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“Instinct,” Dupont said. “I’m proud of you, Laura.”
“Thanks.” She smiled. “I’m proud of me too.”
“When is your team heading home?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“So, dinner at my place tomorrow night?”
She smiled wider. “That sounds great.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Dupont said. “I’ll plan something good for dinner.”
“I’m sure you will.” Her text message tone chimed. “Hold on.” She switched the call to speaker and then viewed the message. “Lassiter just messaged. He’s requesting a video chat with me. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“It’s routine after what went down. I’m sure he’s touching bases with everyone on the team.”
“I know,” she said. “And I don’t mind. I used to dread talking with him because I was hiding so much from him, and I was afraid he’d call me out. Obviously, not any longer.” She laughed at herself. “I better go. I’m sorry I woke you.”
“No apology needed. I’ll take advantage of being up a little early and go get a good workout in before I clock in. Ops should be quiet tonight. Text me.”
“I will. Talk to you later,” she said.
“Bye.” He disconnected the call.
She messaged Lassiter back, agreeing to the meeting whenever he was available. He set the time for ten minutes out, which gave her just enough time to run to the lobby and get a cup of coffee and hit the vending machine for some cookies. She returned to her room and then logged in for the video chat.
“Hi,” Lassiter greeted her.
“You’re in your office,” she said. “It’s Saturday afternoon. Your wife must be a saint.”
Joe Lassiter laughed. “She is. She also happens to be out of town with the kids, visiting her mother.”
“I’m doing okay, Joe,” she said. “I’m proud of myself for how I handled everything today.”
“That’s good to hear. I look forward to reading the full mission report. Preliminary reports from Garcia, BT, Wilson, and Smith indicate the entire team performed well, even after all hell broke loose.”
She wondered if that meant he’d already talked to the four of them. “I was proud of the entire team and to be a part of it.”
“BT mentioned that you have requested full Operator training.”
“Yes. I want to be as useful as I can be in any situation the team faces,” she answered.
“Sounds like you were useful today,” he said.
“I hope so. I know Garcia has to give Shepherd staffing recommendations for the next rotation of assignments. I hope you’ll assign me to the Digital Team to help sift through the phones and computers that we confiscated from that house off campus that we raided.”
“You don’t want to get assigned back to the next PGP Install?”
“Not yet. I don’t feel the job here is done yet. And I’m not medically cleared yet to go back. I probably shouldn’t have run at full speed after that guy today. I don’t hurt, but let’s just say I checked my abdomen to be sure where the stitches had been didn’t rip open.”
“You need to see one of the medics,” Lassiter said.
“It’s fine.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“Ugh!” she moaned. “Okay, I’ll reach out to one of them.”