“Longer.”
She closed her eye again. “Tragic.”
Asset
Catalina
Yuki’s office forwarded the morning intercept summary that evening. Two administrative changes had been entered against my Langley file overnight. Both carried Davis’s name in the request log.
The first was my cover. My State Department clearance had been downgraded fromactive assettoasset under review. The category Davis used when suspicion had graduated from instinct to documentation.
The second was my communications. My embassy line had been re-routed to a different listener. Not the analyst who had been on it since I got here. Someone new. Someone Davis trusted to hear what he wanted heard.
Small changes, on paper. Individually, nothing. Together, they meant Davis had read the breakup transcript exactly as I’d predicted. He hadn’t phoned in his sympathy. He hadn’t sent ice cream. He hadn’t couriered flowers. He filed paperwork.
All of which meant asset instability likely. Confidence degrading. Monitor for rupture.
I sat at the desk and considered the distance betweenwatchedanda national defense liability. The agency liked to pretend there was one. There wasn’t.
Unfortunately, bureaucratic contempt wasn’t an American monopoly.
By the next afternoon, the same information would’ve traveled through Ashenmere’s channels to Norway. Bjorn would’ve had it before lunch. And Bjorn, for all his sins, didn’t keep operationaldisasters from Rhain.
Norway had made its objection by noon. Not loudly. Norway didn’t need volume when treaty language would do.
By three, Rhain was knocking on my door. He was wearing a smile that had been earned by the fact that Norway had apparently spent its morning arguing for his right to enter my corridor.
“Catalina.”
“Rhain.”
He stopped three steps inside the room. His hands stayed very deliberately at his sides. “I’m told I’m permitted in your rooms now,” he said.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you. My nation is very proud.”
“Your nation filed a treaty objection so you could flirt with me in private?”
“A gross oversimplification.” His gaze dropped to my mouth and came back up, bright with mischief and want. “But not an inaccurate one.”
“Efficient use of diplomatic resources.”
“I thought so.” He looked extremely pleased with himself. “For the record, I’m making a heroic attempt to be civilized and not behave like a dragon with negotiable morals and no supervision.”
“That looks painful for you.”
“Unspeakably.” He stayed where he was, which somehow made it worse. “Tell me no, and I’ll stand here like a monument to Nordic restraint.”
“A tragic monument.”
“The historians will weep.”
I crossed the distance between us. “Then leave your negotiable virtue outside the door.”
The smile broke wide before he could discipline it. “With pleasure.”
He caught my jaw in one hand, carefuldespite the speed of him. His mouth found mine hot and certain.
