It occurred to Jed that while he knew the nature of the work Nisha had done before joining the Shepherds, he didn’t know her backstory. He’d always assumed she was CIA, but that assumption appeared to be wrong. He wondered, for the hundredth time, what spooky organization she’d worked for previously and how she had ended up at Trinity.

“The point is, I trust Gayle personally, but she traveled separately for a reason,” she said, finishing her thought. “My guess is they turn and leave us in a second if they feel the need. So . . . I trust her judgment while she’s on task, but we should assume we are running this on our own if things go bad .”

“That’s what Eli thought too, which brings me to this: Nisha, I need you to run point on this operation.” She opened her mouth to object, but he held up a hand. “This is not me passing off operational authority. I’m team lead. I take responsibility for decisions and outcomes. But I’m a door kicker. Your specialty is small-footprint covert operations and spy craft . . . or am I mistaken?”

“You are not,” she said and folded her arms across her chest.

“So as team leader, it’s my job to make sure that each member of the team is tasked properly based on their strengths and weaknesses. You’ve run these kinds of ops before—me not so much—especially in a setting like this. So my question is, are you comfortable taking lead on this?”

She thought a moment, then looked up. “I am, but if we get into a gunfight, the team lead shifts to you. Fair enough?”

“Yep,” he said with a nod.

“Good with me too, if anyone is asking,” Eli said and slapped Jed on the shoulder. “The Lord knows if there’s a balcony that needs jumping off of, we all know who to call.”

“Exactly,” Jed said with a self-deprecating grin. He turned back to Nisha. “You’ve looked over all the intel?”

“I have,” Nisha said. “As well as the conference schedules and the layout of the city on this side of the bay. We know that Zhao Xiang will be at the convention center across the street for most of the time. We also know that the CCP are highly protective of this scientist and might suspect Zhao is becoming dissatisfied. He will be under heavy surveillance and likely will have both overt and covert minders watching his every move. We also learned he’s attending an unpublicized meeting, not at the convention center.”

“Where is that meeting?” Eli asked, all business now.

“Here, at the Renaissance. Gayle believes that meeting will be in boardroom six on the mezzanine level.”

“Why does she think that?” Jed asked.