Lady Death

corner and stopped at an elevator. Other Agency personnel passed by. Very few talked. It was too early for talking. Most CIA staffers were introverts anyway, more comfortable with their workstations than people.
Fisher took a deep breath, then let out a chuckle and shook his head.
“He beat me at poker once,” Fisher said. “Took a few hundred bucks off me.”
“Really?”
“He sat at the table with the smuggest smirk on his face. He made me so mad I blew every hand the rest of the night.”
The elevator doors rumbled open. They stepped inside. Fisher pressed the button for their floor.
The elevator started upward.
“Raven was a good operative, and remains a friend of this Agency,” Fisher said. “I appreciate his work, but he rubs me the wrong way.”
“If we ask, he’ll do whatever we want.”
“He can’t be in two places at once.”
“But we have Tanya. If we miss Sloan in Syria, we’ll pick her up again. She’s on borrowed time no matter what happens.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“And if the Intelligence Committee tells us no—”
“Raven doesn’t have any rules of engagement,” Fisher finished.

12
The conversation stalled in the Suburban. Raven felt content to look out the window at the passing forest. They were deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains and far from any civilian encroachment.
Tanya didn’t seem to mind the silence either. Her gaze out the window went far beyond the immediate area. He wondered what she was thinking. He wondered what her life was like before she hitched her wagon to the Islamic Union. He hoped she could make something of her second chapter.
The road ended at a thick metal gate. An electronic card reader sat atop a steel post. The driver powered down his window to feed a card into the slot. A light on the box turned from red to green, flashed twice, turned back to red. The driver withdrew the card and the metal gate parted in the center, both sides swinging forward.
“Special card?” Raven asked Wilson.
“Can’t tell you how it’s made, but nobody can copy it.”
“Rare metals?”
“Close.”
The SUV passed through the gate. Raven looked back. The gate closed faster than it had opened.
Ahead, the front face of the mountain raised. Part of the mountain had been blasted out to make room for a rising steel door. The SUV passed under into darkness. But it wasn’t dark for long. Rows of lights lit the area, and Raven noticed other vehicles parked nearby.
“Staging area,” Wilson said. “All vehicles stay here. We’ll take an elevator to the complex beneath the surface.”
“You aren’t kidding around with this place,” Raven said. The SUV slowed to a stop.
“Nope. It’s impregnable. Ain’t nothing getting through, no matter what Fisher says.”
“What is Fisher afraid of?”
Wilson waved Raven off. The security crew in the second SUV, behind them, opened the doors. Raven, Tanya, and Wilson exited into the cold cavern and stepped onto smooth concrete. Raven took Tanya by the elbow and they followed Wilson to an elevator. The double doors sat within a steel frame. This time Wilson used a key card, and the elevator doors opened. The three stepped inside, leaving the security team with the vehicles.
The elevator doors slid shut with a hiss.
“Hermetically sealed,” Wilson said.
The cabin began its descent.
“How far down?” Raven said.
“Classified.”
Raven laughed.
Tanya looked at both wide-eyed.
“Never seen anything like this?” Raven asked her.
“Once,” she said. “In Germany. My father—” she stopped.
“What?”
She shook her head. “I left for more than one reason.”
Wilson said, “We’re going to the main entrance. You two will be escorted into a side room for scanning. We need to make sure you don’t have any tracking devices in your clothes, or under your skin. You’ll have to hand over your weapons and cell phones.”
“Okay,” Raven said.
Tanya said, “Um—”
“There will be a woman taking care of you, Ms. Jafari.”
She nodded.
Raven lost track of how long the elevator had been going down. At least a minute. The cabin finally stopped, and the doors slid open.
The chill of the white-walled wind bit into them right away. A uniformed duty officer behind bulletproof glass told Raven and Tanya to stop. Wilson used a retinal scanner and his pass card to go through a steel door.
A door to their right opened, and two more officers in uniform asked Raven and Tanya to follow them. The two men stayed with Raven while a woman took Tanya into a separate room. The men led Raven into an exam room. It was the size of a regular doctor’s exam room, with a body scanner sitting against one wall.
“Gun and cell phone,” one of the men said.
Raven handed over his pistol and phone. An officer deposited the items into a large plastic bag.
Raven kicked off his shoes and stripped. The officer gathered up his clothes and went out.
Raven stood, naked, in front of the other guard.
“Now what?”
“Step into the machine, please.”
Raven placed his feet on yellow markings and put his arms up as directed. The officer went to a panel and pressed two buttons. Sounds came from the machine. A light shined on Raven’s head. A circular wrap-around apparatus moved up and down the side, shining light on the rest of Raven’s body.
The machine beeped.
“You’re clear.”
“Is this a nudist colony and nobody told me?”
The officer didn’t smile. The door opened and the other guard returned with Raven’s clothes. He pronounced them clean. Raven dressed again. The officers did not give back his phone or gun.
“They’ll be kept at the desk,” one explained. “No weapons or cell phones allowed in the facility.”
“Now I really feel naked,” Raven said.
The officers guided him out of the room, where he met Tanya and the female officer who had checked her.
“Are you clean?” he asked her.
“Squeaky,” she said.
The two men stayed with them through the check-in process with the duty officer. Wilson assisted on the other side of the glass. The officer gave Raven and Tanya badges to pin to their shirts, which always had to remain visible. They were not allowed to roam without an escort. They leaned into the retina