Planning a mission turned out to be as overwhelming as Arena suspected. The CIA research department had done a stellar job on the hoverboard notes, so she stayed up all night reading them, jotting down ideas in the margins. She ran through several computer simulations, then made lists of possible ways to use the hoverboard. Testing was tiring, but productive, and Arena felt like she made progress.

  Sterling was unusually cool to all of them, but especially Arena. He was polite and professional, but his voice had lost all warmth, and he didn’t refer to anything that happened unless it directly applied to work. They had lost more ground during their night out than had been gained.

  With the help of Bertha, Arena came up with a list of modifications for the hoverboard, and Arena sent them to Sterling. He sent a short note of approval, which stated he would get to work on them immediately. Arena was very pleased with the results, though unhappy he sent Bertha with the board.

  The first set of fictional intelligence came, informing Arena that a piece of technology would be exchanged in an industrial area outside of New York City. The tech was named an amp irradiator, which she was sure was made up. Arena sent a number of questions to Sterling, but he responded vaguely or in complicated technical speak. Bertha tried to work with her on translating Sterling's emails and finding more information, but even she was getting irritated with Sterling's lack of help.

  Finally, Arena got fed up with Sterling and marched into his office.

  "I can't do this without you. This is still way out of my league, and they have Anita. Not to mention Nate and Lorna have a lot more experience than I do. I don't know why you're upset with me, or all of us, but this is hard enough as it is without the silent treatment."

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  He spun to face her, hurt and anger on his face, but he simply stared at her for a moment. "I haven't given you the silent treatment. I've responded to all your emails."

  "With what? Stuff I can't understand? You know I'm not familiar enough with the CIA yet to understand all the terminology! Why are you so mad?"

  He exhaled through his nose. "I'm not mad."

  "Then what is the problem?"

  Sterling sat looking at her, fumbling with a pen. "Perhaps I have been a little distant." Arena clenched her fists, forcing herself to wait for him to continue. "I—I… have some reservations about this exercise after the last and after the strange messages we've received, which indicate that someone in the CIA is leaking our actions. I've been throwing back with Fieldhaven on the subject, but he's insistent you need to run this. And well, there's some other reasons, but they're not really important."

  Arena sank into the chair. "Why couldn't you just tell us?"

  He looked ashamed. "I'm sorry. I thought maybe I could stop it. But I don't think I can." Reaching across his desk, he brought out a folder. He handed it to her. "I gathered this for you last night. Whatever help you need from me, you have it."

  The folder had pages of notes in his tiny handwriting, marked by compact block letters. It included maps of the area and lists of ideas on using the hoverboard, with obvious reference to the research notes, exactly what she needed.

  "Arena, there's something I want to say to you…"

  There was a knock on the door. Lorna danced in, eyes twinkling. She leaned over Arena. "Ohhh, what's that?"

  Arena snapped the folder shut and glanced at Lorna innocently. "Well, I should go read these." She gave Lorna a wily grin and slipped past her, ignoring Lorna's "Show me! Show me!" pleas.