Katharine Rule Lee looked up from her desk. It had taken an act of Congress to make her director, because, although she was a career CIA officer, she was also married to the president of the United States. “Good morning, Holly, have a seat.” She pointed at a chair at a seating area by the window, then she got up and walked in that direction.
She isn’t smiling, Holly thought. She usually smiles a lot. What the hell is going on? She walked over and sat in the chair indicated.
The director settled into a chair on the other side of the coffee table and opened a thick file in her lap.
Holly knew it was a personnel file, and she feared it was hers.
“You’ve been with us for a little over eight years, now,” the director said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
The director ran her finger down a page. “You’ve had an unusual career for the Agency—retired from the army as a major after twenty years’ service. You should have made colonel. Why didn’t you?”
Surely she knew all about this, Holly thought, but she told her story anyway. “I was serving under a colonel as his exec. He blocked my promotion.”
“For what reason?”
“He made repeated sexual advances toward me which I rebuffed, so he gave me a less favorable fitness report than I had every reason to expect. After that, he tried to rape me, and I fought him off and turned him in.”
The director looked at the file. “It says here you struck him.”
“I broke his nose rather badly,” Holly said. “He was court-martialed for the attack on me. It turned out he had actually raped another female officer, a lieutenant.”
“And he was acquitted,” the director said.
“He was, ma’am. He had friends on the court, and two of them were in a position to see that I was never promoted again. I had put in my twenty, so I took retirement.”
The director consulted the file again. “And you became the chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida?”
“The deputy chief, Director. The chief who hired me was murdered the day before my arrival, and the city council shortly voted for me to succeed him.”
“And you had quite a career there,” the director said.
Holly didn’t know how to respond to that.
“And then you impressed someone here and we recruited you.”
Holly just nodded.
The director closed the personnel file. “And you have done nothing less than splendid work for us since the day you arrived.”
Holly blinked. “Thank you, Director.”
“Holly, as you know, my husband is in the last year of his second term.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The entire planet knew that.
“And when he leaves the White House, I will leave the Agency and retire with him.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“As you might imagine, there has been a great deal of speculation within the Agency about who my successor will be. What you may not know is that there has been a cabal at work here which has been plotting to see that a particular someone from the Agency succeeds me, rather than someone from the outside. Or someone from elsewhere in the Agency.”
“Really, ma’am?” Holly knew about this, because Lance had told her.
“From what I can determine, the cabal wishes to see Frank Hellman, the deputy director for intelligence, have this job.”
Holly nodded.