Page 48 of Jep

“I’m not overworking myself, but it would still be nice to have lunch. Unfortunately I’m on my way out of the city. But maybe another day?”

“Where are you headed? Or is it a secret?” Her voice dropped to a forced whisper. “Are you with that guy? What was his name? Or wait, am I on speaker?”

Em laughed. “You are on speaker, but I’m alone. I will be seeing Jep soon, though. I’m on my way to his place now.”

“Whoa, hang on a second. What have I missed?”

“It’s business, not pleasure. I’m trying to get him to come back.”

“To work?”

“Yes.”

“So Ihavemissed something.”

“We had an incident at work last week, and the assistant director blew up at him, so he quit.”

“You never told me that.”

“I expected him to return, but he hasn’t. I can’t say I blame him. If Lawson spoke to me the way he spoke to Jep, I would have burst into tears.”

“Yikes. But from what you said about Jep before, it sounded like he had it coming.”

“I was wrong. I had Jep all wrong.”

“Hang on, let me sit down. This just got interesting.”

“If you’re going to make fun of me, I’ll hang up.”

“There’s no fun here. I’m intrigued. What did you get wrong?”

“Everything. I barely know the guy, but he understands me better than anyone else in the office—and before you say anything, I stand by my earlier comment that he’s not the guy for me.”

“Except that he knows you better than anyone else. Right. Got it.”

“You know what my non-negotiables are. Besides, I wouldn’t be allowed to date an agent even if I wanted to.”

“You said he quit.”

“Yeah, but I’m going to see him now and get him to change his mind.” The line was silent. “You still there?”

“I’m thinking.”

“About?”

“The unexpected turns life takes. You want me to pray for you? You need some wisdom?”

“I’ll never say no to prayer. If we don’t get him back, I’m pretty sure they’ll shut us down.”

“You’d lose your job over this?”

“No, but I’ll be shifted to another department, and I really like where I work. Also, I’m afraid we’d never get to the bottom of who’s doing this, and if we don’t…”

“If we don’t, what? Something classified will happen?”

“There’s the very real possibility of a catastrophic event.”

“Oh. Wow. Should I leave town? Should you?”

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