1 Chapter 1

Cameron Andrews settled down into the soft leather chair and looked around. The office hadn’t changed since she was there a few years before. The desk was still tidy, just like the man who sat here, and the few files that lay there were neatly stacked in a wooden file tray. The credenza behind the desk only had two phones and a Rolodex. No other papers or pictures. Was the picture behind her on the wall new? She didn’t remember what had hung there.

The office door opened and a petite woman in a very conservative lightweight navy blue wool suit entered with a coffee mug in her hand. She set it in front of Cam on the desk.

“One sugar, no cream, right?” she asked.

Cam nodded. “Right. You have a good memory. I see why Craig keeps you around,” she complimented her.

Martita Sanchez laughed. She’d worked for Craig for ten years, even before Craig had taken over this office.

“He said to tell you he’d be up in a minute. He’s just finishing a meeting with Director Deems and the head of the Company. Is there anything else I can get for you?”

“I’m fine, thanks. I’m perfectly comfortable.”

Martita smiled. “All right. Let me know if you think of anything, Ms. Andrews.” With that, she left the office to go back to her own desk.

Cam leaned forward and picked up the cup. Rich, dark coffee, a little strong for her taste, but the aroma couldn’t be beat. Must be fresh beans from Colombia or Brazil, she thought. Were they special gifts from clients there or did Martita buy them specifically for Craig? She sat back and sipped from the mug.

Craig was the reason she worked here. When she’d worked here before, right out of grad school, she’d helped Craig with some projects and they’d become friends. Then she’d quit and gone to work for the Baltimore Police Department and they’d lost touch. When she’d run into him again in Baltimore, a few years later, he’d handed her his card and said, “Give me a call if there’s ever anything I can do for you.” She’d put it away until a few months had passed and had finally called him. That was the start.

A few minutes later, the door opened as Craig Roberson, Director of the CIA, walked into his office. He was a tall man, maybe in his late forties or early fifties. His hair was beginning to show a little gray at his temples, and as ever, he was immaculately dressed. His dark suit was perfectly fitted to his trim physique. Definitely government issue.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” he said and smiled. “You know how these things go. You can never get away when you need to.”

“I just got here,” Cam replied. “I thought Iwas going to be late. I had lunch with Pauly and you know he’d give those meetings a run for their money. When that boy gets started, you can’t shut him up.” She chuckled. Paul Tarelli was her best friend. It seemed she’d known him forever. He had trained with Cam at the Police Academy and he had been recruited to help her on her first assignment for the DEA.

Craig laid a file and his iPad on the dark oak surface as he sat down in the tall-backed swivel chair behind the desk.

“I was surprised when Maggie said to meet with you and not Richard,” Cam said as she put her mug back onto the desk. “Am I in trouble?”

“No, not at all,” Craig replied, a smile forming on his face. “Nothing like that. But we’re sending you on a completely different assignment this time so I wanted to brief you myself.”

Cam had worked for Richard C. Deems of the DEA for the last few years. At first she worked undercover in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington DC. Then, when her cover was blown, Deems had started sending her out of the region, and eventually out of the country, to find drug routes and the people who worked them.

“Then let’s get started,” Cam said. “Maggie didn’t say what this was about so I’m all ears.”

“I haven’t brought Dr. Thomason into the loop yet because I wanted to talk to you first,” Craig told her. “I wanted to see how you felt about doing double duty.”

“Double duty?” Cam asked, sitting forward. Dr. Margaret Thomason was her control when she was out in the field. Any contact she needed went through Maggie. Maggie had become her friend as well as the person who answered any question she had. If Maggie couldn’t answer a question, she’d find out who could. Dr. Maggie evaluated her performance, too, and Cam had come to rely on her for just about every aspect of her job as well as a great deal of her private life. Cam couldn’t remember ever getting an assignment without Maggie knowing about it first.