come by.
There wasn't really any way to pressure the authorities. She couldn't in
good conscience refuse to help in matters of life and death. On the other hand,
she could let them know that quite a number of their other hopes and plans
involving the cooperation of a superwoman would become null and void the moment
any pictures were found -- or even suspected -- to have leaked from any
government offices.
Mandi mentally studied her list of agency... 'acquaintances'. That was the
best that she could call them, really, even after two weeks of working with
them. Most of them were more than a little in awe of her and some even seemed to
fear her.
John Cooke, who was nominally in charge of this NIA op, but seemed unable to
let even his star players know who was really running the show.
Alan Vosier, who reported to and took his orders from John.
Karen Phillips, who liaisoned between John and someone else, probably the
nameless entity controlling the op.
Ed Cade, who called himself semi-retired, appeared to work directly with
John, and... And what? She realized that she knew almost nothing else about him.
Nothing at all.
Mandi suddenly also realized that Cade had so far seemed to come and go like
a cat, disdaining such formalities as 'debriefings', although he'd filed a
police report after the first incident of the day because he'd used his gun.
He definitely hadn't seemed either in awe or afraid of her. Instead of
asking her dozens of questions about herself, he'd simply asked her to validate
his own conclusions.
Or had he? Yes. Once, at least; in asking whether her language teacher had
been human or machine. In all else, he'd simply stated his conclusions about
her, and they'd been right.
Furthermore, although she and Cade hadn't discussed possibilities or been
issued a plan of action, when Cade had pounced on Marjeel, he'd done so with
apparently no doubt at all that she could and would deal with the other two
terrorists.
How could he have had such implicit faith in her?
Mandi couldn't really envision any of the other agency people she'd met
attempting much of anything without a thoroughly pre-discussed plan that had
been specifically approved by someone up the chain; a plan that would cover all
contingencies and especially peoples' asses after any fuckups.
That line of thinking led her back to the question of why she hadn't been
allowed to go in