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something valuable and didn’t know where else to look.”
    For the first time since she’d intercepted him at the airport, she felt like she’d made the right call. He was making her think about the situation from other angles.
    “What ‘something valuable’ would the Initiative have to lose?” she ventured. Besides operatives. Burnout was a frequent problem for agents in her position. It wasn’t easy being the pariah of the intelligence community. Even when no one in the public sector knew you existed. Being known to and despised by your peers posed a definite challenge and very few people dealt with it well.
    “You’d know that answer better than I would, Jo.”
    She opted to explore a different theory. “Tell me how Mission Recovery handles discipline problems.”
    “Why?”
    “Humor me. We’ve got hours ahead of us at this pace.” The storm was playing havoc with her timeline. Snails could tour entire gardens in the time it took them to reach the next turnoff as they drove west toward the mountains.
    “We select our agents specifically to avoid discipline problems.”
    “That’s a nice party line, Director. I’m completely sold. Now tell me what you do when a good agent screws up.”
    “You’re the oversight genius. You know the routine.”
    “Actually, I don’t. There isn’t a single shred of information about how you handle problem children.”
    “Because we haven’t had any,” he insisted. “If you’re after a specific person or case, just say so.”
    “Fine.” She was after the needle in the haystack and hoping maybe a disgruntled candidate who’d been turned down for a spot on the elite team might be causing trouble for Thomas. “I’m fishing here, there’s no specific person I can point to and say ‘he or she started this.’”
    “Which leaves a specific case.”
    Naturally, Thomas would hear the details she’d left out.
    “Possibly.” But her mind was turning over the audit wrinkle. Two supply-specific audits in the same number of years didn’t feel random. Annual reports were usually verified by an accountant and approved, unless there was a significant discrepancy. “Did the same person oversee both of your audits?”
    “Don’t you know the answer to that?”
    She didn’t want to admit only the most recent audit was on the system. Another reason she’d been surprised. “Contrary to popular belief, I have other things on my daily agenda beyond the shadowy workings of Mission Recovery.”
    “I’m so relieved.”
    She resisted the urge to snap at him. Keeping her voice light, she repeated her question about the auditors.
    “Two different people, neither of whom I’ve seen before or since.”
    And he would have been looking. She didn’t believe people who inconvenienced Thomas would ever be welcome in his offices and state-of-the-art training facility without his express permission. On the plus side, there weren’t that many people with the committee’s authority. It should be easy enough to track down those records and examine the personnel jackets of the auditors involved.
    “I think we should stop soon,” Thomas said. “You’re nearly out of gas.”
    She glanced down and frowned at the gauge. “The tank was full when I parked it at the airport.”
    “Roll down your window,” he said, powering down his own.
    The moment she did the strong smell of gas came in with the blowing snow and wind. “Damn it. A lucky bullet left them a trail.” She had a terrible action-movie image of someone tossing a match into the trickle of gas they were leaking and succeeding in blowing them up this time.
    “In better conditions maybe,” he said. “I never thought I’d be thankful for nasty weather. The snow will blur our trail, but I don’t see how we’ll make it to wherever this is,” he said, tapping the red circle on the map.
    “With a leaking gas tank I don’t see how we’ll make it much of anywhere,” she grumbled.
    “Just roll into the next convenience