four governors have now been read in on the intel. Four big-city mayors. Police chiefs. The circle of people who know what’s happening is expanding rapidly.”

“You don’t need to like it, Ryker. You just need to accept it and do your job.”

Marcus didn’t like it, but he let it go for now and focused on the mission at hand.

For the next several hours, Roseboro took Marcus through the precise itinerary Pope Pius and the cardinals and Vatican staff traveling in his entourage would be taking. He showed him photos and bios on everyone in the delegation. He walked him through the results of all the background checks they had already done on each and intelligence they had from the Vatican’s own security service.

Then Roseboro reviewed the accommodations for the accredited members of the American and international press corps who would be covering the pope’s visit. He explained the steps the DSS and Secret Service were taking to prevent weapons from being smuggled into the stadiums. He described the new magnetometers, X-ray machines, and other technologies that were being deployed at each location to detect body-cavity bombs like the one that had been so deadly at 10 Downing Street eighteen months earlier, as well as the one that had nearly taken out the U.S. president, Israeli prime minister, and Saudi king.

Marcus’s phone buzzed. Glancing at it, he saw it was his mother. He declined the call. He would have to get back to her later. There was too much that the director had not covered, and Marcus had questions.