He shook his head and she stepped toward him. She held out a cup and the memory of Sam throwing the hot coffee in his face came back to him.

“Relax,” she said. “I’m not throwing it at you, I’m handing it to you, idiot.”

He took the coffee from her.

“Look,” she said. “I don’t know what you and Clarice had together, and I don’t want to know. I look like her, but I’m not her. I’m not your girl. I never have been, and I never will be. So get used to it.”

The satellite connection had been cleared and a call was coming through from the Pentagon.

Laurel looked at Lance but he didn’t look like he was ready to take the call.

“What?” she said.

He didn’t speak. He couldn’t.

“What’s wrong?” she said again, getting nervous.

“You looking like Clarice, that isn’t a coincidence, is it?”

She shook her head. “Can we not talk about that now.”

He took a step toward her and she stepped back. He reached out and took her chin in his hand.

“He did this to you, didn’t he?”

“Lance,” she said, pushing his hand away.

“You let him do it.”

She shook her head again. It was all she could do. She’d always known he’d find out sooner or later, but she’d never quite figured out what to say to him when it happened.

“We need to answer this call,” she said, looking at the computer.

“You let him give you plastic surgery?”

“Lance, we need to answer this.”

He shook his head and she opened the call.

“Laurel,” Roth said, a screen opening up to show a situation room in the Pentagon containing not just the president and Roth, but the Joint Chiefs, the CIA director, and a number of Pentagon specialists.

“Mr. President,” Laurel said, “Group Director Roth, Generals.”

“Laurel,” the president said. “It’s nice to see you back in action.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Now, I’m afraid there’s some cold feet around here,” the president continued. “There are some doubts that breaking into the Kremlin is even possible.”

“Oh, it’s possible,” Laurel said.

“There are also doubts politically, about the wisdom of attempting it.”

“Politically, sir?”

“If there’s a war coming, and we believe there is,” the president said, “then breaching the Kremlin might make it look like we were the ones who started it.”

“Well,” Laurel said, turning to Lance for support, “There are a number of scenarios we’ve drawn up, sir.”

“Maybe you could walk us through some of those.”

“Well, as you know, sir, Davidov spends most of his time with the president.”

“At the presidential compound at Novo-Ogaryovo,” the president said.

“Yes, sir. It’s one of the few places in Russia that’s even more secure than the senate building.”

“Significantly more secure, I hear.”

“That’s correct, sir.”