The Secret of Secrets: A Novel
by Dan Brown
Contents
Chapter 78
Overview
Ambassador Nagel is rocked by news that Michael Harris has been murdered in Sasha Vesna’s apartment, and she orders an immediate, quiet containment to prevent a diplomatic scandal. The shock triggers Nagel’s memories of how she was blackmailed into her Prague post after a staged CIA security breach. The chapter reveals Everett Finch as the architect of Nagel’s entrapment—and ends with Nagel deciding she will no longer obey him.
Summary
Ambassador Heide Nagel rushes upstairs to her bathroom and vomits after receiving a text from Dana: MICHAEL HARRIS IS DEAD. Nagel calls Dana, who reports that she and Marine escort Kerble found Sasha Vesna’s apartment unlocked; when Kerble entered to check it, he discovered Michael Harris’s strangled corpse on the hallway floor, with no sign of Sasha or anyone else.
Fighting panic and guilt, Nagel orders Kerble to secure the apartment, summon forensics to recover the body, and keep the murder quiet to avoid a public scandal about a consulate official killed on foreign soil. Alone, Nagel is overwhelmed by responsibility, thinking Michael’s death is “on my hands,” and her mind turns to the chain of events since she arrived in Prague.
Nagel recalls her past as the CIA’s general counsel, when a classified file “went missing” and was later found in her home. CIA Director Gregory Judd confronted her with the choice of “gross negligence or treason,” removed her from her role, and sent the matter to an inquiry, leaving her isolated and fearing her career was finished.
Two weeks later, Judd unexpectedly called with a lifeline: he recommended Nagel to the president-elect for U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, presenting it as a perfect fit during regional unrest. Nagel accepted and moved to Prague, initially believing she had been saved by good fortune—until Judd asked her to dine with a European-based In-Q-Tel contact.
At the dinner, Nagel discovered the contact was Everett Finch, the famed former head of the CIA’s Directorate of Science & Technology, now operating under In-Q-Tel. Finch told her her placement in Prague had a “real reason,” and Nagel eventually learned the truth: Finch had engineered her CIA “mistake” by planting the documents, then used photocopies as leverage, implying that resistance could be reframed as treason with the president and Judd already briefed. Back in the present, shaken by Michael Harris’s death, Nagel decides Finch has pushed too far; after years of obedience and searching for an exit, she resolves, aloud, “No more,” sensing that at last there may be an opening.
Who Appears
- Heide NagelU.S. ambassador; learns Harris is murdered, recalls CIA blackmail by Finch, decides to defy him.
- Michael HarrisNagel’s employee; discovered strangled in Sasha Vesna’s apartment, triggering Nagel’s crisis.
- DanaNagel’s staffer; reports finding Harris’s body and updates Nagel in a frantic call.
- KerbleMarine escort; enters Sasha’s apartment, finds Harris’s corpse, is ordered to secure the scene.
- Sasha VesnaMissing from her unlocked apartment where Harris’s body is found; whereabouts unknown.
- Everett FinchEx-DS&T leader turned In-Q-Tel figure; orchestrated Nagel’s downfall and controls her via treason leverage.
- Gregory JuddCIA director; removed Nagel as counsel, then steered her into the Prague ambassadorship.