Chapter 3

She opened the console with her right hand, retrieved a slim leather document wallet, and opened it on her lap. Inside the wallet sat her Georgia driver's license, the vehicle registration—which listed the carrier as a government fleet management pool under a classified agency identifier—and positioned squarely in the center sleeve, unmistakable in its weight and construction, was her federal intelligence credential folio. It was a flat, matte-black booklet roughly the size of a passport, with a gold embossed seal on its cover, the words Central Intelligence Agency printed in a clean, authoritative serif font beneath it, and below that, in smaller capitals: Deputy Director.She slid the driver's license free from its sleeve and extended it toward Officer Odum. He took it with two fingers, glancing at it briefly. Then his flashlight caught the gold seal inside the open wallet, still resting in her lap.He didn't ask. He simply reached through the window and grabbed the entire wallet from her hand."Officer Odum." Elaine's voice dropped a half-register, still calm, but carrying a new weight. "That wallet contains federal government property. You do not have the legal authority to confiscate it.""I determine what's relevant to the stop," Odum said flatly.He was already stepping back from the door, pulling the credential folio out of the wallet, turning it over in his hands. He flipped it open, stared at the photograph, the name, the title. A long beat of silence.Then he let out a short sound that was almost a laugh—a quick exhale of contempt that he didn't bother to conceal."Deputy Director," he read aloud, drawing the title out slowly, tasting the absurdity he had apparently decided it represented. He looked up at Elaine with an expression of naked condescension. "The CIA, is that right?"It was not a question."That is correct," Elaine said."Where'd you get this made?" Odum said, closing the folio and holding it between two fingers like something he was considering throwing away. "One of those government gift shops? Because I have got to tell you, this is one of the better fakes I've seen."Elaine let a full three seconds of silence sit between them. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and surgical."Officer Odum, that credential is issued by the federal government of the United States and is encoded with biometric security measures that cannot be replicated by a private citizen. The inside back panel contains a verification hotline that routes directly to the Office of Security at CIA headquarters. I strongly suggest you call it before you take another step in this direction."Odum snorted. "Sovereign citizen move," he said. "Classic. You people always come prepared with the props."You people.The words landed exactly as they were intended. Elaine absorbed them without expression. She had heard worse from people with far more power than Officer Garrett Odum. The difference was that those people had never done it while unknowingly triggering a federal response protocol.

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