Olivia jerked with a start at the sound of her cell phone buzzing. Her heart was beating so fast, it took a moment for the images to fade, longer to realize she’d been dreaming about her half-conscious helicopter ride to Balad Military Hospital. As she fumbled for her cell, Helmut licked her face, gave a gentle woof. “Hello?”

“Olivia, it’s Andi.”

She was instantly awake. “Andi, what’s going on? Are you okay? No, Helmut, it’s Andi, go back to sleep.”

“Give Mr. Gorgeous a hug for me. Olivia, I was worried about you. Why haven’t you called me? I had to hear about what happened to you last night from Mr. Grace.”

Olivia looked over at her iWatch. It was a little past ten, not late at all. “I’m sorry, I should have called, but the truth is I hardly got any sleep last night and I was exhausted. I’m really okay, Andi, I’m fine.” She knew Andi was afraid for her, so Olivia tried to lighten it up a bit. “I looked at myself in the mirror and knew I needed more beauty sleep so I went to bed early after eating take-out Chinese with Agent Gaylin, my babysitter. You know him, don’t you?”

She heard Andi take a deep breath, smooth out. “Sure, he’s an old warhorse, tough as my desert boots, and always needs to shave.”

“That’s Gay. Found out tonight he loves Szechwan beef. Since I’m trusting him with my life, I’m glad he’s as tough as he looks.”

“Olivia, Mr. Grace only gave me the bare bones of what happened to you. He told me to leave my house, go to a hotel, and make sure I wasn’t followed, and, of course, to keep him informed. I asked him about Higgs and he said Higgs went off to Canada on his motorcycle, as if it isn’t cold enough for him in Maine.

“Tell me exactly what happened, Olivia. Mr. Grace said two men came to your house and you had to shoot one of them. I couldn’t pry anything else out of him. You promise you weren’t hurt?”

“No, I’m fine. If you strip all the bark away, yes, that’s about exactly what happened. The one I killed, he was speaking Farsi. No ID on him, so no one knows who he was.”

“Mr. Grace didn’t bother to mention that, either. Of course they’re searching high and low for Mike, but again, Mr. Grace made it clear he didn’t want us involved. I sometimes wish they didn’t keep everything so compartmentalized, feed us little cubes of knowledge to keep us begging for more. I know, it’s CIA, no way that’s going to change.”

“You’re right about that. Did Mr. Grace tell you about our meeting with the FBI?”