The guard on late-night duty in the lobby of the DOPS building didn’t seem the least interested in who Coop was, where he was going, or what he had with him. Coop’s bag wasn’t big enough to hold a tactical nuclear missile, but Coop had the feeling that if it had been, he could have claimed it was a party sub for a birthday bash upstairs and the guard would not have cared less. It made him a little wistful. These moments at the beginnings of a job, when you were just getting the feel of a place. Checking the layout. The security. The personnel. He’d still be doing it, he knew, but now for a bunch of button-down suits and people who were as crooked as him, but got a pass for it because they had an office upstairs and a mug with their name on it by the coffeemaker.

Coop got his pass from the guard and just for good measure shook the guy’s hand. Then he went upstairs to meet Bayliss, still not sure how much to tell her. She’d need to know the truth about the situation at some point, but he didn’t want to hit her with it too soon and take a chance on spooking her. He needed to get the box in his hands. In the end, he decided to feel things out as they went along.

He found Bayliss at her desk with enough papers and folders around her to make a desk igloo. “What’s all that?” Coop said.

“Absolutely nothing,” said Bayliss, sounding more than a little satisfied with herself. “I just pulled some old files from one of the storage rooms and sat here playing with them until everybody left.”

“Good cover,” said Coop, impressed. “Very boring looking. I wouldn’t want to talk to you.”

“Thanks,” she said. “Where’s Giselle?”

He felt like a jerk lying, but there was nothing else he could do. “She got stuck and won’t be along till later. But we can still get started now.”

“How? Without a Marilyn, people might see us in the break room.”

“Not if no one comes in,” said Coop. He reached into his bag and pulled out a sign with biohazard symbols on the sides and POSSIBLE CONTAMINATION AREA in large red letters in the middle. “Think people will buy it?”

Bayliss nodded. “With the kind of stuff we work with around here? No problem.”

“Then let’s get going.”

“What do you need me to bring?”

“I just need you to remember what you saw before.”

“Trust me. I’ll never forget it.”

They made a circuit of the office and saw only a few rookie agents doing grunt work at a handful of workstations scattered across the floor. Coop nodded to Bayliss and they headed straight for the break room.