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to keep secret from him any part of our meeting today. I certainly intend to tell him I met you and exactly what we talked about.”
    â€œPlease don’t tell him about the cookies I hid in my pockets,” said Cole. “I know you saw me take them.”
    â€œI made them for you. Where you choose to transport them is entirely your affair.”
    All the way back toward the Beltway on Route 7, Cole tried to make sense of Mrs. Malich’s behavior. Was she really going to tell Major Malich about the assignment she had just given Cole? In that case, would Malich regard Cole as compromised somehow? Or would Malich simply give up and tell his wife what she wanted to know?
    Or was there some game going on between them that was far more complicated than Cole could suppose? Cole had never been married or even had a girlfriend long enough to really think that he knew her. Were all women like this, and Mrs. Malich was unusual only in being so candid about her conniving?
    Whatever it was, Cole already didn’t like it. It was outrageous to be given an assignment by your commander’s wife, though heaven knows it happened often enough when it consisted of moving furniture or running errands. Cole could see no way things could turn out that would not be detrimental to his career.
    Had she been drinking? Was that it?
    No, there had been no sign of that.
    His cellphone went off.
    â€œCaptain Coleman?”
    â€œSpeaking.”
    â€œThis is Major Malich. What does it mean when I get to the office and find you gone off somewhere?”
    â€œSorry, sir. I should be back within thirty minutes, sir.”
    â€œHow many hours do you think you
get
for lunch?”
    Cole took a deep breath. “I was visiting your wife, sir.”
    â€œOh, were you.”
    â€œShe makes excellent cookies, sir.”
    â€œHer baking is none of your business, Captain Coleman.”
    â€œIt is when she offers me cookies, sir. Begging your pardon, sir.”
    â€œSo what did she want with you?”
    â€œI called her, sir. Since I couldn’t learn anything about you or my assignment there at the Pentagon, I hoped to discover something about what you expected of me by talking to your wife.”
    â€œI don’t like you intruding into my personal life, Captain.”
    â€œNeither do I, sir. I don’t see that you left me a choice, sir.”
    â€œSo what did you learn?”
    â€œThat your wife is so worried about you, sir, that she enlisted me to try to find out what your clandestine operations are.” How far should he go with a new superior officer, and on a cellphone, no less? He plunged ahead. “She believes you’re morally troubled about those operations, sir.”
    â€œMorally troubled?”
    â€œI think the word she used was ‘guilty,’ sir.”
    â€œAnd you think this is any of your business?”
    â€œI’m convinced that it’s none of my business.”
    â€œBut you’re still going to do it.”
    â€œSir, I’ll just be happy to find out what we actually
do
in an office so secret that the secretary treats your subordinate like a spy.”
    â€œWell, Captain Coleman, she treats you like a spy because the last two clowns we had in your position
were
spies.”
    â€œFor your wife, sir? Or for some foreign power.”
    â€œNeither. They were spying for people in the Pentagon who are also trying to figure out what I’m doing when I’m not in the office.”
    â€œDoesn’t the Army already know what you’re doing?”
    There was a moment of hesitation. “The Army owns my balls and keeps them in a box somewhere between Fort Bragg and Pakistan.”
    Sometimes a non-answer was a perfectly usable answer. “It’s a mighty big box, then, sir. This Army’s got a lot of balls.”
    This time the pause was even longer.
    â€œAre you laughing at me, sir?” asked Cole.
    â€œI like you, Coleman,” said