“Freaked out? Why? You know you didn’t take it,” Zack said.

For the first time, Josh laughed. “Do you know what the environment is like at the agency these days?”

Zack didn’t, and quite honestly, he didn’t care. It wasn’t his problem anymore, but judging from the tone of Josh’s voice, he figured morale might not be as high as it was among people who worked for Google or Apple—or any other large private enterprise other than the federal government. “I don’t, but I can imagine.”

“One of the things I learned in the front office was that the seventh floor—as in the director—suspects there’s a leak of HUMINT operations. DIA had some analyst who was sleeping with a reporter, and he was feeding her reports on several Chinese military programs DIA was targeting. It made defeating our attempts to target it easy. Seems like everyone in DC is leaking something, whether it’s the White House, Congress, another agency, or even the National Security Council,” Josh said in frustration.

“You know, for an eighteen-year-old who’s just an intern, you seem to know a lot,” Zack said.

“I’m offended, Zack. Really. He is my son, after all,” Brandon said in mock offense.

“There you go again, making this all about you,” Zack shot back.

“I pay attention, Mr. Chambers. I may be eighteen, but I love the agency—what it does, what it stands for—and to see the things I’ve seen, even if I’m just a glorified gopher, do you have any idea how cool that is for a senior in high school?”

Damn. This kid’s a true believer, Zack thought with admiration and respect. He’s what the agency needs, not you and your cynicism. Your time has passed. “Fair point. And I felt that way too . . . once.”

“Good. But what I was saying is that while everyone in the government seems to be leaking, no one knows who’s doing it at the CIA. Some sensitive missions have been compromised because our adversaries knew what we were about to do before we did it.”

“Wait a second,” Zack interrupted. “How did we learn about that?”

“SIGINT from NSA. They were targeting the same people and caught communications discussing our planned operations. Needless to say, people freaked out, especially in security and on the seventh floor. People have been getting pulled for special polygraphs, some more than once, but as of last week, it’s still happening. I heard from a friend who works in the director’s office that Director Jamieson is furious to the point that he’s borderline paranoid.”

Jesus Christ, what a mess. If the CIA can’t conduct covert operations, it’s like benching your star QB indefinitely.