The liaison's office called an emergency meeting for two that afternoon, and Hunter arrived to find the man himself sitting outside the conference room, tie loosened, looking like someone who hadn't slept.
"They're deciding whether to suspend me," the liaison said before Hunter even sat down. "Unauthorized contact with a foreign national tied to an active investigation. It doesn't matter that I got something useful out of it. Process matters more than results to people who weren't in the room."
"Did you get something useful," Hunter asked.
The liaison looked at him for a long moment, weighing how much to say before the door behind them opened. "I confronted the intermediary directly because I wanted a reaction I could read in real time, something no amount of intercepted communication w
