She hadn’t planned on going alone, but she was having trouble getting in touch with Jordan Mayes. Carmichael was at his safe house in Alexandria, of course, and Brewer had just called looking for Mayes, but Carmichael said he wasn’t returning his calls to him, either, and a security team had been dispatched both to his house and to check the route from Alexandria to Langley.

She arrived at her BMW and put her hand on the door latch, unlocking the doors because her Bluetooth key fob sent an unlocking code to the vehicle letting it know it was in the possession of the person at the driver’s door.

“Suzanne?” She jumped when she heard her name called. She turned around to find Jordan Mayes walking towards her in the parking lot. He was alone, which was odd, because this was the first time she’d seen him without the security men since Violator had arrived in the States.

Brewer said, “I’ve been calling you for the past hour. So has Denny.” His tie was loose and his eyes were wide and rimmed with red. Everyone in the Violator Working Group was utterly exhausted, but Suzanne got the impression Jordan Mayes was more than tired; it appeared as if he had been drinking. “What’s wrong?”

He walked around to the passenger’s side of her BMW. “Let’s go for a ride.”

Brewer looked around in confusion. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere specific. I need to talk to you.”

“If it’s confidential, why can’t we just go back in the office?”

Mayes just shook his head.

After a moment Brewer understood he did not want to talk inside the building. She did not understand, but she climbed behind the wheel nevertheless.

Mayes reached into his coat and pulled out a case just larger than a cell phone. Suzanne recognized it immediately. It was a Faraday cage, a protective case that blocked radio frequency waves. Placing a phone or other device that emitted radio signal inside would make the device untraceable. The CIA used Faraday cages for smartphones, primarily, which had difficult-to-remove batteries.

He handed her the small case. “Put your phone in this.”

“Come on. Really?”

“Really.”

She took the case, locked her phone inside, then placed the case in the storage compartment under the armrest between the front seats. Mayes questioned whether she had an iPad or other device with GPS enabled in the vehicle. She knew her BMW itself surely transmitted location info through its computer, but she didn’t mention this.

With a hint of sarcasm she said, “We’re off the grid, Jordan. What’s up?”

“Just drive.”