Page 60 of State of Alert

Sam felt sick to her stomach. “I’m sorry. I should’ve trusted you.”

“Yes, you really should have, because now I have to wonder if I can trustyou. Mrs. Rodriguez will be told the truth within thirty minutes, or she’ll hear it from me.”

Lindsey stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her, rattling Sam’s nerves even further. She found the contact info for Agent Truver in her notebook, and as she dialed the number, she realized her hands were shaking.

“Truver.”

“This is Sam Holland. We have a problem.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“What problem do we have?”

“Our medical examiner, Dr. Lindsey McNamara, sent a photo of the body to Juan’s mother, who confirmed it’s not of her son. Dr. McNamara has given us thirty minutes to tell Mrs. Rodriguez that her son is alive, or she’ll do it.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“Will you have Juan call her?”

After a long pause, she said, “We’ll take care of it.”

The line went dead.

“Goodbye to you, too.”

She texted Lindsey.NCIS is handling the notification of Mrs. Rodriguez.

Sam got up, went to the door and called her team back into the room.

“Is it true, Sam?” Gonzo asked when the team was seated around the table with the door closed. “Is Juan alive?”

She simply couldn’t perpetuate this fraud for another second. “Yes.”

“Whoa,” Freddie said on a long exhale. “What the hell?”

Sam explained what NCIS had asked of her before they’d revealed that Juan was alive. “When I returnedto HQ, I went right to the chief, and we agreed to play it as if it was an actual investigation per their request. I’m sorry I lied to you. I never would’ve done that under ordinary circumstances. I hope you know that.”

“Lindsey is pissed,” Cameron said.

“With good reason. I provided the ID for the body in the morgue and confirmed it was Juan. His mother requested a photo, and that’s how she found out the young man in the morgue isn’t him.”

“This is seriously fucked up,” Gonzo said.

“Yes, it is. And I’m very sorry for the role I played in it. I was put in a difficult position.”

“Why did they tell you the truth?” Freddie asked.

“Juan insisted I be told, but the chief also suspected they wanted Nick to know what was going on but couldn’t involve him directly without causing him other problems. Or something like that.”

“So they expected you to tell him?” Neveah asked.

“I think so.”

“Did you?” Gonzo asked.

“I’m not going to answer that on the grounds that it could involve you all in situations you want nothing to do with. You can make your own assumptions about what I did or didn’t do.” After a pause, she added, “I want you to know that the trust we share is one of the most important things in my life, and it pained me deeply to violate that trust, even for national security reasons.”

None of them looked at her, which only added to her considerable anxiety. “I’m sorry, guys.”

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