Blood Cover

Among the many assets Mai Fisher had recruited in her years as a covert operative, Dr. Khalilah Bousaid had pressed on Mai’s conscience more than any other. Instead of providing the asylum the young Saudi doctor had asked for, Mai instead talks her into returning to Saudi Arabia and into a marriage Khalilah did not want, a blood cover to hide Khalilah’s spying. As the wife of an official in the Saudi defense ministry, Khalilah would be in a unique position to pass her husband’s secrets on to Mai’s employer, the United Nations Intelligence Directorate. “Promise her anything,” Alexei Bukharin, Mai’s partner, had said, and Mai did. Khalilah agrees to Mai’s offer on the condition that Mai extract Khalilah and any children she may have when Khalilah asks. When the call comes eight years later to fulfill that promise, Mai is now the head of The Directorate, but she calls on old friends and her own personal fortune to keep her word.