Foreign Agent Read Free Page B

factors at play as well. Her aging parents lived in the apartment right beneath hers. They were too old to leave Boston and start over. All of their friends were there. They were a tight family. The idea ofLara’s son growing up in Virginia without his grandparents just downstairs also didn’t sit well. If they couldn’t make the move together, she didn’t want to make the move at all.
    Harvath understood. He loved her enough to want what was best for her—to accept the promotion. He also loved her enough to want their last trip together to be special.
    His moving to Boston was pretty much a nonstarter. He couldn’t do his job long-distance. The CIA had him under contract now and the President demanded a lot of face time. With the country’s aggressive new stance on terrorism, he was only going to get busier.
    It wasn’t an easy conclusion to come to. Ten years from now, or maybe even just five, his thinking might have been different. But not now, not at this moment. Too much was at stake.
    The world was growing more dangerous. Some derided the American Dream. Not Harvath. He knew that the American Dream couldn’t survive without people willing to protect it. He had always put the country ahead of himself. He had done it as a SEAL, and had continued to do it in a variety of capacities ever since. That wasn’t going to stop, no matter how much it personally pained or cost him.
    Right after Paris, he’d had a conversation with the President. In it, he shared his theory that there were wolves and then there were sheep. In order to protect the sheep, the nation needed sheepdogs, and that’s how he saw himself.
    The President thought about it for several moments before sharing his own view. Yes, the United States needed its sheepdogs, but it also needed wolf hunters. That was how the President saw Harvath best helping to protect the sheep.
    “We’re not going to wait for the wolves to come to us,” he had said. “We’re going to go to them, where they live, where they eat, where they sleep. We’ll hunt them with a ferocity the likes of which they have never seen. If they so much as look in our direction, we will take them out.”
    It was one of the most powerful statements Harvath had ever heard. It hadn’t been made for the cameras or to score political points. It was the man’s core ideological belief. And it only served to deepen Harvath’s respect for him.
    Take off the chains and let us go do our jobs. It was a statement made over and over again by spies and Special Operations personnel. Now Harvath was getting his chance. He didn’t intend to let it slip by.
    Pulling the cold bottle of champagne from the bucket, he poured himself a glass.
    “Can we at least enjoy Budapest together tomorrow before we have to fly home?” she asked, still facing out toward the river.
    He walked over and wrapped his arms around her. Kissing the back of her neck, he was about to respond when his phone vibrated.

CHAPTER 5

    M ONDAY
    W ASHINGTON , D.C.
    S enator Daniel Wells leaned forward and studied the man on the other side of his desk. “Did I stutter?” he asked. His jacket hung on the back of his chair and his sleeves were rolled up.
    “No, sir,” replied his guest.
    “Was I speaking in a foreign language?”
    “No, sir,” the man repeated, in a frustrated tone, tired of the condescension from the arrogant Iowa senator. He was the worst kind of politician. Even in the aftermath of the pandemic, he was all about furthering his own agenda.
    “Thirteen Americans are dead. Thirteen, ” Wells barked. “And you don’t have a fucking clue what happened? Not one piece of information?”
    “Sir, if I could just—”
    Wells cut him off. “Stop calling me sir . I am a United States Senator.”
    “Yes, Senator. I didn’t mean to—”
    Wells ignored him and plowed on. “It’s your duty, as Director of the CIA, to keep my committee informed.”
    “We’re still trying to unpack what happened.”
    “Let’s start