“Bullshit. I already got the briefing that we can’t use lethal force against the Machinehood. Sounds to me like our fearless leaders have learned nothing.”

“We need one of their operatives alive and talking.”

“At what cost? How many more deaths?”

“I’ll tell you this much—we don’t know what their endgame is. The situation could get a lot worse than a few dead funders. If they manage to disrupt pill production, more people will die without them attacking anyone. You know how the caliph likes to work.” His expression turned grim. “Look, I wouldn’t try to talk you back if I didn’t believe that we needed you. I know how you think—or how you used to. ATAI Specialist Ramírez would do whatever it took to find the Machinehood and make sure they didn’t deliver on their threat. Your team in Marrakech got closer to the caliph than any since. Everyone who gets past the front lines disappears into the empire and never comes back. He hasn’t given us an excuse to go in with full force, but this might be our opening. The commander in chief wants it. So does the Senate. We can get the authorization for war if we have the right evidence, but we need people on the ground to get it. People who know how to operate in blackout zones, people who can work without WAIs or bots assisting them. People like you.”

“I’m immune to flattery.”

“I’m telling the truth.”

“Goddamn it, Olafson, I’m too old to make history twice.”

“Spare me. You’re thirty-five. That’s not old.”

“Platinum thinks so.”

“That’s because they value what you look like. We need you to be fit and smart, not pretty. Besides, what is it you’re going to do next? Chop vegetables? Stew meats? Don’t you care what happens to innocent American lives?”

“Fuck you. I will always be faithful to the people of this country.”

It was the ones in charge that she didn’t trust. What if the government set her up to fail another time? With the cameras off—as they were under the caliph’s rule—accountability went to zero. Would they place her with a special ops team? What would those soldiers think of her history? And what about her promise to Connor? He’d left the JIA a month after she’d quit, sharing her disgust at a Congress and president who wouldn’t let them do their job. They’d promised each other not to go back to that life, scraping together a decent income from shield work. As much as she hated gigs, they were better than compromising her morals.