"Mom," Henry said. "I wasn't expecting you until..." He checked the time. "Okay. It's later than I thought."

"I'd popped in to say hello before my conference at Columbia, and I couldn't help overhearing Sara's idea."

"Remington Steele was a TV show, wasn't it?" Sara asked. "My mom watched it, but I don't remember much about it."

"That's right," Noelle confirmed. "It aired in the mid-1980s, and it sounds like you saw enough for it to linger in your subconscious."

"I've never heard of it," Anna said, and Radha and Neal echoed the sentiment.

"What was it about?" Sofia asked.

"It featured a private investigator named Laura Holt. She wasn't taken seriously when she opened her own firm, so she invented a boss named Remington Steele. This fictional boss was always traveling, or just called away, so the clients never glimpsed him. Laura put a lot of effort into maintaining the illusion, and her business grew until one day..." Noelle paused dramatically. "In the series pilot, a handsome young con artist played by Pierce Brosnan started telling people he was Remington Steele, and Laura ended up hiring him to continue the act. He enjoyed playing the role and truly became an investigator."

Neal chuckled. "I've been told I resemble a young Pierce Brosnan."

Sara nodded in agreement. She'd been one of the people to make the comparison, adding that Brosnan was her favorite James Bond.

"You do look similar," Noelle agreed. "You could certainly play Remington Steele to Sofia's Laura Holt, but why would you need to?"

Henry explained the situation.

Noelle mulled it over. "It's a clever idea, to use Win-Win's resources to vet political candidates. The company already provides a similar service, vetting candidates for executive jobs in the private sector, and you're expanding the expertise into a new market. It's that kind of creative thinking that convinced the board you would make an excellent CEO."

Henry and Sofia exchanged an uncomfortable look. Neal knew some of the history behind it, that Henry's dad had been obsessed with winning the CEO role and having Henry follow in his footsteps. Henry had been less than enthused by the idea. Sofia's dad had earned the role most recently, and Neal wouldn't be surprised if people saw her as Henry's main rival to be Allen Winston's successor. Did she want the job?

"But I'm still confused about the Remington Steele aspect," Noelle said. "What's the point of that kind of charade?"

"Oh no. Tell me we're not seriously considering a Remington Steele scenario." Ellen Parker stood outside the conference room, holding a cup of coffee. Noelle had left the door open. "I don't mean to intrude, but I'd be very cautious about trying something like that."

"Come in," Henry said. "I'm supposed to attend a Senate subcommittee meeting next week, and we're brainstorming options since I'm also supposed to be on vacation."

As Ellen took a seat, Neal introduced her to Noelle.

"It's so lovely to meet you," Noelle said. "I'd hoped we could find time to catch up during my visit."

Noelle and Ellen had both been major maternal figures in Neal's life, and while they'd heard stories about each other, they hadn't met. Neal was pleased to see them being cordial and comfortable with each other. "To answer Noelle's question, I don't strictly need to run a Remington Steele con, but it would be fun."

As Neal had hoped, the others jumped in with their own takes on how they could pull off the ploy. It reminded him of the art heist boot camps he'd led at the FBI, and he enjoyed being part of that kind of conversation again.

And he enjoyed seeing Ellen and Noelle bond as they laughed, shook their heads, and rolled their eyes at the increasingly complex ideas.

"I agree it would be fun," Noelle said at last. "But that doesn't make it wise."

"Overcomplicating a situation rarely pays off," Ellen added, "unless confusion is the goal."

"And you're still left with the fact that Sofia would be alone to present Henry's idea," Noelle said. "Pretending Henry is nearby doesn't solve the core problem."

They decided to take a break, giving them time to clear their heads and return with fresh ideas. Ellen and Noelle left to have lunch together, declaring their wish to get to know each other better. Neal tried not to imagine the stories they'd tell about him. To keep himself distracted from those worries, he suggested eating at a new restaurant that had opened a couple of blocks away. Sara was as eager as Neal to try it. Henry promised to meet them there after he returned a call.

The air was pleasantly crisp, and they enjoyed the perfect autumn weather as they walked. Neal asked, "Did Henry and Sofia get along when you worked with them in Baltimore?" Sara had been employed by Win-Win until Sterling-Bosch recruited her away a few years ago.

"They seemed to be good friends," she said. "Their dads were locked in conflict, but Henry and Sofia worked together to protect the rest of us from the fallout. I have no idea what happened to change things between them."

"Was it because people wanted them to get together?" Neal asked. "As a couple."

"It made things awkward," Sara said. "People gossiped about whether they were dating, and Henry's dad in particular wanted them to marry and raise the next generation of CEOs." She clasped Neal's hand. "At one point Robert was so obnoxious about it that I offered to pretend to date Henry. We let Robert see us acting enamored of each other. It distracted him from haranguing Sofia."

"You never mentioned that before," Neal said.

"With good reason. When we met, you assumed I was hung up on Henry. I didn't want to send your mind back in that direction."

"Sofia didn't mind the two of you fake dating?"

"Not as far as I could tell. But most people thought Robert was imagining things, because Henry and I only acted lovey-dovey a couple of times, when Robert was the sole witness. And soon after that I left the company. I'm sure Sofia heard the rumors, but I doubt she believed them."

"It came as a shock to a lot of people in Win-Win when Henry came out. Some people pitied Sofia then, and it made her uncomfortable. I witnessed a confrontation about it at a meeting between Win-Win and the Bureau. I assumed that was the end of it, and they were back to being friends." Neal opened the door of the restaurant. "I wonder how long they've..." He trailed off when he realized Noelle and Ellen were there.

The two women waved them over, so of course Neal and Sara joined them.

As Neal had expected, the conversation kept returning to stories about him as a young child. Sara enjoyed it, and since both of the storytellers were genuinely fond of Neal, he found it more tolerable than he'd expected. When Henry joined them, he was amused by the topic and added a few childhood memories of his own.

Henry was probably happy not to be the topic today, but as the check arrived, Neal turned the tables on him. "What's going on with you and Sofia?"

Naturally that got the attention of Noelle, the psychology professor. When Henry tried to shrug off the question, she stared him down.

"Being co-leaders isn't as easy as we thought," Henry finally admitted. "It sounded great on paper. Split the duties, have more time and less stress. But putting it into practice has been a challenge. We're constantly stepping on each other's toes. And if I try to avoid that by focusing on something Sofia's not involved in, then she's mad because I'm leaving her out of the loop."

"How do other business partners make it work?" Neal asked. "I mean, this company is literally named for two peoplele who went into business together. They figured it out."

"As far as I know, they didn't leave any helpful notes," Henry said.

The puzzle remained in the back of Neal's mind during the walk back to the office.

Anna seemed to be waiting for them. As soon as they stepped past the reception desk, she was showing them her laptop. "I found Remington Steele!" she announced. She placed the laptop on a table and played a set of images as a slideshow. "The premise sounds interesting, but..." She held her hands out around her head. "The big hair!" She lowered her hands a few inches. "The big shoulder pads!"

Sara laughed. "It's very dated, isn't it?"

"Yes!" Anna agreed. "I couldn't take it seriously. And that made me realize, it isn't just the style that's outdated. The whole idea doesn't make as much sense anymore, not with our technology. That's where Win-Win is better. Not just better than an old TV show, but better than our competitors." She turned to Henry. "You can go on vacation and still join the meeting with Sofia. Because you'll have a satellite phone and access to all of the data you need."

Henry looked excited. "They'll want to work with us, not only because vetting candidates was our idea, but because no one else can pull it off the way we can. We have technology and data beyond what any of our competitors could offer." He turned to Sofia, who had joined them. "Are you with me?"

She nodded. It was hard not to get swept away by Henry's enthusiasm. "I can be the logistics person, keeping track of the details. Making sure we get back to them with answers and a final proposal."

Radha had also joined them, and he added, "This morning you said you suck at sales, but that isn't true. You've joined many industry organizations and special interest groups that you support. Several have brought work to us, because of the relationships you established. Your style isn't as flashy as Henry's, but it works equally well. You make people feel welcome and you build trust, at least..." He glanced between the two leaders. "At least, you when you aren't clashing with each other."

"The two of you remind me of when I first partnered with Peter on cases at the FBI," Neal said. "We clashed a lot, especially at first. His rules and methodical approach bored me, and my out-of-the-box thinking rattled him. We had to adapt and compromise. When we stopped resisting and started leaning on each other's strengths, we were unstoppable."

"Is there another way to organize the work?" Sara asked. "Dividing by your strengths and interests, and overlapping where you need to collaborate?"

That suggestion prompted Radha to lead them back to the conference room, where he started making a list on the whiteboard. Strengths and interests were mapped to job duties, until they had a roughly even list for Henry and Sofia.

"Nice work," Henry said as he reviewed the proposal. He looked particularly pleased with himself.

Neal recognized the look and replayed the day's events in his mind. "You played us," he accused.

Henry grinned. "You and Sara aren't just new team members. You have key roles here. I needed Radha and Anna to see what you bring to the table. Having you all solve a problem together was the obvious thing to do."

"Were you in on it?" Sara asked Sofia.

"Henry and I set up a script for this morning, an argument for all of you to overhear."

"Knowing we couldn't resist the mystery," Sara said.

"It was real, though," Sofia said. "Henry and I have been at odds about how to lead this branch, especially as we add more staff and new types of work. We wanted another perspective, and we trust the four of you."

"And the last minute request from Senator Morales?" Neal asked.

"That was a surprise to me," Sofia said. She turned toward Henry.

"Totally unplanned," he said. "And that made it perfect. It upped the urgency. I expected we'd need another day to make a breakthrough. Instead we have a brilliant plan and it isn't even 5pm yet."

"Maybe tomorrow we can decide which one of you should be CEO," Neal joked.

Henry and Sofia glanced at each other.

"Have you already figured it out?" Sara asked.

"I don't want to be CEO," Henry said.

"Me neither," Sofia said. "Everyone who wants Henry to take the lead says it's because he's so creative."

"But I can't focus on the creative part if I'm also bogged down with the details of the day-to-day operations," Henry objected. "And the CEO has to be on top of stuff like that."

"Can you split the job?" Neal suggested. "Instead of having a CEO, have a Chief Innovator and a Chief Organizer?"