83

At 7 a.m., Martha Dell met with her senior managers in her office.

Marcus nodded to Annie as they took their seats, each a bit unsure how to interact now that they were working together. Worse, Annie outranked Marcus, a point that she had not yet ribbed him about, but he had no doubt she would soon.

Dell apologized that their meeting would have to be brief. She was supposed to deliver the PDB—The President’s Daily Brief, a summary of the most pertinent overnight intelligence—to Hernandez and Whitney at nine. “Agent Ryker, you have news?”

Marcus nodded and walked them through what he’d learned from Noah and what he’d requested of the Pentagon, the other U.S. intelligence agencies, and the Saudis. Everyone agreed it was promising, but Annie went further.

“You and your team should be on a plane, not here,” she said, the urgency in her voice surprising to everyone, Marcus included.

“To Yemen?” Marcus asked.

“No, to Riyadh,” Annie said.

“Why? We don’t know anything yet—nothing solid,” he protested.

“But in six or eight hours you will,” she pushed back. “Why wait? Get in the air. Martha and I can light a fire under everyone here. By the time you get to Saudi Arabia, you may have an actionable lead. And isn’t time of the essence? Don’t we all fear that if the White House had ordered the strike in Libya earlier, we might have gotten Abu Nakba?”

Marcus considered that for a moment, then turned to Dell. “The woman has a point,” he said.

“She does,” Dell agreed. “How fast can you guys deploy?”

“As soon as we’re done here,” Marcus said.

“Then go now,” Dell ordered. “Gather your team and head straight to Andrews. I’ll have vehicles waiting downstairs in fifteen minutes and a G5 warming up on the tarmac with all the equipment you’ll need.”

“You sure?” Marcus said, as much to Annie as to Dell.

Both women nodded and wished him well, as did the rest of the senior staff.

“Can I borrow her for just a moment?” Marcus asked Dell, glancing at Annie.

Dell nodded. “Make it quick. I’ll call Jenny and get the team moving.”

Marcus thanked her, then took Annie into the hallway and pulled her into the director’s conference room and shut the door behind him. “You know how crazy this is?” he asked, taking her hands, standing so close to her he could feel her warm breath on his neck. “Not very many days ago, you were on your way out the door and wanted me to go too. Now you’re the deputy director of the freaking CIA and dispatching me to Saudi Arabia and almost certainly to Yemen.”

“I know,” she said. “But what choice do we have? You know Kairos isn’t going to stop at those three girls. We can’t ever let that happen again.”

“I love you, Annie Stewart,” Marcus suddenly blurted out, as surprised at himself as she was, judging by the look in her beautiful green eyes.

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I love you, Marcus Ryker. So don’t get yourself killed out there, or I’ll never forgive you.”

“Annie?”

“Yes.”

“Would it be okay if I kissed you right now?”

“It’s about time you asked.”

But just then Jenny burst into the room. “The plane is ready,” she told him. “We need to go now.”