Chapter Three: Ghost Online

Sophia Laurent set her coffee beside the keyboard as Washington came pale through the curtains. She was staying in a short-term apartment near Dupont Circle. The blinds were closed and the lights were low. Three phones, two recorders, a notebook filled with arrows, and a dozen photographs covered the table. Red thread connected Aegis directors, retired generals, an energy minister's adviser, private military executives, and one man who always appeared with only the side of his face visible. Caleb Rourke. Special adviser to the National Security Council. Former CIA deputy director. Public hero of the counterterror age. Six years earlier, he had sat before Congress and announced in a controlled voice that a covert action team had died overseas,