Watching them scramble in every direction, Nathan was reminded for the second time in as many days of a real-life Cops episode. Back at the sedan, Nathan opened the door and let Janey Sheldon out. “Your mother needs a ride home. Don’t let her drive, okay?”

“What happened in there?”

He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Watch what you say in your apartment. Big Brother’s listening.”

“What?”

“Just don’t let your mom get behind the wheel.”

“That’s it? You’re just gonna leave me here?”

Nathan slid into the backseat of the FBI sedan and looked at Janey. “Drive your mom home.”

Something occurred to him as Special Agent Andrews pulled away from the curb. Amber Sheldon hadn’t asked for any sort of protection against Ernie.

* * *

The drive back to Fresno’s airport was somewhat subdued. Nathan answered a few questions from Henning, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the presence of the two undercover agents in the bar. It didn’t pass the smell test. In fact, it stunk to high heaven. He didn’t want to think about the implications, didn’t want to believe what he suspected was true, that Holly Simpson had told Director Lansing of his plans.

The odds of any other explanation were astronomical. That left Nathan with a decision to make. Should he continue to share information with Holly? He found it difficult to believe Holly would knowingly betray him and act behind his back. It was more likely she had simply reported his plans to Lansing and Lansing had acted independently. Even if Holly had reported his activities to Lansing, she hadn’t done anything wrong. It was her job, and indeed her obligation, to report her activities to her boss.

One thing was certain, he wanted to talk to her alone, wanted the truth.

Starting with Lansing, he began to analyze and question everything. Lansing had placed a multilingual agent on the Lear to keep an eye on his activities. Given the stakes, it was a reasonable precaution, but it felt like an overkill. If Lansing wanted a watchdog, he already had one in the form of Bruce Henning. So why the doubled asset? An asset that not only spoke Arabic, but probably Russian as well. Did Lansing possess that level of mistrust? Did Lansing really think he’d speak to Harv in a foreign language to hide information? It didn’t make sense. There had to be something else going on, something deeper. What was Lansing hiding?