She looked at him for a long moment. “I know.”
Sean’s phone rang. It was Edgar.
“Better take it,” said Michelle. She turned away and wiped her eyes clear.
“Hello, Edgar.” Sean listened. “Yeah, right, but… Well, I know that, only… Okay, I guess you didn’t understand that it was only a—Hello?”
He put down the phone, looking disturbed.
“What is it?” Michelle asked. “Please don’t tell me the Pentagon came and arrested Edgar.”
“No, they didn’t.”
“Then what?”
“He accepted our job offer.”
“What?” she exclaimed.
“Correction, to be precise he said he’s ‘accepting the job offer from Ms. Maxwell.’ ”
“That wasn’t a job offer. That was a joke. You know that.”
“Well, apparently he doesn’t. He already gave Peter Bunting and the U.S. government his notice and he’ll be at our office tomorrow to start work. Predictably, they were not happy with his decision since he’s like the best intelligence analyst on the planet. And they will definitely not be happy with us. I think I see tax audits, congressional investigations, and random FBI wiretaps for the rest of our lives.”
“Oh my God,” Michelle said hopelessly.
“Yeah,” said Sean, with a long sigh.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To Michelle for always telling me how it really is.
To Mitch Hoffman for keeping me on my creative toes.
To Michael Pietsch, Jamie Raab, Lindsey Rose, Sonya Cheuse, Emi Battaglia, Tom Maciag, Martha Otis, Karen Torres, Anthony Goff, Bob Castillo, Michele McGonigle, Kallie Shimek, and everyone at Grand Central Publishing for doing your job so well. And special thanks to David Young; your reach extends across the pond, my friend.
To Aaron and Arleen Priest, Lucy Childs Baker, Lisa Erbach Vance, Nicole James, Frances Jalet-Miller, John Richmond, and Melissa Edwards for always having my back.
To Anthony Forbes Watson, Jeremy Trevathan, Maria Rejt, Trisha Jackson, Katie James, Natasha Harding, Aimee Roche, Lee Dibble, Sophie Portas, Stuart Dwyer, Stacey Hamilton, James Long, Anna Bond, Sarah Willcox, and Geoff Duffield at Pan Macmillan for leading me to number one in the UK and for a terrific visit this past spring.
To Praveen Naidoo and his team at Pan Macmillan in Australia, a special shout-out for leading me to #1 there. Three cheers!
To Arabella Stein, Sandy Violette, and Caspian Dennis for being so bloody brilliant.
To Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy for your continually outstanding audio performances.
To Steven Maat, Joop Boezeman, and the Bruna team for keeping me at the top in Holland and for your wonderful hospitality this past spring.
To all my other publishers worldwide whom I met at the London Book Fair for doing such a terrific job for me in their respective markets. It’s refreshing to know that not only are books not dead, they are flourishing.
To Bob Schule for always turning the pages.
To Chuck Betack for answering my military queries.
To Jim Haggar for the very timely magazine article. It got my imagination really going.
To Dick DeiTos and Todd Sheller for giving me the behind-the-scenes tour of mighty Dulles Airport.
To Tyler Wingo, I’ve always liked your name. Hope you enjoy the character.
To John Cole, I hope you enjoyed your promotion.
To MK Hesse, hope you liked seeing your name in the pages.
To Kristen, Natasha, and Lynette for keeping me on the straight and narrow.
And to Laura Jorstad for a great copyediting job. Your timeline was particularly impressive!
King and Maxwell Page 49