Every bone in Elias Cummings's body ached. He moved gingerly in his well-padded chair as he kept his eyes on the colorful front page of the Post. He'd read every single word on the entire front page. Some of them twice. He probably could have recited the different articles verbatim if his feet were to the fire. Very clever of Maggie Spritzer to keep everything contained on one page, no flipping to the inside and searching for the end of an article.

He looked down at the picture of himself with Bert Navarro covering his body, a black-clad ninja hovering overhead. Thank God the new EIC hadn't enlarged the picture. He shrugged. No matter, it showed Navarro in a good light, protecting his boss at great harm to himself. That should make the Senate sit up and take notice and vote favorably. The deliberately muttered comment by Bert that the press was supposed to hear worked well. Blaming Jack Emery and Harry Wong for the attack played out especially well.

Cummings looked to the left of the paper for Emery's short interview. It was cold and brittle and to the point. "Bert Navarro is no friend of mine. You know what you can do with your insinuations, don't you, Mr. Espinosa? You really don't want to know what I think about his proposed appointment as director of the FBI. Your paper is a family paper, isn't it?" The short interview went on to list numerous cases he'd won in court and also his prior engagement to Nikki Quinn, one of the vigilantes.

Cummings let his gaze go to the enlarged picture of the pile of ashes that had settled on the ground after the ninjas disappeared into thin air. He smiled, knowing full well that when analyzed, the ashes would prove to be human. He almost laughed out loud when he recalled the early morning news report of the break-in at the FBI lab during the night, where the only thing taken was the beaker of ashes that were being tested. The ninjas returning for their own so they could rise again. This time he did laugh aloud but sobered immediately when he saw Bert Navarro standing in the doorway.

"You okay?"

The tall, dark-haired assistant director just stood there, slouching. He had a scrape down one side of his face and two shiners. Navarro winced slightly as he straightened up and entered the room. "I'll live. I see you have the paper. The whole damn thing gave me a kingsize adrenaline rush. And then the news this morning. Will you please tell me how someone broke into our lab? Goddammit, this is the FBI, and they infiltrated us. How the hell did that happen? Whose ass are we going to put in a sling over this?" Bert bellowed.