Olafson had preordered a car, which drove them from the terminal to Virginia. They arrived at a familiar single-story office tucked in a grove of mature trees. This building—one of the most secure in the entire country—had been Welga’s home base after choosing Advanced Technology and Intelligence as her area of specialty. A mix of nostalgia and trepidation stabbed her at seeing it again. She’d met Connor in a third-floor conference room here. She’d paid no attention to the quiet white guy through the entire briefing, not until he spoke a single sentence and delivered the most insightful comment of the meeting. Captain Jack Travis had planned their squad’s final mission in a basement office. She’d spent hours with him, reviewing the plan. And the last time she’d walked out of this building, with Connor at her side, she’d sworn never to work for the government again.

Yet here she was. What did that say about her?

That you’re committed to people over politics. You will do whatever it takes to save innocent lives. To complete the objective, you have to believe that to the core of your being. You have to be ready to sacrifice yourself for the good of your people. She could hear the words in Jack’s voice. Like Mama’s ghost in Phoenix, her commander’s spirit would haunt her through these halls. By keeping her promise to her mother, Welga had set aside the chance to get justice for her death. She’d made no such commitment to her commander. If Operation Organica took her back to the Maghreb, she might get a second chance to finish what they’d started nine years before and, this time, to do it without being undercut by her own president. She could tear open the al-Muwahhidun empire for all the world to see. And then… even if it took years… maybe they could find her captain and her fallen sisters and bring them home.

They stopped in the foyer to verify their identities. She and Olafson swabbed inside their cheeks and placed the samples into a receptacle. Like every updated government building, this one had grass flooring, solar lighting, and low-profile plants lining the inside walls. Unlike many others, though, it also had an air-purge entry in addition to the usual threshold filter, and a network sniffer. No form of wireless communication was allowed inside, not even access to their agents, and every piece of electronics had strict emissions controls. High-speed fans blew stray microdrones outward while they were scanned for devices embedded in clothing or body parts. After several minutes, the inner door allowed them through.