“I barely know you. Your last liaison officer thought you were fine. I think the actual phrase was pushy but sane.” Beth laughed. “By Task Force standards that is a glowing recommendation.”

Heather wasn’t allowed in any of STFU’s official briefings. “Any progress on finding our guy?” She went back to her pie, trying to act nonchalant.

“You might not have noticed, but the boss isn’t super good at sharing information. Our team is done. We had our shot. Now we’re supposed to stand down.”

Heather could tell she wanted to say more. “Come on, Beth, there’s always rumors swirling around a big investigation. You must have heard something. He kicked me off a moving train.”

“He winged my husband . . . Okay, fair enough. They’re tossing all those old tunnels, but there’s been no sign of him anywhere. He just vanished. MCB can’t find anything, but I guess that’s pushed the higher-ups over the edge. We were all a little surprised to see our guy turn up on the latest PUFF table for a lot of money.”

“Define a lot.”

“Two hundred and fifty million dollars.”

Heather almost choked on her pie.

“No, Task Force members are ineligible to collect PUFF, so don’t even think about it . . . Keep in mind who you’re working for now. The government has individual airplanes that cost more than that. As ridiculous as it sounds, that kind of money routinely disappears from budgets all the time. To the government that’s chump change, but to Hunters? The biggest company out there—which I believe your boyfriend runs—only has a couple hundred employees. Hunters will be coming out of the woodwork.”

“But still . . . That seems extreme.”

“During the last briefing we were told that our fugitive left a message threatening to kill the President.”

That didn’t fit. Heather leaned in close. “Did you get to see the note?”

“No.”

“Why would Franks do that?”

“Maybe he’s gone nuts. Something came unscrewed in that armored skull of his. I don’t know.”

“That can’t be all . . .” Heather tapped her fork against her plate. She’d been debriefed about her fight in the subway, but she’d left a few things out, most importantly how she’d violated Stricken’s direct orders and talked with Franks first. She’d been beaten senseless, Franks could have ripped her head off there at the end, but he’d given her a message and spared her life instead. Everything she’d ever heard about Franks suggested that he didn’t even grasp the concept of mercy, let alone ever exercised it, so there had to be a reason. Nemesis had to be that important. The question now was did she trust Beth enough to ask about it?