The doorbell to his condo chimed at seven sharp, and Dom pulled off the towel tucked into his belt that he’d been using as an apron, checked the eggplant in the oven quickly, and then went to answer.
Adara Sherman stood at the door. She wore a simple black dress, wedge heels, and stylish glasses. Her blond hair was shoulder length these days, and Dom could see the muscles in her neck and shoulders from her near-daily workouts at the CrossFit gym near her condo in Tysons Corner.
Dom couldn’t figure out why, but he still hadn’t gotten used to seeing Adara away from work. As the transportation logistics coordinator for Hendley Associates, and The Campus, she worked in two distinctly different settings. When she worked in the Alexandria office she wore business attire. But as the flight attendant for the Hendley Associates Gulfstream G550, she wore a generic-looking flight attendant uniform; navy skirt, navy jacket, and white blouse.
And there had been times, multiple times in the past couple years, when Adara Sherman the flight attendant had become someone else right in the middle of a trip. She would step into the galley of the G550, take off her skirt and blouse, and don 5.11 tactical pants and a dark tunic. She’d then heave an H&K UMP .45-caliber submachine gun from a hidden compartment behind an access panel in the galley, and she’d slide an H&K semiautomatic pistol in a paddle holster under her waistband.
Adara provided security for the aircraft, as well as serving as the medic for the operators in The Campus.
This job did not fall into her lap; she’d had years of training. She’d been a Navy corpsman in Afghanistan, she’d saved the lives of Marines in combat, and she’d carried an M4 herself and used it on more than one occasion.
No, she wasn’t the typical flight attendant one might find on a high-end corporate jet, and no, Dom still could not get over seeing her in a sexy outfit at night, because it was so far removed from her appearance throughout the day, no matter what role she found herself in.
Dom and Adara had been dating for a year now, but they had not made their relationship public to the others at Hendley Associates. Dom had a suspicion that his cousin knew. Adara agreed, and she insisted her “woman’s intuition” was infallible on such matters.
Still, if Jack did know, he’d not said anything, and Dominic appreciated his cousin keeping the relationship on the down low.
There was no specific prohibition against employees dating at The Campus, but they both assumed it would be frowned upon, so they didn’t make a big deal about it. Both Adara and Dom led busy lives anyway, so it wasn’t like they were living together, spending each evening watching TV till bedtime. No, this had been a relationship primarily of dinners and movies when they were both in town and had some free time, which was a rare enough occurrence.
Yes, things had gotten physical. That began in Italy, back at the beginning of their relationship, and although things were still physical, their careers had gotten in the way even though they both worked for the same employer.
Dom and Adara had an interesting relationship. They might go weeks without talking shop at all when they were alone together away from the office, or they just as easily might slip into work talk.
This was a night full of the latter. While they ate their eggplant parmigiana and drank their perfectly chilled chardonnay, they discussed the events of the previous morning on the boat in the Chesapeake. Dom was still angry at himself for letting Gerry Hendley shoot him in the back, and even more for creating a scenario that forced Jack to save the hostage by applying “overkill” to the situation.
Adara had been right there with a front-row seat to the debacle, and she listened to Dom now, before putting in her two cents.
Adara said, “Don’t blame yourself. You guys are short-staffed. You are doing your best, but you need a larger force.”
Dom realized Adara had been upstairs with Gerry on the yacht when John Clark proposed exactly that to the men.
“We’re getting two new operators.”
“Really? Who?”
“I’m sure Clark has ideas of his own, but he wants each of us to propose one candidate.”
Adara cut into her eggplant, ate slowly, drank slowly, all the while waiting for Dominic to say something else.
When he did not she asked, “Who are you going to suggest for the position?”
Dom shrugged. “Not sure. I know a lot of guys in the FBI still, and through the training cadre at The Campus I know some guys who used to be in military special mission units, but they all have families now, and working at The Campus is a tough job for a dad with young kids.”
He added, “I think I know who Ding is going to suggest, and I know who Jack will nominate, and either of those guys would make excellent officers. I might just second one of their choices. Clark might think I’m taking the easy way out, but I’ve got to go with my gut.”
“That’s true.” Adara could be calculating when the situation called for it, but at other times, she could be quite direct. She put her fork and knife down and looked across the table at Dom. “I have an idea on who you could suggest.”
Dom raised his eyebrows and stopped his fork right before it went in his mouth. “You do? Who?”
“Me.”
Dom froze, the fork still in midair, his eyes on his girlfriend.
Then he looked down and away.
Adara said, “I know the job. I’m vetted; I’ve been in the field with you guys, more or less, on many occasions. I’m jump qualified, I’ve got my Master SCUBA diver rating, I can shoot. I earned the Navy Expert Pistol Medal and the Navy Expert Rifle Medal with a bronze S.”
Dom said nothing, so Adara said, “Since you asked, the bronze S stands for ‘sharpshooter.’ Also, unlike the rest of you, I have a twin-engine IFR pilot’s license, I can operate boats, and I have more medical training than anyone at The Campus.”
She smiled. “And I do more CrossFit than you do.”
Dom reached for his wine, finished it, then pulled the bottle out of the ice and refilled his glass.
Adara said, “And, of course, there was Panama and Switzerland.”
He put the wine back in the bucket, looked up at Adara, and said, “No.”
Dom knew she’d bring up Panama and Switzerland. In the Panamanian jungle Dom and Adara had fought alongside each other, and in Geneva they had worked together as a team on a surveillance op that turned into something much more… kinetic. She’d done remarkably well on both occasions, as good as any other operator on the team. Dom knew this to be true, but that didn’t mean he wanted her working as a Campus asset.
He saw Adara’s cheeks redden a little, and he knew he was in trouble. He said, “I’m sorry I said it like that. It’s just that…”
“What?”
“I don’t want you on the team.”
Adara nodded a little as she looked off to the distance, out over Logan Circle. Dom had been dating her long enough to read the signals. She was angry, her defenses were going up, and she just might go on offense. Quickly he tried to clarify himself.
“Of course you can do it. It has nothing to do with ability. It’s me. I don’t want you to do it.”
“Why? Because it’s too dangerous?”
“Yes. That’s exactly why. Look, that job you’re asking me to nominate you to fill… I lost my brother in that same position, I was right there with him and I watched him die. Then another guy came in. He became a good friend. And he died, too. Again, I was there when it happened. I don’t want to lose you.” He paused. “I care about you, and that job isn’t a place to send people you care about.”
“I understand how you feel, but your brother’s death and Sam Driscoll’s death had nothing to do with the fact they were in the same position. It was the job. The job all of you have. The exact same fate could be waiting for any one of you.”