“We have a lead already,” Lizzy said as her voice rose in frustration. “Phylicia gave us a clue before she took her header off the cliff. ‘They always keep an eye on the world’ were her exact words. Clearly something is going on at BBN, and Claudia Hughes was one of the names Trip Kameron gave me as possibly trying to recruit his sorry ass for Mollia Domini.”

“You’re right,” Tate said finally. “But how can we investigate her?”

“Well, something needs to be done,” Humphrey complained. “Did you see Claudia tonight? She’s killing us with talks of instability and danger to the United States. She even wondered if President Stratton’s actions with China would lead them to declare war on the United States. The stock market went down in after-hours trading because of it.” Humphrey looked at his watch. “I’ll be right back.”

“Why don’t you have Tate set up an interview with Claudia? It would give Tate a reason to go to BBN to talk with Claudia about the interview and maybe have her assistant go with her and hack into Claudia’s electronics,” Valeria suggested.

“Who, me?” Alex asked.

Valeria rolled her eyes. “I could do it if Alex is scared.”

“Dude, I’ve been to prison,” Alex reminded her.

“Then stop being a wimp and get all the electronics you need to ghost her phone and computer,” Valeria challenged. Alex rolled his eyes under his shaggy hair.

Birch cleared his throat and everyone immediately stopped talking. “I need some help. We realized today that I don’t have any protection I can fully trust to bring into the loop. It’s hard to ditch Secret Service constantly, and it would be easier if I had someone working with me I knew would be looking to stop a bullet as opposed to hurling me into its path. Do any of you have any contacts in the Secret Service that I could pull into my presidential detail?”

“I might,” Valeria said as she pulled up her contact list. “The last I talked to him he was assigned to the L.A. office, but that was probably five years ago.”

“How do you know him?” Birch asked.

“He was my college boyfriend. We broke up when I went to the DEA and he went into the Secret Service,” Valeria said after shooting off a quick text.

Everyone blinked as they stared at Valeria.

“And you would want to work with him?” Birch asked slowly.

“Yeah. He’s the best, and we’re totally cool. No hard feelings. And if there’s one thing about Brock, he hates when innocents are wronged. This time everyone in the entire world are the innocents.” Valeria looked back at her phone. “Oh. He just messaged me back. It’s morning in France. He’s been stationed in Lyon at the INTERPOL office for the past four years.”

“I’ll have him vetted when Humphrey gets back. Speaking of Humphrey, he went to get Crew Dixon. It’s time we brought him in,” Birch told the group.

“Shit,” Dalton cursed under his breath.

“What’s the problem?” Birch asked, keeping his gaze on Dalton.

“Nothing we can’t work out between ourselves,” Dalton answered with clenched teeth as Lizzy discreetly moved closer to his side.

Tate saw the tension in the room and moved to divert it. “So, you will now have guards while in the air and on land.”

“I guess I’m the air?” Crew drawled as he stepped into their meeting room in the residence.

“If you want to be,” Birch told him as he stood up and shook Crew’s hand. Crew’s black hair was cut with military precision around his brown skin. His grandfather, Buzz, would be proud. Tonight he was in running shorts and a T-shirt. Humphrey must have waylaid him like he had the others.

Crew looked around, his eyes taking in everything, including the way Dalton stood protectively next to Lizzy. “I decided the night I helped you sneak out of Camp David that I wanted in.”

Birch slapped Crew on the back and the next hour was spent filling him in. Tate waited until they were done explaining the events of the past couple of months before she cut in. “And now we have a bigger problem. My brother thought the FBI agent killed in the single-car accident was just a conspiracy theorist.” Tate handed out copies of the papers she’d shown Birch and Humphrey earlier. “There really is a chemical bomb missing, and no one knows where it is.”

Crew sucked in air and slowly exhaled. “This is real? Not a joke?”

“Very real,” Birch reassured him.

“Why isn’t the media covering this?” Crew asked as all eyes turned to Tate.

“They will be,” Tate swore. Tomorrow she would be paying a visit to BBN, and she also had an idea on how to start combating the agenda the media were pushing.

Two hours later, everyone had their assignments. Humphrey was looking into Brock Loyde and would be on a plane by morning if everything checked out. One of these days he was going to break into the wrong person’s house and get shot while trying to recruit them to the cause.

Valeria was trying to find a connection to FBI Director Kirby and Phylicia Claymore, in hopes of finding the chemical bomb. Lizzy was looking into Senator Epps, while Dalton was trying to find out what he could about this coup Birch was supposedly supporting, while Birch worked to calm the situation in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, Tate and Alex would meet up at noon to head to BBN for a surprise visit.

Tate said goodbye to the group as they entered the underground parking garage of the hotel down the street from the White House. No one knew of the hidden tunnels that connected the hotel to the White House, and even Tate wondered where the other tunnels led. She knew the path to the White House, but the main tunnel branched off in multiple directions as they made their way to the White House.

The drive into Alexandria was quick this early in the morning. She would get three hours of sleep if she were lucky, but who had time to sleep when she was saving the world? Flint Scott, Snip’s grandson, had been a big help in pushing public opinion against Phylicia Claymore. Flint didn’t know who had sent him the evidence, and Tate thought that might be a good resource to counter the media spin against Birch. If she heard one more story about how Birch was bringing the United States to war or how the country needed to be more like China or Cuba, Tate would scream. The media was making the case that these dictatorships provided stability. They left out the human rights violations, lack of democracy, abuse of power, and everything people had forgotten that Americans had fought wars to achieve.

Tate pulled into her small one-car garage and started to formulate her anonymous email to Flint as she walked into her kitchen and froze. Fear’s icy hand had reached down to choke her before her brain could even register what she saw. Her house was trashed. There wasn’t a single thing left in her cabinets, dishes were broken, her table was overturned, her chairs broken.

Tate’s shaky hands reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out her phone. Relief so strong it made her want to cry washed over her when Lizzy answered the phone on the first ring.

“Some . . . some . . . someone has been in my house,” Tate stammered as she finally forced herself to move her feet. She ran back into the garage, jumped in her car, locked the doors, and started to drive away from her house as fast as she could.

“Was anyone there?” Lizzy asked as she heard Lizzy telling Dalton to turn around.

“I don’t know. I only walked into the kitchen before leaving. I can’t go in there alone. Valeria hasn’t taught me enough,” Tate rambled.

“Shh. Tate, it’s okay. We’ll meet you at that strip mall under construction three blocks from your house, okay? We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Okay,” Tate managed as she relinquished her death grip on her phone.

Eight minutes later, Dalton instructed her to park in the back behind the large dumpsters. He parked his car next to hers and the two hurried over to Tate. Lizzy wrapped her arms around Tate, and finally Tate felt able to breathe.

“How did they find me?”

“We don’t know if they did. We need to look around first to see what’s missing. However, you can bet they watched you leave. We circled the block numerous times and didn’t see anyone tail you. This is what we’re going to do,” Dalton explained. “You two wait here. I need to find a cop car to borrow, then I’ll be back. We can drive home together, and Lizzy and I can look around freely. If someone’s watching, it’ll look like you went to call the cops. There’s nothing suspicious about that. I’ll be back.”

Dalton took his car and drove off while Lizzy looked at Tate. “Are you okay?”

“My house wasn’t simply burgled, it was destroyed. Someone has a lot of anger toward me. But I’m more worried about our mission. How did they know I was looking into them? It had to be Jeff Sargent, Joel’s editor. He’s the one who gave me the story Joel was working on,” Tate told her as she rubbed her arms to chase the goose bumps away.

“Okay, good. You have an idea then. Let me call Valeria and have her check on Jeff.” Lizzy placed the call, and Tate pulled out her phone to make notes. Work would keep her mind off the devastation at her home.

“What are you working on?” Lizzy asked after hanging up with Valeria.

“I’m putting together some leads to send to Flint. Anonymously, of course. It’ll start as a whisper, but by the time I’m done, I’m going to squash Claudia and whoever else is dictating this biased news like a bug,” Tate said with passion. She may quake when faced with the possibility of an intruder still in her house, but putting pen to paper to tell a news story, well, she was fearless with that. Every line would be backed with evidence. Every implication, every name, every fact would be researched and undeniable. With pen and paper or a television camera pointed at her, she was a warrior.

“What are you thinking?” Lizzy asked, moving to look over her shoulder.

“I’m going to start discrediting the Zambia coup. It doesn’t even exist. Zambia is a peaceful country that we are allied with. Joel was told by his higher-ups to write the piece, and I have his research that discredits it. I am verifying it now and will send all of it, along with everything Claudia has said, to Flint so he can connect the dots,” Tate said as she worked with her thumbs flying on her phone.

“Should we let them know we’re onto them?” Lizzy asked, sounding a little worried.

“They already found me. I refuse to back down for a story.”

Lizzy took a deep breath. “At least wait until we look through your house before you hit Send. You’re like a girl sending drunk booty-call texts with that thing, except evil assassins will show up at your door instead.”

“I’ll wait. There may be clues at my house,” Tate agreed, never taking her eyes from her phone.

“You won’t have to wait much longer. Dalton’s here.”

Tate finally looked up to see Dalton driving an unmarked cruiser. “Hop in, Lizzy. Tate, go home, and we’ll follow right behind you.”

Destruction. Total destruction. Tate fought back tears. Everything in her house was ruined. Her mattresses and furniture were shredded. Stuffing from cushions was strewn about the house. Each drawer was pulled out and turned upside-down on the floor. Her closet emptied. Paintings sliced and tossed on the floor.

“This is actually good news,” Dalton said sympathetically.

“How is this good?” Tate asked, trying to keep her voice from turning shrill.

“It tells us a lot about who did this. One, nothing was stolen so it wasn’t burglars. Two, you’ve said there’s absolutely no evidence of our group or any of our investigations here, and it’s obvious they were looking for something. My guess is they were looking to see if you knew something and had evidence, but they didn’t find any. Three, they didn’t think you warranted surveillance. There’re no bugs or video feeds in the house,” Dalton explained.

Lizzy cocked her head as she took in the destruction and what Dalton had said. “Could you have been seen talking with Jeff Sargent at the funeral? If Mollia Domini did kill Joel, someone was probably watching the funeral and saw him approach you.”

Tate closed her eyes as she thought about the funeral. “I didn’t see anyone, but Jeff was constantly on the lookout.” Tate opened her eyes back to the destruction of what had been her sanctuary. “I guess it’s possible.”

Lizzy’s phone vibrated and they all turned to her. “It’s Val,” Lizzy said as she put it on speaker. “We’re all here.”

“Good,” Valeria said as there was noise in the background.

“Is everything okay?” Lizzy asked.

“Yeah, all good. Just getting out of my disguise. I didn’t know if anyone would be watching the house. I can tell they are. Not physically, but when I carried in the morning muffin delivery for Mrs. Sargent, my scan found one bug in the living room and another in the kitchen. I couldn’t make it to the bedroom, but I’m guessing they’re all over the place. She said she thought they had a break-in last night. That’s why she asked for my identification, and thanks to Alex, I had a fake one to give her. But she said it was strange since nothing was missing. It was just a feeling as if something had been misplaced. Although, she said, her husband was really anxious about it and has now installed security alarms and cameras.”

“Wow, you learned a lot,” Tate said, impressed.

“I can be nice when I want to be,” Valeria snapped. Yeah, she was an angel, Tate thought. “I hate to tell them they’re a little too late. Someone wants to know what Jeff knows. For now though, he’s alive. If he keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t say anything about that article Joel was writing, maybe he has a chance of staying that way. Tate, want to meet at the gym tonight after work?”

Well, maybe Valeria wasn’t all bad. “I’ll see you there. Thank you.”

Lizzy hung up the phone and looked to Tate. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to grab whatever I can and check into a hotel so I can sleep for an hour or two. It’s almost eight a.m., but I don’t think I can stay here. I don’t feel safe.” Tate looked around her home that was barely recognizable and shivered.

“We’ll wait for you to grab whatever you need. We can all leave at the same time,” Dalton told her as he stepped around the overturned bench at the foot of the bed and picked up one of her suitcases. “What can we do to help?”

Tate took a deep breath. She would not cry. She had friends helping her. She wasn’t alone. It was just stuff. “Just find as many bags as you can. Thanks.”

As Dalton took off on a mission to find luggage, or as a last resort, garbage bags, Lizzy and Tate quickly went through the clothes strewn about, trying to find the ones that weren’t destroyed. In the end, it only took ten minutes to gather everything Tate could. Dalton carried the belongings and loaded her car up as Tate took one last look around.

“Anything else?” Dalton asked gently as he came back into the house.

“That’s it. Let me walk you out, in case someone is watching.” Tate opened the front door and Lizzy and Dalton walked out.

“Good luck today,” Lizzy said in reference to Tate’s plan to go to BBN and see Claudia.

“Thank you. For everything.” Tate watched as her two friends left in the police cruiser they had borrowed. Within two minutes, Tate was pulling out of her garage and heading for downtown DC.

Thirty minutes later, Tate had checked in at the hotel close to the White House. It was comforting knowing that the secret tunnel was beneath her. That was the only thing that gave her enough peace to be able to fall asleep.