Special Agent Kit Steele was sitting at her desk at eight o’clock in the morning when her cell phone rang. She’d tried to sleep the night before, but it had been a futile exercise. She came into the office to keep busy and to try to quell her imagination. She was reading through all the information she had on Vincente Carpio, looking for anything she might have missed in the past. The attempt at distracting herself was only partially successful, though. Imaginations aren’t always easy to silence, she’d learned over the years.

She picked up her cell phone, her heart racing as the caller ID registered. It was his number. She clicked on the call and waited.

“It’s me,” he said. She recognized Cormack O’Connell’s voice, and she took a deep, grateful breath.

“How did it go?” she asked. They kept their phone conversations general as a precaution.

“I’ve had better nights,” he said. “But I’ve had worse nights, too, so I guess it went as well as I could have expected.”

“How’s Diamond?”

“She’s safe for now. That’s all that matters.”

“Just for now?”

“It’s still a dangerous world out there,” he said. “That hasn’t changed.”

“Too bad,” she said.

“It is.”

“Can we meet?”

“That might be difficult. Do you have information?”

“Nothing useful. It would still be good to meet, though.” Steele kept her voice even, but she couldn’t deny her need to see him again.

“OK,” he said. “I’ll try to figure something out. I’ll let you know.”

The line went dead, but she kept the phone to her ear for a moment, a part of her hoping to hear his voice again. Finally she put the phone back on top of her desk.

Her office phone rang, and she picked it up. “Steele here.”

“It’s Martin.”

“Special Agent Martin,” she said. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I wish it was a pleasure,” he said. “You told me that information would go both ways. It doesn’t feel like that’s a promise you’re living up to.”

“If I have information to give, my first phone call will be to you,” she lied. “That’s the best I can do.”

“You sure about that?”

“You have my word.” She marveled at how easily she was able to betray others in law enforcement at this point. It was for the greater good, though, she told herself.

“There was a war out on the harbor last night,” Martin said. “You know anything about that?”

“No,” she said. “What happened?”