Holm was in a similar position. Cota pulled her off her other jobs. A week after she returned, he stepped into her office at the Ariana and gave her a salute. “I shouldn’t tell you. But Duto”—Vinny Duto, the CIA director—“briefed the White House about the op.”

“We’re way ahead of ourselves. Marburg may not even get the call.”

“He doesn’t, no one’s going to put it on you. You handled him great. I watched the video from Karachi. He likes you, he trusts you.”

“I hope so.”

He sat down across from her. He tried to look sympathetic, but his tone was irritated. “So what’s wrong? You nervous that he’ll blow his cover, get strung up? He’s a big boy, he went in with his eyes open.”

“It’s not that.”

“Not the skiing, again. He’s not a double, Marci.”

“I like him, you know. He’s got better manners than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Better than me?”

“I’ve seen you pick your nose, Manny. You aren’t even in the same time zone.”

“Congratulations to him.”

“What if he’s too good to be true?”

“Marci. You keep forgetting, we’re not dealing with the KGB. These guys, their idea of tricky is Semtex instead of ANFO. No way they could run a double as sophisticated as this.”

“Maybe they got lucky with Marburg. We think we got lucky with him, right?”

“Give me something specific. Anything.”

“He’s not nervous.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even before I met him. The way he approached the muk in Amman. Walked right up to the gate. Who does that? He’s never nervous.”

“Maybe he doesn’t have a nervous disposition. Anyway, I saw the tape of you and him. He was nervous when he talked about his family.”

“Only for a few seconds, before he dropped it.”

“Because you reassured him. You did your job.”

“Or because he wanted to bring it up for sympathy, then let it go. He’s so afraid for his family, how come he didn’t ask for specifics of how we’re going to get them out of Amman? A written guarantee.”