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For the first time since their dating days, Kate found herself at Noah’s front door on a Saturday night. He probably guessed she wasn’t there to see if he wanted to walk down to DuPont Circle and catch a movie.

“Can I come in?” she asked.

He was standing in the open doorway and glanced back over his shoulder. “I actually have company.”

If it weren’t clear enough what “company” meant, she came up from behind and put her arms around him. “Oh, is our pizza here already?”

“We didn’t order pizza,” said Noah.

Kate rolled her eyes. For such a smart man, Noah could be so dumb sometimes.

“I got a call from Colombia,” she said, cutting to the chase. “It’s not good.”

Noah unwrapped himself from his date and grabbed his coat from the hook on the wall. Kate started slowly down the sidewalk, giving Noah a moment to explain the situation to Pizza Girl. She was halfway to the corner when he caught up.

“Patrick’s been kidnapped,” she said.

Noah stopped and reached for his cellphone. “I can help. The Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell operates twenty-four/seven. They are literally five blocks from here.”

“No,” she said, and she told him why.

“Kidnappers always say no law enforcement,” said Noah. “I think you’re making a mistake.”

“It’s not your decision,” said Kate.

“Kate, listen to me. Not a day goes by without an American being kidnapped somewhere in the world. The fusion center and its cell are the best of the best. They know more than any private security firm. Use their expertise.”

“Put your phone away. That’s not what I came here for.”

Noah tucked it into his coat pocket. He seemed to grasp quickly that this was going to be no small request. “Okay. Talk to me.”

“I want clearance to know everything there is to know about the code you think Sandra Levy stole from Buck Technologies.”

“I promised you that I’d work on that, and you promised to help us figure out who Sandra Levy was working for. That’s the arrangement.”

“I need clearance now.”

“That wasn’t our deal.”

“Patrick’s kidnappers changed the deal on me, so I’m changing ours.”

Noah glanced toward the busy traffic circle down the street, then back at her. “I understand Patrick’s kidnapping changes everything for you. But I can’t just go back to Justice and say the kid Kate used to babysit got kidnapped, so we need to give her clearance on Project Naïveté. Work with me. What’s changed?”

Kate wantedsomeoneto trust, and she’d once trusted Noah more than anyone. Still, the man standing in the glow of the streetlamp, hands in his pockets, ready to call the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, wasn’t the old Noah. She was negotiating with an assistant U.S. attorney whose loyalty was to the Department of Justice and whose new girlfriend was waiting for him back at the apartment that, for all practical purposes, Kate had once treated as her own.

She took the indirect approach. “Let me ask you something—hypothetically. What if Patrick’s kidnappers wanted something other than money?”

“It’s pretty common to demand ransom payments in Bitcoin. Is that what you mean?”

“No. Let’s say they don’t want dollars, euros, cryptocurrency, gold,frankincense, myrrh, doubloons—nothing like that. What if they want—”

She stopped herself. Noah waited. Kate didn’t want to say too much, but she couldn’t effectively negotiate with Patrick’s kidnappers without first negotiating with Noah.

“If they wantedwhat?” asked Noah.

“Code,” she said.

“You mean code from Buck Technologies.”

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