Page 149 of The Secret of Secrets

“Okay, Professor,” she said. “I’m impressed.”

“Glad it worked…A second attempt would have been impossible.”

“Is the phone dead?”

“No…I am.”

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek as they boarded the elevator together. The door slid shut. For a long moment, nothing happened.

And then Katherine felt it…that momentary lightness in her physical body.

They were descending.

Chapter 95

In a dank corner of his basement, CIA Director Gregory Judd was sweating profusely. Six minutes remained to finish his morning workout on the Airdyne stationary bike he’d owned since his early days as a senator. His wife, Muffy, had placed a new Peloton in the sunroom for him, but Judd preferred darkness and solitude. Mornings were his private time to think—usually about how to stop the world from blowing up.

When the cell phone in his cup holder rang, he was surprised to see an unknown caller. Very few people had this number, and there were even fewer who would dare phone before dawn.

He stopped pedaling, caught his breath, and answered. “Yes?”

“Good morning, Director,” said a woman’s voice with an urgent edge. “This is Heide Nagel in Prague.”

“Heide?” The call from his former senior counsel was entirely unexpected. “You’re an ambassador now—call me Greg.”

“Never going to happen, sir.”

He smiled. “Okay then, how can I help you?” And who gave you this number?

“I need to ask you a direct question,” she began. “And I would appreciate an honest answer.”

Troubled by her agitated tone, Judd got off his bike. “Actually, I’m on a cell phone, and I can see you’re not using a secure platform, so a landline would—”

“I explained to your overnight staff that I was a U.S. ambassador, and this was a national security emergency. This is the line they gave me.”

“A security emergency? Heide, depending on what you would like to discuss, we can—”

“I should have asked you this over two years ago,” she said. “But I’m asking you now.” Before Judd could interject, Nagel said, “The classified documents I was accused of removing from Langley—are you aware that Q framed me? Are you aware I was set up as a puppet in Prague?”

Judd exhaled, no stranger to keeping calm in pressure-filled moments. He opted for the truth. “Yes, Heide, I am aware of that.”

The silence that followed felt like a gathering storm.

“However,” Judd added quickly, “I found out after the fact. At the time it happened, I had no idea. You were my top legal adviser, and I hated losing you.”

“Finch did this behind your back?!”

“He had complete autonomy to carry out his duty as he saw fit,” Judd said, pacing the basement. “I was furious when I found out, but you were already established in Prague, and there also were national security considerations in the region. Blowing it up seemed counterproductive. You know firsthand how valuable it is for the agency to have one of their own on the diplomatic side to help navigate the complexity of overseas intelligence work.”

“Yes, I’ve been quite valuable to Finch and this project—flexing diplomatic muscle whenever asked—cutting through red tape, bypassing local law enforcement, eavesdropping on hotel rooms…coercing Michael Harris to surveil Sasha Vesna.”

Shit. “I’d prefer not to use names on an open—”

“Do you know I forced Michael into that situation based on Finch’s claim that Sasha was a person of interest. But he refused to tell me why she was of interest. Do you know, Greg?”

“That’s enough. I’m hanging—”

“Does it have anything to do with the classified facility you’re about to open beneath Folimanka Park?”