She slumped onto the bed and picked up the TV remote. She liked home improvement shows, people flipping houses, redecorating kitchens. She found something familiar and turned down the sound.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” she said. “This Lance Spector better be worth the trip.”

Roth shrugged. He had his suitcase open and was taking a leather toiletry pouch from it. It looked like something her grandfather would have packed. The sight of it, the domesticity, made her stomach turn.

“I guess that depends,” Roth said.

Roth hadn’t told her much in the briefing. That wasn’t unusual, but in this case it didn’t seem there was much more he could have told her.

A low-level embassy staffer in Istanbul had been handed an envelope at a local coffee shop. The owner of the coffee shop said a woman with dark hair had left it. Whoever the woman was, she was no novice. She’d known exactly where the embassy’s security cameras were, as well as local police CCTV cameras, and managed to avoid being picked up by any of them. She’d arrived by cab, and had asked the owner to call her another cab when she left. The driver she’d arrived with couldn’t be tracked down. The one that picked her up only brought her a few blocks, letting her out at a nearby bus stop, again unmonitored by CCTV. After that she’d disappeared.

The café owner said she’d never removed her sunglasses or scarf, and apart from her hair color, the only identifying information he’d been able to provide was that she was slim, average height, and ordered in English. He got the impression she was Russian, there were always a lot of Russians in Istanbul, but that wasn’t based on anything more than a hunch.

The woman had apparently known that an envelope left in that café would find its way into the embassy.

As it happened, the staffer handed it in at the front gate, where it was scanned and opened by security as per protocol.

The envelope contained a printed note.

I will only speak to Lance Spector.

There was a return address on the back for a mailbox in Manhattan. Roth had it checked out. Against regulations, no ID had been required for the box rental and payment had been accepted in cash. The name used on the rental form was Reggie White.

“Did we track him down?” Laurel said.

“Who?”

“Reggie White?”

Roth chuckled. “I think it’s a fake name, sweetie. Reggie White was a big player for the Eagles.”

The envelope also contained a small titanium case, something clinical with a biohazard label on it.

The envelope and its contents were flagged by security and the titanium case was put in a secure locker.

A bulletin went out to Delta Force at Fort Bragg informing them of the note, and they forwarded that to Langley.