“Why is that a possible issue, Allegra? She could just really be a friend of both, right?” Jack countered, playing for time for me to process all this new information.

“You don’t understand, Jack. That woman is the reason why the target being tracked at the event tomorrow came to the attention of these intelligence agencies in the first place.”

“What?!!” Jack and I both exclaimed. My mental calculations came to a screeching halt.

“How do you know her, Miss Palmer?” the man who had talked to us at the café asked, finally speaking up. Jack and I turned our heads to look at him in surprise as he stepped next to Jack. He extended a hand to Jack, “SSA Black with the Feds. Working under cover.”

He showed Jack his badge, who examined it closely, and then nodded at me.

“I’m in a relationship with her,” I answered. “And I’m here to talk to you about her, actually,” I added as I turned to Allegra, and set my tumbler down on the side table. I blew a few calming breaths out.

“I want to protect her from any damaging effects of people coming to know about her work here with you, and I want to know if we can come to some arrangement about that,” I said finally while looking squarely into Allegra’s surprised eyes.

“She didn’t do anything illegal, Miss Palmer, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Allegra answered.

“Her line of work, and her life now, plus her reputation, would be harshly impacted if people knew she worked in this place, Allegra,” I said gently. “I don’t mean to make that sound judgmental. But that’s the reality of things with her now.”

“I don’t understand. Her friend Annie knows …,” Allegra protested, still a little confused about how the turn in our conversation had shifted to Harley.

“Yes, and she intends to use that knowledge to hurt my friend in a pretty devastating manner,” I started to explain.

SSA Black interrupted, “I’m sorry to say that your friend has more to worry about from the danger the target we’re concerned about poses, Miss Palmer, than news about her work here.”

“What are you talking about?” Jack asked as he wheeled around to face the man frontally. “Before we get into anything else, someone better explain all of this carefully to Miss Palmer first!”