A wave of fury, hot and white, threatened to overwhelm her. The man before her was the ultimate insider threat, a retired agency employee who’d somehow turned his back on the very nation he’d protected for decades.
Amira’s father had been murdered at the behest of the former vice president, the highest-ranking traitor ever to exist inside the US government, even though the public hadn’t learned of his treachery, for reasons the current president and Task Force Ares had agreed would be in the interest of national security. But the righteous anger still burned, and she’d run out of patience with men like Trevor. Maintain your calm, for your sake.
“I wish I could say the same for you,” Amira replied curtly. “I’d heard you’d become disenchanted with the agency. But this? I never thought you’d turn traitor, not after all you’d done in service of the republic.”
“Like I said, it’s a life full of choices, and I made several small ones years ago,” Trevor replied, shrugging his shoulders slightly with utter indifference. “They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but I don’t think that’s quite the case. I think it’s paved with baby steps, small movements forward so tiny you don’t realize how dangerous they are until you’re surrounded by the warmth and flames of eternal damnation.”
Amira scoffed at the explanation. “You take up poetry in your retirement? You fancy yourself a modern version of Dante? Don’t delude yourself. You’re no different than the traitors who’ve come before you. You might have your reasons, but it won’t end well for you, no matter what you think.”
“Actually, I think I’m quite different. I see things through, and I never hesitate to act, as you well know from the first day we met.” The initial pleasure he’d displayed at the sight of her was gone, replaced by the reptile and survivor within, the alter ego that no one ever saw.
Amira knew this to be true. She’d born witness to it, for Trevor Emerson was no normal agency employee. He was the man who’d recruited Amira into the CIA and a way of life she’d always known would end in only one way – ruinous violence.
“And what exactly do you plan to see through today?”
“Easy. The assassination of the current director of the CIA, your friend and boss, Sheldon Tooney.”
Amira stared at him, hatred and fear mixing in one sickening combination. “You can’t be serious. You know you’ll never get away with this, right? Even you have to understand that.”
“Oh. I do. And technically, I won’t be assassinating anyone. You will. After what you’ve been through, the loss of your father, it won’t be hard to convince the agency that you snapped and sought revenge against those you believed responsible.”
“They’ll never believe you. Trust me when I tell you this. You have no idea what you’re starting here. If you did, you’d walk away, right now.”
“My dear, ultimately, it’s irrelevant. I just need the window of time that the confusion and your perceived involvement will cause. My friends and I will be out of the country by the time they untangle this web I’ve weaved, with you dangling in the center, trapped in death.” His words were spoken with the confidence of a man who was convinced of his success, even before he’d achieved it.
The gravity of the situation threatened to pull her under. She shook her head in denial, and her chin fell to her chest as she tried to manipulate her wrists. How had this come to pass, that the man who’d brought me into this business, a man I’d trusted with my life, a man whose life I’d saved, would be the one to end me?
Part I – A New Way of Life
Chapter 1
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
University Of Maryland School Of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies
Years Earlier
9:37 PM
Amira Cerone was exhausted, but like her father relentlessly – albeit supportively, she had to admit – told her, “There are no short cuts. You either put in the work, or you don’t.” As a testament to her father’s philosophy, her life as a junior at the University of Maryland in the School of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies was about anything other than shortcuts. Between a double major with a bachelor’s degree in dance and another in criminal justice – which made her father quite pleased – and the endless hours of training and practice she put in at the Clarice Center, she barely had time to breathe. Add the three times a week she trained in Chinese kung fu in College Park just off campus, and it was no surprise that her social life existed on a scale from zero to none. But she was fine with that, as it suited her quiet and calm disposition.
There’d never been a doubt as to where she’d attend college, and once she’d been informed that she’d been selected to receive a Banner/Key Scholarship that paid for all tuition, room and board, and additional expenses, the proverbial deal had been sealed. A full scholarship to UMD’s TDPS would’ve covered her full in-state tuition, but as a resident of Washington DC because of her father’s career as a police officer, she was considered out of state. But the Banner/Key had solved that financial dilemma in one fell swoop, and the school was thrilled to have her.
Then again, she’d known any school would’ve been, as she was the banner – pun intended, she always told herself – student: brilliant, hard-working, talented, and beautiful in form, physique, and function. The reality was that students like Amira Cerone were rare, and the school protected and coveted her like a sparkling treasure. Had it not been
