Of course, a colonel in the field. Maybe Michael was only in planning. No. Last night. Yemen. Leading a four-man fire team himself.
The man was a puzzle.
The last trio to arrive was a strange set. The man was tall—though shorter than the Texan—and slender, and introduced himself with a pronounced Boston accent, not all that different from Trisha’s, as Air Mission Commander Captain Archie Stevenson III. The man Claudia had traded scant words with last night before he sent her into Yemen. He moved off to the coffeepot.
If he saw Michael, it was hard to tell. There might have been a brief nod.
The woman he’d entered with stood there facing Claudia until she rose uneasily to her feet.
“Let me guess,” the newcomer addressed Claudia. “This is Trisha’s doing.”
Claudia knew in that instant w
