"And you determined all this in the thirty seconds before he escaped?" Fitzgerald's scarred hands had stopped drumming. "Or did you do unauthorized investigating afterward?"
Simon said nothing.
Harmon stood slowly, planting both hands on the table. "Let me explain something to you, since you seem to have forgotten. When Intelligence provides a target assessment, you trust it. When Field Operations creates protocols, you follow them. When I give an order, you obey it. You are not a one-man army. You are part of an organization."
"An organization that's benefited from my skills."
"An organization you're making look incompetent!" Harmon very nearly glared at him.
From his position against the wall, Reuben Stone finally spoke. "Perhaps we should discuss this more productively."
Everyone turned to look at him.
Reuben pushed off from the wall, easily taking authority over the room. "Simon's methods have saved this organization time, resources, and lives. One failure doesn't erase that."
"His methods are going to get him killed," Fitzgerald muttered.
"His methods," Reuben continued calmly, "are effective precisely because he thinks independently. I personally trained him to be exceptional. We can't be surprised when he acts like it."
Simon caught the slight emphasis on 'trained.' Reuben had been the one to recruit him after his mother's death, had spent years honing Simon's natural abilities into something lethal. Every lesson had been about control, discipline, channeling his rage into purpose.
And other things,a voice in the back of Simon's mind whispered. Things they never mentioned anymore.
"That said," Reuben moved closer to the table, "Simon knows he acted outside acceptable parameters. Don't you?"
It wasn't really a question.
"Yes," Simon said.
Harmon sat back down, visibly trying to regain his composure. "You have forty-eight hours."
Simon blinked. "Sir?"
"Forty-eight hours to bring in Charlie Dracul. Properly this time. Following protocols. With regular check-ins." Harmon's gray eyes were cold. "Fitzgerald will assign you a partner?—"
"No."
The word came out harder than Simon intended. Everyone stared at him.
"No?" Harmon's voice dropped dangerously low.
"I can't work with a partner on this." Simon's mind raced for acceptable reasons. "I already had the vampire in my sights. I know what to do. Adding an unknown element now will complicate the approach. I need to?—"
"What you need," Fitzgerald interrupted, "is someone watching your back since you clearly can't catch this one by yourself."
"Actually," Reuben said quietly, "Simon has a point."
The room went silent again.
Reuben walked around the table, asserting himself. "Introducing a partner now would require additional briefing time and an adjustment of approach. We don't have that kind of time if the forty-eight hour deadline is firm."
"Since when do we let hunters dictate their own terms?" Madeline asked.
"Since they've proven themselves one hundred and seventeen times." Reuben stopped beside Harmon's chair. "If Simon says he works best by himself, we should let him prove it."
Harmon looked between Reuben and Simon, clearly unhappy. "If he fails again?—"
"He won't," Reuben said simply. "Will you, Simon?"
