Matt ignored her. “The good news is that after previewing the piece, Bibb called Hal into her office to rant about it.”

Natalie pulled up onto her knees to look over the back of the seat at Matt. “Bibb and Hal got to see the piece already? Why do they get to see it before us?”

“You’re focusing on the wrong thing,” Matt told her. “You’ve made Bibb very unhappy. You should be proud.”

Natalie felt herself brighten a little. “Good point.”

“The Chief is over the moon,” Matt went on. “He told Bibb to increase your budget. He said to reimburse you for hair and makeup.”

“What, I’m getting my own hair and makeup?” This was unprecedented in Natalie’s career. “That’s amazing. How do you know?”

Matt put on an expression she felt was supposed to make him seem wily but really just made him look constipated. “I have my sources.”

She squinted her eyes at him. “What’s the bad news?”

He pointed at the monitor on the back of Natalie’s seat. She turned in time to see Ryan standing outside the embassy, this time wearing a shirt. She checked the clock—it was the top of the hour. Which meant—

“They’re leading with Ryan instead of me?” Her hands curled into angry fists, and it started getting hard to breathe.

“Do you need to get out?” the woman next to her asked, looking concerned.

“No, thank you,” Natalie said, trying to sound normal as she jammed in a single earbud.

She was just in time to hear Ryan say, “—the first time they will be in the same country since the night in question.” The monitor cut to video of Sonia Barbaro, her long black hair shining, wearing a white T-shirt and blazer walking through a crowd. It was followed by more video of Sonia, now in an emerald green sheath on a red carpet.

“Barbaro lands in the US tomorrow night ahead of the American premiere of her new film, Trafficked,” Ryan went on. “She hasn’t spoken publicly since accusing Rigo Lystra two weeks ago. This weekend, she’ll be angling for publicity, and we can only imagine what she’ll say next. The world will be watching.”

“Everyone knows Barbaro arrives tomorrow,” Natalie snapped. “Why is this the lead story?”

Her phone buzzed and she glanced down to find a text from Hal complimenting her on her beyond awesome work today, adding, you were smoking hot in every sense of the word!

Wincing, she flicked her eyes back to Ryan on the monitor. This was probably Hal’s doing. It made perfect sense.

“Hal must have done this,” she said out loud. “When he heard the Chief liked our story, he probably lobbied for Ryan to be the lead. He’s a human barricade to the White House.”

“Table for one at Conspiracy Café?” Matt replied. “Someone’s paranoid.”