“All right,” Lance said, pouring himself more coffee.

“Roth’s not exactly on a first name basis with the other assets.”

“As far as you know,” Lance said.

“Yes,” she said, and he could see she had a whole new respect for Roth’s ability to deceive her.

Lance let out a deep sigh. “Look,” he said, “Roth has a job to do. And it’s not always the job we think it is.”

“I see that,” Laurel said.

“Doing his job, don’t take it personally, but to do his job well, sometimes it means lying to us.”

“We’re not in kindergarten,” Laurel said. “I get that.”

Lance shrugged. “Well then, whatever he’s told you, whatever he’s said about this mission, about me, about your role…”.

“I know,” Laurel said. “Don’t trust it.”

“You ever seen the movie, The Departed?” Lance said.

“I’ve seen everything Leo’s ever made.”

“You remember what Mark Wahlberg said about the feds?”

She smiled. “Keep them in the dark and feed them shit.”

“That’s what Roth does with us.”

Laurel nodded. “I guess I always knew that,” she said.

“You just didn’t see it hitting so close to home.”

“No I didn’t.”

“The thing about it,” Lance said, “is that to do this job, you have to take every word Roth says as gospel.”

“Even though half of it is lies,” Laurel said.

Lance nodded. “More than half. And you have to eat it all. You have to swallow and not ask yourself what’s true and what’s not. To do this job, you have to tell yourself that as far as you’re concerned, the truth and the bullshit taste the same.”

“Swallow and don’t ask questions.”

“That’s the job.”

“Reminds me of a few other jobs.”

“Yes it does,” Lance said.

Laurel threw her hands up. “Fuck it,” she said. “This is nothing I didn’t already know.”

“If you can accept it,” Lance said, “if you can really get down with it, you’ll sleep better for it.”

“And I’ll do my job better.”

“Sure,” he said.

Laurel went to the window. “Do you suppose he knew we’d talk like this?” she said.

“Sure he did,” Lance said. “He orchestrated it.”

“Then we’re playing right into his hand.”

“Well,” Lance said, “to be honest, he probably thought we’d be upstairs by now.”

Laurel looked at him.

Lance took a step toward her, and another, and she raised her hands like she thought he was about to throw a stray cat in her face. “Fuck, Lance.”

“Sorry.”

“I just found out I was hired because I look like your ex.”

“Sorry.”

“Fuck.”

“I said I’m sorry.”

“What do you think I am?”

“I know. I know.”

She took a breath.

“You seemed game last night,” he said.

“I didn’t know my whole life was a lie then, did I?”