Chapter 23
AN INTERNATIONAL ALERT“Natalie, drop whatever you’re doing. I need you on the double.”
Natalie glanced right, toward the source of the stridency. Cyd Watkins stood at the threshold of the intelligence bunker, unwinding her scarf from around her neck, but not bothering to comb out her wind-tossed hair. Hours before on that Friday, her boss had hurried out of the underground site on some hush hush meeting, not informing her staff where she went or why. And hours later she had returned, looking tighter with worry than normal.
“And Tom,” Cyd Watkins added, “the Beige Book, get it for her quickly.”
The Beige Book…Natalie, despite her tiring shift covering for the only other cleared linguist who spoke the required languages, perked up. Something was afoot. She tapped some letters
