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gathered in a careless ponytail—was light-colored stubble. Even his hands were completely different. No longer elegant, long fingered, beautiful—almost works of art. Now they were still long-fingered but not beautiful. Not works of art. They were something a physical man used a lot—huge, callused, tough, scarred.
    Before, women looked at Jack and thought of trysting in a sun dappled field. Now, if anything, he evoked thoughts of being taken brutally, against a wall.
    Summer mentally shook herself. Sex with Jack was something she no longer thought about and sex with this new, tough Jack? Impossible.
    She leaned forward and looked him straight in the eyes. “So tell me how you’re still alive and roaming the streets pretending to be homeless. Tell me why you never announced that you’d lived through the Massacre and pretended to be dead. Tell me everything. And if it is truly important that I not write about it, I won’t. I will hold off. But remember this. Every single day I have people telling me that I would harm national security if I write about something, but usually it’s them covering their asses. So if all of this is you covering your ass, then you’re shit out of luck with me.”
    Jack’s jaws clenched. “Not covering my ass, believe me. And I want all of this to come to light just as much as you do, but at the right time. The people involved are ruthless. So far, a number of very good people have died after the Massacre and I don’t want any more on my conscience.”
    “Fair enough,” she said. “So convince me. You said you had an informant who died on you. From the Fourth Directorate.”
    He nodded sharply. “That’s right. There’s a separate power structure in the Fourth Directorate, headed by General Chen Li. From what my CI told me, that power structure has put in place a plan for a soft takeover of the US. Military forces are only tangentially involved in the planning. This cabal inside the Fourth Directorate developed a plan to destroy us, or if not destroy us, weaken us to the point where we’d be easy to pick off. According to my informant, the plan involved minimal violence, not a full scale invasion, certainly not applying major military power. Conquest by stealth. So my mole was sending me intel over an encrypted line and we were beginning to get a feel for the plan. It was supposed to unfold in several stages or phases and stage one was coming up. Then my informant’s body was found in the Huangpu River. Right after sending a message that the first attack would be in Washington DC.”
    Summer had trouble breathing. Washington. “The Massacre,” she whispered.
    “Yeah.” Jack lowered his head without taking his eyes from hers. “The file was corrupted but there was enough intel to indicate an attack on Washington was imminent. My boss and I thought—the White House. The Pentagon. Congress. We passed on word to appropriate channels and security was beefed up in those three places and the airports. I was coming back to Washington anyway. My boss and I were keeping our eyes and ears open.”
    “You came back because your father was announcing that he was running for president. Your undercover career was over.”
    “Yeah.” Jack’s face tightened. “It was. I couldn’t even tell Dad that he was messing me up because my family didn’t know I was CIA. But it was Dad’s dream and he would have made—” Jack’s voice grew thick and he looked to the side.
    “He would have made a great president,” Summer finished softly.
    Jack nodded and swallowed heavily. He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “I think Blake was behind the Massacre,” he said finally.
    “But—but he barely escaped the Massacre with his life. And he was there supporting your father! And I had it on good authority that your father was going to choose Hector Blake as his vice president.”
    Summer had found it hard to believe Alex Delvaux would have chosen Hector Blake as his Veep but that’s what her