"Okay, back to work, everyone," Bert ordered, a smirk on his face. There was no way in hell he could have disobeyed Cummings's last official order.

Bert limped his way to his office and slammed the door shut. He wanted to cry so damn bad he didn't know what to do. He sat down and dropped his head into his hands. If he was smart, he would gather up his belongings and run after Elias Cummings. He thought about life in a federal penitentiary for what he'd been doing, which was aiding and abetting the vigilantes. He knew that, in his own way, Elias Cummings had been doing the same thing. But Elias was out now, and Bert had been passed the torch. Cummings had just walked out of the Hoover Building to start his new life, his tenure here at the FBI just a memory. Bert wondered if the memory would be a good or bad one.

Then his thoughts took him to Jack Emery and Harry Wong, his two best friends in the whole world, and what they'd just done for him so he could be appointed director of the FBI. He'd known in his gut the ninja event at the White House was a setup, but he was FBI through and through and needed Elias Cummings's confirmation to make him accept it 100 percent, which he now did. Jack and Harry would never give him up, just the way he hadn't given them up by refusing to sever his friendship with both men, even though the prize was taking over the FBI directorship.

Bert's thoughts switched over to the vigilantes, Kathryn Lucas in particular. He wondered if he was a fool. He believed he could separate his position at the FBI and still be a supporter and ally of the vigilantes. He bit down on his lower lip. Better men than he had probably thought they could play both ends against the middle. He'd made his decision the minute he'd allowed Elias Cummings to speak with the president about nominating him as director. Now he had to live with it. If he ended up in the federal pen, he'd have no one to blame but himself. He shivered inside his jacket.