I watched the recording do to her face what it had done to my whole world the night before.

The color simply drained out of it, from the top down, until she was gray.

She heard the whole of it — the price, the timing, the casual laugh — and then she pulled the earbud out with an unsteady hand and reached for the radio on her hip.

“I’m calling the chief of security,” she whispered.

“On a private line.

Right now.”

Chapter 10 — The Silent Operation