“Nice to meet you,” Jed said, shaking Damien’s hand.

“Jed,” Ben said, taking the lead back, “Julia and I have decided that Joshua Bravo is going to round out the task force for prosecuting the directed energy weapon threat. Damien recruited Nisha, and he’s well aware of her intellect and capabilities. You and the rest of your team have proven yourselves as out-of-the-box thinkers and adaptive problem solvers in the field. You’ll be working hand in glove with Damien and we’re giving basically unlimited resources to go where you need to go and do what you need to do. This weapon is an existential threat to our program and our people just as much as to our mission. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you succeed.”

“I understand,” Jed said, feeling the weight of Ben’s words as well as the entire organization on his shoulders. “I won’t let you down.”

While he meant the words with all his heart, he had never felt more like a fish out of water. He was an operator—a door kicker and direct-action asset. He had precious little experience investigating, analyzing intelligence, or coordinating intelligence assets. He was the nail such people generally hammered.

“I know you won’t, Jed,” Ben said, clapping him on the shoulder and most likely reading his mind and mood. “Now go collect your team and work with the intelligence shop to put together an action plan. The clock is ticking.”

CHAPTER
EIGHT

SCIF

CIA HEADQUARTERS

LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

1443 HOURS LOCAL

Gayle shifted uncomfortably in her seat, wondering when Steve would say something. He’d been staring at her for a long time, and she wasn’t sure what she’d said or done to deserve it. From what she knew of him, Steve Schmidt was somewhat of a pariah in the agency—a Langley institution in his own right who was revered, envied, and disliked all at the same time. The old-school operations officer—now the department chief—had reached the point in his tenure where he was both unpromotable and unfireable. His unapologetic demeanor and political repugnance ensured he would never become director or even assistant director, but no director could imagine running the CIA without Schmidt as a member of their inner circle. He was an important man to have in your corner, and she’d worked hard to ingratiate herself to him, despite limited opportunities to interact since she’d been stationed in Lima.