Page 110 of Only the Wicked

“We were careful,” I say, remembering the meetings, the plan. “Nothing was in writing. There was no list.”

“Did you not pay these assets?”

“We did,” I acknowledge. “But never the same way. Not all assets wish for financial compensation.” I chew at the corner of my lip, debating sharing more, but at this point, I’ve nothing to lose. “Our caseload expanded. Consequence of department cuts. Same old thing. I’d been in Paris for about a year. Working at the embassy.”

“Didn’t that automatically make you likely CIA?”

“Maybe. My cover was that I was the girlfriend of a wealthy American pursuing his PhD at the Sorbonne.”

“Did you date him? For real?”

I refrain from rolling my eyes. “No. I’m fairly certain he was?—”

“Gay,” Rhodes interrupts, and from his tone, I can tell he doesn’t believe me.

“I was going to say asexual. I never saw him with anyone. I didn’t get to know him well. He also, obviously, worked for the CIA.”

“Right. And how did you lure your assets?”

“Any number of ways. Yoga class. Portuguese lessons. Dog park.”

“Hiking?”

He hates me. As he should. “I once bumped into someone at the Louvre. That didn’t lead anywhere. There are more misses than hits.”

“Do the misses often involve sex?”

This time I’m the one closing my eyes, pulling on reserves deep within to remain calm. When my eyelids rise, I sit in silence until he returns my gaze. “I’ve never slept with a target. Although, in the spirit of honesty, during training, I told myself I would if necessary. There’s no reason to be precious about sex.”

His chest rises with an inhale. “Right.” His lips scrunch. “The end justifies the means. And sex is just sex.”

I open my mouth to argue but he dismisses me with a condescending expression that I possibly deserve.

“Let’s stay on topic. How is ARGUS connected?”

“I used different processes with each of my assets. Different contact points. Methods. One was a gardener for a high-ranking Russian diplomat. A driver for the same.”

“In Paris?”

“Yes. Another was a hairdresser for a different representative’s spouse.”

“Doesn’t seem particularly valuable.”

“Intelligence is valuable when pieced together. My most valuable asset was a secretary. When she committed suicide, I obviously suspected she’d been discovered. They watch lower ranking employees with a hawk’s eye. But then the others…one by one.”

“They didn’t know each other?”

“Absolutely not. But it came to our attention that the surveillance feed within the city was uploaded to ARGUS. As is spending data and banking deposits. Online behavior. With the right queries, we were told ARGUS could reliably pinpoint?—”

“Contacts within the embassy. You believe someone ran a query and derived a list of suspects?”

“That’s what we believe, yes. Not just my assets, mind you. But, when my last asset died in suspicious circumstances?—”

“Another suicide?”

“No. Car wreck.”

“They pulled you?”