‘I’ll get out, with the data.’

Musso leaned back in his chair, looking tired. ‘In a way, I hope you fail,’ he said.

She looked at him, tilting her head in an unspoken query.

‘I think Blackstone is genuinely seeking rapprochement,’ he explained, eyeing the file that filled his in-tray.

In there was everything McCutcheon had on the South American Federation’s op in Florida. Or at least, everything he said he had. There may have been intelligence he’d held back to avoid exposing any further TDF ops outside Texas. Nonetheless, Blackstone had agreed to hand over the captured infiltrators to a team of federal marshals who were scrambling to fly down from KC by the end of the day.

‘I can’t say I’m happy about this other bullshit,’ Musso said, nodding at her cell phone. ‘But I can understand it. Mad Jack seems genuine in his paranoia about Morales. He’s going to want any kind of leverage he can get with Seattle’s man, or woman. You being Echelon, I’m sure you’d understand.’

Caitlin smiled. ‘My first field assignment was bugging the French and EU trade ministers at a GATT meeting. Long time ago. In a galaxy far, far away.’

‘Yeah,’ grunted Musso. He pointed at the Siemens. ‘I’m still going to have to deal with this. Bring in the FBI, I suppose. But I’ll leave it until you’re gone.’

‘That’d be a big help, sir. And if you could organise my stunt double too?’

‘No problem. We can use Amy, the waitress from the other night. She did good with McCutcheon and I trust her. She fought in New York. Re-enlisted right after, when the TDF recruiters were really trawling for custom. Sign-on bonuses, free houses, transfer of benefits, everything. But she’s a believer.’

‘You don’t have to sell me,’ she said. ‘Before I used her on McCutcheon, I had Vancouver run her through the filter. She’s clean, as far as they could tell.’

At this, one of Musso’s eyebrows climbed towards the ceiling. ‘I see. And did you run me through your filters as well?’

‘You bet. I’d run everyone, if I had the time and resources. But I don’t. And so this shit happens.’ Her turn to nod towards the augmented phone she’d used to sniff out the bugs in her quarters when she first arrived.

Musso appeared to take no lasting offence at having been vetted by Echelon. Caitlin found him an easy man to work with. A lot of military people held her profession in low regard, but Tusk didn’t seem to be the sort to judge.