Quickly now, she strode to the driver’s side window and smashed it in two powerful blows. The first one crazed the safety glass, the second caused it to disintegrate into tiny pieces.

The man behind the wheel was still turned around, staring over his right shoulder at the broken rear window. As he turned back, she spit her wad of gum into his right eye. While he was dealing with that, she grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and hauled him out through the window, until his hips got stuck. He was on his back, staring up at her.

“Who the fuck are you?” she said. With her face so close to his she was enveloped in the sour smell of the pizza and beer he’d had for dinner. “Why are you following me?”

“You’re breaking my back,” the man cried.

She shook him hard. “Do I look like I care?”

“Listen, listen, I work for Universal Security, same as you.”

“Then why are you following me?”

“Orders,” the man said. “From King Cutler himself.” He gestured with his head. “My name is Mac. Go on. Call him, if you want.”

“You bet I want.” She took out her mobile and punched in Cutler’s number.

“In the meantime, can you please just let me sit back down?”

“Fuck you.”

Cutler’s voice came on the other end of the line. “You’re inconveniencing me, Charlie.”

“Not as much as your little surveillance op has inconvenienced me.”

Silence on the other end. Then, “I have no surveillance op running on you.”

“Okay,” Charlie said. “Then I’ll find out who’s running this jamoke and then I’ll dump his body into the Potomac.”

“What?!” Mac cried. “Are you insane?”

“What was that?” Cutler asked.

Charlie hit the mute button, said to Mac. “Shut the fuck up or I really will dump you.” Then she unmuted and said to Cutler, “You heard me. I don’t like being followed. I have a history—”

“I’ve read your history.”

The Elf Lord at work, Charlie thought. “Then this guy’s toast.”

“Stop,” Cutler said, after a short hesitation. “Mac is mine.”

Which was precisely what Charlie suspected. “If you ever lie to me again, you’ll live to regret it.”

She heard Cutler suck in his breath. “Is that a threat?”

“Take it any way you want.”

“Calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down.”

“Surveillance is part of the vetting process we run on all new hires. The shadow was put there for your protection as well as for our information.”

“Are you seriously trying to feed me that line?”

Another short pause, as if Cutler was trying to regroup. She could feel that she had put him back on his heels. Clearly, he didn’t like it. Who would?

“To be honest, I didn’t expect you to pick up the tag. Mac is one of our best men.”

“He’s not good enough,” she said.

Cutler did not respond.

“Listen, when I’m in the field—”

“You’re in D.C., for Christ’s sake!”