She sighed. She understood Hunter’s confusion. Her father was Lebanese, and she’d gotten her undergrad degree at Georgetown in Arab studies. Given her impeccable Arabic language skills and her subject-matter expertise, she’d been a top recruit for the CIA. “Technically, given the turn of events, I am considered an operations or case officer. Most people outside the Agency call everyone spies or operatives, but we are really CIA officers. It’s a complex situation. It was always about me being an analyst. That’s the work I love to do—connecting the dots and synthesizing tons of complex information. And, of course, being fluent in Arabic and Farsi is a big advantage when poring over original source materials. But about a year ago, a special assignment came up. It was presented to me as a onetime thing. I can’t go into details, but it required fieldwork.”

“And I’m guessing this fieldwork took you to the Middle East?”

“Actually, not the initial assignment, no. It was in Europe, but it involved a lot of moving pieces and contacts from many different regions.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts and make sure she wasn’t revealing too much. “Anyway, I performed well, and even though I told them I didn’t want to make the transition from analyst to operations officer, they have subsequently come to me on other special projects. The woman you met in the hospital, Scarlett, works at State and is my interagency mentor. She agrees with the Agency’s plan for my career and has pushed me to take any and every field opportunity I can. She believes I’m thinking too small by staying at Langley behind a desk.”

“And this cartel op was a month ago? You were actually with them in Honduras, right?”

She nodded. “I was. It was a DEA-driven mission. I was the only non-DEA person on the team.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Layla, if the high-ups in the cartel have put out a hit on you, do you realize the kind of trouble you’re in?”

Unfortunately, she did. “I know. And then place on top of that the internal investigation, and things become even more dicey.”

“Have you considered that you’ve formed some enemies at the CIA?”

She’d certainly considered it. “As much as I try to get along with everyone, we all have people we don’t see eye to eye with. I’ve got a couple of people like that. Although I’d hate to think they’d actually try to kill me over our petty squabbles.”

“Layla, this is a complete mess.”

“Believe me, I know.”

“Okay, let’s take one thing at a time. You’re sure there’s nothing your boss said that could tip his hand on what the IG investigation is about?”

She thought for a moment. “No. He was very vague because he wasn’t fully read into the details either.”