“You never asked. You assumed I was the driver. I’ve learned in this life never to assume anything.” He continued to look at the screen intently.

Well played, Kate thought as she sat. Already getting the upper hand by making me look unaware and pretentious.

He reached for the phone. “Terri? Can you send in Mr. Hallow?”

“I was under the impression that we would be meeting privately, Director. I did not—”

“Director, Senator,” said the man walking into the room. The smell of cigarettes preceded him, and Kate felt the all-too-familiar need for a smoke. She’d officially kicked the habit two years ago, but the desire never truly went away.

Yet at the sight of Flynn Hallow, the smell actually repulsed her. The man’s skin had a yellowish tint, and his comb-over barely covered his age-spotted head.

She hadn’t liked him when she kicked him out of her office at the beginning of the year.

“I understand the two of you have met,” Mark said, still reading the computer.

“Yes. I’m sorry it didn’t end well at our last meeting,” Flynn said.

“No, it did not.” Kate rested her hands on her lap.

“But perhaps now you see what I was saying?” Flynn asked.

She eyed him coolly. “My stance has not changed. You asked me to share with the president a series of conspiracy theories—something which I have fought against my entire political career—and in return you promised to find my missing nephew. You not only did not find my nephew—an entertainment reporter did that for you—but I will not clutter the leader of the free world’s desk with unproven fiction.”

“Your mother obviously believed; even your father did at the end—”

“I will not be discussing my family with you or anyone else.”

“Senator, Mr. Hallow,” Mark closed his laptop. “We need to keep this civil. We have a real crisis on our hands over which we’ve got to get control.”

“Get control?” Kate leaned forward, showing the screen of her phone. “I’m sure your phone is lighting up just like mine. I said I would meet with you if you brought in my nephew safely. Obviously, that has not happened. But I’m told now that you have intelligence to share with me. That is the only reason I am here.”

“Let’s get right to it, then. We are afraid he has been taken.”

“Taken? By whom?”

“We don’t know. We suspect some kind of fanatical group.”

“I need facts, Director Wolve, not your suspicions. I am frankly tired of hearing about this agency’s wild suppositions—”

“Perhaps you’d like to see the videos.”

Kate blinked. “Videos?”

The director turned his laptop to face her. She moved in closer, seeing dark, rapidly moving body camera footage.

“What is this?”