“Oh, that’s exactly what they’ll do, Jed. That’s why they didn’t let Gayle travel with us and why she’s at the Four Seasons instead of here with us. They’ve already set up plausible deniability to disavow us entirely. If this goes bad, the cover story will be that we’re rogue contractors gone off the rails. That’s what CIA does. It’s the job.” The former Delta member leaned in toward him. “So we best not let things go sideways, huh?”

Jed snorted a laugh. “Yeah, I guess. I wish it was some straight-up direct-action mission—something more in our wheelhouse. I’ve done plenty of snatch and grabs, but they were all in third world cities or some desert compound off the grid. Never a city like Hong Kong. This is so, so . . .”

“Urban?”

“Yeah, urban.” He sighed and leaned forward, elbows on thighs, mirroring Eli’s posture. “But it needs to be us obviously. Since the Dark Ones are involved, we can’t afford to let this guy disappear into some black site program never to be heard from again.”

A knock on the door connecting their room to the adjoining one grabbed their attention.

“It’s open,” Jed called, having unlocked the connector already.

The door pushed open and Nisha and Bex walked in, Nisha’s face unreadable and Bex looking a little uncertain.

“’Sup, guys?” Bex called.

“Just gearing up to do some planning.” Eli smiled and drained the last of his coffee.

Jed rose and met them as they crossed the room, directing them with a hand toward the round table with four chairs.

“Where are the other guys?” Nisha asked, referring to the remaining four Shepherds of Joshua Bravo. Carl and Hyeon were sharing an identical room across the hall from Jed and Eli, with a connector to Johnny and Grayson’s room across from Bex and Nisha.

“They’ll be here in a few minutes,” Jed said, holding Nisha’s eyes. “I wanted to talk with you first, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah,” she said, her voice curious, as she took a seat. “Everything okay?”

He shrugged. “Do you trust Gayle?”

Nisha laughed. “As much as I ever trust organic CIA. By that I mean I have a good feeling about Gayle. I think she’s a straight shooter and wants to help. But in the end, her allegiance is to an organization that’s burned me before. Don’t get me wrong,” she said, raising a hand. “I have tremendous respect for the work that CS and ground guys do at CIA. Tremendous respect. But CIA has moved slowly and with greater reluctance into the joint ops world we all know and thrive in. In the end, theirs is a CIA agenda and if it matches ours, great, but if not . . .”