4. Infiltrating the Secret Lair
CHAPTER 4
INFILTRATING THE SECRET LAIR
ZOE
S ully pulls up to the guard house at the gate of a huge mansion and hands the guard— a dark-haired man in his early forties named Moss , if his name tag is telling the truth— both of our IDs . “ Director of Field Operations for the Global Intelligence Division of the CIA Sullivan Reynolds and Intelligence Operative Zoe Steele here to meet with Director Lancaster .”
The man accepts our IDs without a word, bending over just enough to see me in the passenger seat and to glance in the back seat. Then he goes around to the back of our car, probably to check our license plate number, before he heads into the guard house. It wouldn’t surprise me if we are stopped on top of some device that checks the bottom of our vehicle for explosive or tracking devices.
My focus goes from the sign on the gate that reads “ Lancaster Business Solutions ,” which is apparently the Clandestine Services Agency’s cover business, to the building at the end of a very long, curving, cobblestone drive with meticulously cared for grounds. The building is a giant mansion. A mansion ! This place is supposed to be a top-secret government intelligence agency and it looks like this?
It probably has an indoor swimming pool and sauna. Likely a day spa, too. Definitely more bathrooms than bedrooms, and boasts a wine cellar, a home gym, and tennis courts out back. Is this a situation where a reclusive billionaire got bored and decided he wanted to hire a crime-fighting team? Are we going to find a Batmobile in the garage?
I am definitely not thrilled that we are having this meeting at the CSA instead of at the CIA . Especially because our lead analyst is apparently already at this building, so they must’ve been doing their work here. I am the one who recovered that case, not Ledger . That means it’s ours, and we are just sharing. Director Reynolds should’ve fought for us to have the meeting on our home turf.
Moss comes back to the car and hands our IDs back. “ Head down the drive and park in front of the building. Go to the front doors— the director is expecting you.”
Sully thanks him and raises his window as the gate opens. As soon as he starts driving toward the building, he says, “ Now I don’t want to see too many sparks flying between you and Ledger Lancaster in here.”
He knows that Ledger and I are rivals, so he’s saying it like he’s being funny and sarcastic, expecting a laugh from me. But I wonder if he’s actually prodding for information about the two of us. I’ve kind of suspected that Sully has a sixth sense about which missions are likely going to have CSA crossover, guesses when the CSA is likely to send Ledger , and then sends me on those same missions. Almost like he’s some kind of matchmaker. His comment makes me suspect it even more. I need to make sure he understands that anything between Ledger and me is never going to happen. “ Women like me don’t fall in love.”
“ Women like you?” he asks, giving me an opportunity to elaborate. I don’t. After a beat, he provides his own guesses. “ Do you mean women who are intelligence operatives? Or women who were abandoned as a child?”
I wince. If that comment came from anyone on this planet other than Sully , I’d probably deck them. But never Sully . So I say, “ Take your pick.” He could’ve also added “ Or women who are professional loners? Or women who have never actually been in a relationship before because they know they would be terrible at it? Or women who have no chance of getting a guy to hang around?” Instead of saying any of that out loud, though, I just say, “ But especially when it comes to Ledger .”
There was a time a year and a half ago when I completely underestimated Ledger’s impressive ability to make people feel like he truly cares about them, which made me forget about all those reasons for a minute. And forgetting led to things ending poorly. And by “poorly,” I mean akin to a pyromaniac wielding a flame thrower in a field of fireworks. There’s no way that true sparks between us will ever happen again.
Sully glances in the rearview mirror. “ Okay , well, play nice in here.” It’s something he’s already told me, but apparently feels the need to reiterate.
I nod. “ But if we go knock on the door and a butler answers, leads us past an indoor bowling alley on our way to a briefing room that doubles as the owner’s home theater, and then sits us down in those padded reclining chairs with cup holders, I’m out of there.”
He chuckles. “ As much as it might look like it, this isn’t a billionaire’s house. And although it’s a fraction of the size of Langley , it’s much larger than it looks.”
My head whips in his direction. “ You’ve been here before?”
“ No . But a long time ago— back when I was a field operative and so was Director Lancaster — right after she moved from the CIA to the CSA , I was on a joint mission with her. She mentioned that there are multiple sub-levels, and that the part underground is much bigger.”
I turn my focus back at the building, considering it, as I run my finger and thumb along the chain of my necklace. Sully pulls into one of only five parking stalls. The other four are empty. I get out of the car and we walk up to the front door as I ask, “ Are we supposed to ring the bell? Knock ?”
But Sully just opens the door. A valid choice, even if it doesn’t feel like it at a place like this.
The lobby is large, cold, and has sharp angles everywhere. There’s a single massive desk in the middle near the back wall, with a few uncomfortable-looking chairs to our right, tucked into a corner. This place is meant to look intimidating .
As is the receptionist behind the desk. Her hair is in a tight bun, and her black suit is as angled as this room. “ May I help you?”
Sully repeats our names to her and says that we are here to meet Director Lancaster , and the woman picks up a phone. Her posture is rigid, her voice professional, and her facial expressions neutral. But from where we’re standing now, I can see her feet. They’re crossed at the ankles— something she would never do if she wasn’t comfortable, and the foot on top is bouncing up, which tells me she’s happy. The incongruousness between the more obvious body language that she’s trying to control above the desk and the subtler body language below the desk that she isn’t, the intimidation is all for show. I respect that. She’s doing a masterful job.
A moment later, a door to our right opens, and Director Lancaster walks in. She’s wearing a knee-length dark gray pencil skirt with a light blue blousy shirt tucked into it. Her hair is pulled into a loose bun that isn’t nearly as severe as the receptionist’s but still looks professional. The woman has to be in her late fifties now, and she still looks amazing.
She greets Director Reynolds first, saying “ Hello , Sully . It’s so wonderful to see you again.” Instead of just shaking his hand, she gives him a hug that’s somehow both friendly and professional, and I can’t take my eyes off the two of them. From how their feet are both pointing toward one another, to the way their eyes opened more upon seeing each other, to the way their torsos are slightly leaning in toward one another, there is nothing discordant. Both of them genuinely have a lot of respect and admiration for one another.
Then the Evelyn Lancaster , director of the Clandestine Services Agency , turns to me and shakes my hand, placing her left hand on the outside of my hand as she does. “ Zoe Steele . I’ve heard so much about you. It’s great to finally meet you in person.”
What I want to do is stare at her in awe. Ask her all the questions I’ve had about her over the years. Tell her that even though she doesn’t know it, she’s been my mentor. Blurt out facts about my favorite missions of hers. Get all tongue-tied about the fact that she knows my name— that she’s heard “so much” about me.
What I manage to do— even though her welcome gives me goose bumps and makes my heart feel like it’s got a helium balloon tied to it, lifting it— is stay professional and say, “ It’s great to meet you in person, too. Thank you for welcoming us here.” Because I’m nothing if not a consummate professional.
But a big part of me really wants to just ask her to tell me everything. About her entire career.
I was eight years old when I decided that when I grew up, I was going to be an intelligence operative. One of the few times I went to a movie theater as a child, we saw one about a female intelligence operative. She did so many impressive things in the show, and she was so skilled. Everyone in the theater was ooh ing and ahh ing as much as I was.
And when we left, I heard the reactions of everyone around me as they talked about how awesome the main character was. I hadn’t known that being an intelligence operative was a career until then, and I decided at that moment that I wanted it. I wanted to be impressive just like her. I wanted people to ooh and ahh over my skills.
I was first made aware of Evelyn Lancaster when I started my training at the Farm . In one of my classes, they told us about how, as an intelligence operative for the CIA , she single-handedly extracted vital intel from a compromised safe house when everyone else thought it was lost. I realized that she was the kind of operative that I had been picturing myself being since I was a kid.
That evening, I looked up everything I could about the woman. The legend. She quickly became my idol. Throughout my career, every time my clearance level increased, I checked her file to see what more I could learn about her. She is the kind of operative that I aspire to be.
And I hate that Ledger can call her “ Mom .” Does he even understand how lucky he is? When I was a kid, every night, I would lay in my crappy bed in whatever foster home I currently lived in and dream of a different life. And I always dreamed I had a mom who worked for the CIA and would teach me everything I needed to know to follow in her footsteps.
Ledger had that handed to him.
Director Lancaster leads us through the doorway into a hall where we pass through a scanner that I know checks for weapons, listening devices, trackers, chemical agents, and a host of other dangerous things. At the end of the hall, everything opens up into a large room not that dissimilar from our department at the CIA . Huh . So it really isn’t just a billionaire’s lair. There are… twenty-nine people at desks or walking from one desk to another, so about the same size as the Global Intelligence Division .
What surprises me the most, though, is how unhappy or uneasy all of the operatives, officers, and analysts appear at our being present in their space. Like we are intruders. I lock eyes with Ledger , who is standing in the opposite corner of the large space from where we are, his stance wide, his arms crossed. Ledger looks the least happy of all of them.
A smile spreads across my face. I’d considered the fact that our meeting taking place at his agency was a win for Ledger , but it’s clear from the expression on his face that I was wrong. This is a win in my column.
I may never get this particular “win” again, so I take in every detail as Director Lancaster leads us past several glass-front conference rooms at the back of the space and Ledger heads toward us. Just before we reach the last conference room, I notice a whiteboard on the wall closer to where Ledger stood when we first walked in. It’s split in half vertically, with tally marks on each side. At the top of one side, it reads Ledger and the other side reads ZOE in the CIA .
He’s keeping a tally of which one of us wins missions. That’s adorable, actually. It shows how much he cares about our rivalry. And I have no doubt I wasn’t meant to see it. Director Lancaster opens the door to the conference room, but I take a step past it to meet Ledger head-on. Even though that tally board shows me as up by one point currently, his stride and posture still show confidence. I like confidence in a man. It lets me know that I don’t have to dial things back.
And I love that smirk on his lips. His narrowed eyes are betraying his irritation at my presence in his domain, though. But I kind of like that, too. I am grinning, and my own body language must show that I like seeing this exclusive peek into the CSA offices.
“ Enjoying yourself?” Ledger asks, motioning vaguely to the room as if he’s asking about me enjoying simply being on his turf.
He crosses his arms, but my smile widens. “ Oh , immensely. I rather enjoy seeing you squirm when I best you on a mission. It’s not often I get the distinct pleasure of watching you squirm simply at my presence in your top-secret lair.”
He scoffs. “ Please , Steele . You wish you could get under my skin that easily.”
I shrug. “ I don’t know. It looks like I do a pretty good job.” I cut my gaze ever so quickly to the tally board toward the front of the space before my eyes are back on his. It’s a slight motion, but I know he’s a good enough spy to pick up on what I’m referring to even without turning to look at it.
I am rewarded by a small flex in his jaw. Just enough to show me that he’s a bit irritated that I noticed the chart, and it makes me smile. So I add, “ And it’s not just about a battle, is it? It’s about who wins the war. And let’s be honest— we both know who that’s going to be.”
Ledger leans forward just a bit, his gray-blue eyes boring into mine with an intensity that I have to admit is rather attractive. Real sparks may never fly between us, but there is a heat here that I always enjoy. “ It’s not over until it’s over. And trust me: it’s far from over.”
If I was the type of woman who fell in love, Ledger would check all the boxes. He’s insanely attractive, from that sandy blonde hair that’s just the perfect amount of unruly, to those big strong shoulders, to those legs I’m sure are rather sculpted that can easily run or scale the side of a building. He is an impressive intelligence operative, too, which makes him the best kind of attractive.
But since I’m not, and since something between us could never happen, we can only be one of two things— rivals or enemies. Sometimes , he’s fun competition. Other times, he gets under my skin and we are definitely enemies.
“ You’re a worthy adversary, Ledger , and I hope that we get to keep battling it out in the field for years to come. This mission, though? This battle? I think you’re going to have to put another tally mark in my column. I suspect that we’re having this meeting here because when the analysts went through the case that I recovered, they only found info relating to my mission. Our directors decided to let this meeting happen here to soften the blow of us taking its contents.”
“ I don’t know how you generally do things in the CIA , but at the CSA , we aren’t in the business of ‘softening the blow.’ The meeting is here because the contents of that case belong right here .” His eyes burn into me for a moment before he adds, “ And why were you even on that mission? Philadelphia isn’t exactly foreign soil. ”
“ Except you know that in a lot of cases, my division can operate on U.S . soil, too.”
He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. The motion is slight, almost imperceptible. “ Oh ,” I say, dragging out the word. “ That’s part of why you compete against me— you feel like I’m encroaching on your territory. That’s part of our rivalry, isn’t it?”
I can’t believe I haven’t picked up on that before. The CSA’s purpose is to cover the gap between what the CIA’s and the FBI’s responsibilities are, but my division of the CIA has a lot of gray area that overlaps the CSA’s responsibilities. Which is why Ledger and I have found ourselves on so many of the same missions.
The way Ledger moves his arms in front of his torso to adjust his watch tells me that the blow I just aimed at him landed.
“ Zoe and Ledger , would you care to join us?”
My face heats at the sound of Evelyn Lancaster’s voice. I assumed she had gone into the room, not stayed directly behind me, listening to our bantering. It’s the kind of mistake I never make. It must just be Ledger’s presence that threw me off. I quickly turn to face her and give a respectful nod. “ Of course.”