EDGE OF ANARCHY

Copyright © 2018 by David Archer.

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Published by: David Archer

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ONE

THREE

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY-TWO

EPILOGUE

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ONE

Noah’s phone rang, snapping him instantly out of sleep. He grabbed it quickly, before its ringing could awaken his wife, Sarah.

“Camelot,” he said.

“Camelot, it’s Allison. We’ve got a new mission brewing, and I’m afraid your team is up. Briefing at oh nine thirty.”

The line went dead without waiting for him to respond, so he turned and looked at the beauty sleeping beside him. She had been snuggled up against him as he slept and felt him move. One eye was open and peering at him through a tuft of her own hair.

“There’s a new mission,” Noah said. “We’ve got the briefing in an hour.” He glanced at the time on his phone. “Let’s get a shower and go grab some breakfast on the way.”

“Mmm, why can’t I just stay in bed? You don’t need me for the briefing, you can just go by yourself and then come back and tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t think that would work out very well. Come on, get up, it’s shower time.”

Sarah rolled over and got her feet onto the floor, then forced herself to a standing position. “Okay, okay,” she said, “I’m up. Come on, I’ll get the water set the way we like it.” She made her way into the bathroom, and Noah heard the shower begin to run. He stripped out of the shorts he’d worn to bed and padded in behind her, stepping through the curtain and into the nice, hot water.

When they were finished, Noah returned to the bedroom while she put on her makeup, and began laying out clothes for himself and Sarah. Sarah got a kick out of letting him choose her clothing and so he tried to do it every day when they were not on mission. This would be the last chance he’d have for a while, he was sure, so he decided to make it count. When she came out a few moments later and found the low-cut blouse and short skirt he had selected, she stared at him as he got into his own jeans and polo, but then put them on.

Fifteen minutes later, they were dressed and had gone to the kitchen to make coffee. Noah poured them each a cup when it was ready and he sat down at the table across from her.

“Allison’s gonna look at me funny when she sees this outfit, you know,” Sarah said.

“So will Neil and Marco,” Noah replied, “but nobody’s going to say anything. They’ll all figure you’re trying to turn me on, and any men in the room will just enjoy the view.”

The grin she had been trying to hold back suddenly escaped onto her face. “I think you like it when you see guys looking at me,” she said. “Yeah, yeah, I know you never feel jealousy, but I’m pretty sure there’s something about it that makes you feel good, or something like that. Pride, maybe?”

Noah picked up his coffee and took a sip. “Well, all the guys do seem to get into much better moods when you’re dressed in a sexy outfit.”

She chuckled. “Noah, that’s absolutely terrible. You should be ashamed, but I know you’re not.”

They drank their coffee and headed out the door. Noah wasn’t surprised to see Neil and Jenny coming out of the trailer that sat on his property.

“Ready to go back to work?” Jenny called across to them. “I sure am. I’m getting antsy.”

“I’d rather be in England,” Sarah said with a grin, “but work is work. Maybe this one won’t be as wild as the last time.”

Allison Peterson, a.k.a. the Dragon Lady, was the absolute head of the U.S. agency that was known simply as Elimination and Eradication. Her job required her to decide whether or not to send an assassin to terminate the life of a particular individual or group of individuals. Other agencies submitted requests for assassination to her, with a complete and detailed dossier on why they believed that assassination was necessary. If she approved the request, she personally assigned the mission to an operative who worked directly for her. Noah Wolf was one of those operatives.

Each assassin had a three person support team that consisted of a transportation specialist, an intelligence specialist and a weapons and combat specialist. All of them were under the command of their team leader, and it was their job to make sure that their team leader was able to carry out his or her mission.

Noah, however, was Allison’s special operative, and his team was constructed accordingly. After some recent events, another assassin had been reassigned to work with him. Her name was Jenny Lance, and her own codename was Cinderella. Jenny had once run her own team, but her addition to Team Camelot had created a team that could handle the most improbable missions, and Allison had wisely decided to keep that special team together. Jenny’s old team had been reassigned to a new assassin.

Sarah was not only Noah’s wife, she was also his transportation officer and one of the best drivers he had ever seen. The girl could handle absolutely anything on wheels, and better than anyone else. When she had been assigned to him almost a year earlier, she had been aloof and resistant to even the slightest possibility of friendship, but as she got to know him that reluctance turned into attraction. They had begun a relationship not long afterward, and after a particularly rough mission a couple of months earlier, Sarah had given up her own apartment and moved in permanently with Noah.

Noah was, in Allison’s words, the superstar of the organization. Because of something tragic that happened in his childhood, Noah Wolf had no normal, detectable emotions. This meant that he could not be baited into an emotional response, such as with anger or jealousy, but could always make his decisions based entirely on a clear and logical understanding of the situation. Of course, it also meant that he had no conscience, and was capable of doing whatever had to be done without any feelings of guilt or recriminations. He was extremely intelligent and could often take a mission that seemed impossible and turn it into success.

It was his lack of emotion that had originally caused Sarah to want little to do with him, but it was that same lack of emotion that finally drew her closer. Noah wondered occasionally if she considered him a challenge, if she was trying to get through to him in a way that no other woman ever had. Considering that she was the only woman he had ever truly wanted to be with for more than a very short time, he had to believe that she was accomplishing at least some part of that goal. He still didn’t feel any true emotional attachment to her, but he had conceded that he preferred living in a world that had her in it. That had twice caused him to walk into deadly traps in order to recover her from an enemy who had taken her hostage.

They got to the office in plenty of time and parked in the underground garage, then rode the elevator up to Allison’s offices. Julie Stinson, Allison’s current secretary, smiled and waved at them as they walked past her toward the conference room where briefings always took place.

The door was open, and they weren’t surprised to find Marco Turin already there and snacking on the doughnuts that were always available during the briefings. Allison was sitting at the head of the conference table, and Donald Jefferson, her second-in-command, was beside her.

Allison looked on with a smile as Sarah brought Noah a paper plate with two doughnuts and a cup of coffee. “There is a rather dangerous situation that has been developing over the last few months, and it seems to be finally coming to a head. I’m sure you keep track of the stories in the news about terrorist groups and the threats they are presenting to so many Western nations, but there is a new group that has made an appearance on the scene and is causing quite a knuckle. Over just the past few months, they’ve been responsible for hundreds of attacks on civilian populations, far more than even the better-known organizations, and none of us have been able to figure out where they are getting all of their funding, personnel and equipment. The group is known as PRA, which stands for People’s Revolutionary Army, and they have been causing unbelievable instability in several European nations by committing sometimes absolutely terrifying atrocities. PRA and their allies have been behind literally hundreds of terrorist actions, from suicide bombers to blowing airliners out of the sky. Most of their activities have been particularly evil because they tend to target civilians, and they seem to make a special effort to target children. In the last six months alone, these sons of bitches have blown up more than a dozen schools scattered around half a dozen European countries. CIA and NSA have both been working with British and European agencies, monitoring their activities for quite some time, but it’s been almost impossible to find out who was in charge of the organization. However, CIA has recently come across some intelligence that points clearly to a man named Peter Newsom being the man who’s been running the group.”

Donald Jefferson leaned forward as a black-haired and bearded face appeared on the screen mounted on the wall behind him. “Newsom was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1964, but his family moved to Wales and settled in Cardiff when he was only four years old. He was raised there, then returned to the U.S. when he was eighteen, went to MIT and then joined the Army. He served one tour of duty in the infantry, and then was sent to the Army’s Special Warfare School, where he received extensive antiterrorism training. He served with honor and distinction for eight years with the Rangers, then left the military to enter the private sector, offering private security services; you can translate that to operating a mercenaries-for-hire operation. It was during that time that he seems to have begun building some international contacts, which led to arranging the sale of weapons to various revolutionary groups. From there, he went on to even bigger deals, negotiating weapons sales between various countries, and he’s been doing quite well for himself in that field ever since. He moved to Brazil about ten years ago, but he’s only at his home there for a few days every week. The rest of the time, he’s flying around the world in one of several private jets as he conducts his business.”

The picture on the screen changed to another man, this one with blond hair and whiskers, and Jefferson went on. “This is

Adam Jermaine. He was recently identified in some spy photos taken at a training camp for Islamic militants in Chad, and he was spotted there with an awful lot of American money. A CIA operative was able to mark some of that money with an invisible, slightly radioactive chemical, and a significant amount of it has been turning up in Europe in the hands of known terror suspects that have been arrested or put under surveillance. From interrogation, we learned that Jermaine has been delivering money and explosives to a number of such groups, so when he turned up in Rio de Janeiro two weeks ago he was spotted because of being on a watch list. Care to guess who he met with?”

“Newsom, obviously,” Noah said.

“Exactly,” Jefferson said. “And when he left, on one of Newsom’s private jets, he seems to have had a lot more money with him. Some of the terror suspects have admitted that they were receiving money from PRA, and since we now have reason to believe that the money is actually coming from Newsom, it looks like he just might be the elusive mastermind everyone has been trying to track down for the last few years.”

Noah nodded. “So, I gather the mission is to take him out?”

“Not necessarily,” Allison said. “Noah, we need to find out everything we possibly can about Newsom and his operation. Yes, we’re going to want him eliminated, but first we need to find out exactly what his organization has planned.”

Noah’s eyebrows went up slightly. “This is an intelligence gathering mission, then?”

“Yes, but that isn’t all,” Allison said emphatically. “PRA has been trying to contact an assassin, a woman out of Germany. We don’t know what the contract is that they want to offer, and it’s imperative that we find out. Even with Newsom gone, the PRA may still be viable, so we need to know just who it is that they are wanting to eliminate.”

She turned to Jenny. “Sometime back, Noah had to impersonate an assassin in order to learn who the target was that he was employed to kill. This time, Jenny, it’s going to be you.”

Jenny’s face lit up. “Me? Who is this assassin I’m supposed to impersonate?”

“Nobody knows for sure, but she goes by the name of Victoria. Unfortunately, we don’t have the kind of intel that we had when Noah had to impersonate Adrian, and about the only thing we do know is that she is an American with a Midwestern accent, like yours. What we do have is a lot of conjecture about the type of person she is, and considerable information about assassinations she has pulled off in the past. You’ll be going out to Mission ID to work with our acting coach, so that you can start to get a handle on how to convince Newsom that you are Victoria.”

“What about us?” Marco asked. “Did this Victoria have a team? Where do the rest of us fit in on this mission?”

“As backup,” Jefferson said. “From everything we can determine, Victoria worked completely alone. She is rumored to have been quite a beautiful woman, and only a bit older than Jenny is. We’re fairly sure that no one at PRA was ever able to make direct contact with her, and we can be absolutely certain they won’t in the future, because the Mossad claims that they blew her up last week, when she was stupid enough to attempt to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. He was on vacation in the Mediterranean, and the report says she attempted to get onto his yacht. She and her boat were blown to smithereens.”

“Wow,” Jenny said. “They get pretty serious, don’t they?”

“Nobody knows for sure precisely what the PRA wants her for,” Allison said, “but there are several rumors floating around. Some of them indicate she was being recruited to take out a ranking American military officer, but we heard of one report that the target was none other than the new—thanks to your recent efforts—President of the United States. There’s very little doubt that PRA would like to eliminate the president, but we haven’t been able to pick up any official, verifiable chatter to confirm that he could be the target. This is one of the reasons it’s so important to actually infiltrate their organization. After losing the President and so many ranking politicians in your last mission, the country really can’t afford another major shakeup on the political arena, right now.”

“What about the messages that were sent to Victoria?” Noah asked. “Do we have any idea how she was supposed to get into contact with them?”

“Yes,” Jefferson replied, “because the PRA uses a particular method of communication. While you, Noah, had to use newspaper ads to make contact, Jenny will have to meet a PRA representative face-to-face. In this case, she’ll be meeting with Peter Newsom, himself.”

“When and where?” Noah asked.

“Five days from now,” Allison said. “He’ll be at a party in Miami, and she’s going to have to approach him and identify herself while he’s there. Jenny, you’ll identify yourself as Victoria, at which time Newsom will probably offer you a test contract. There’s no way to know who it is he will want to use as a test target, but you will most likely have to carry it out. I’m authorizing you to kill anyone necessary to get yourself in tight with him, but I want you to run it past Noah, first. If it turns out to be an innocent party or someone who might be valuable to us, we might decide to simply snatch and erase them, instead.”

Noah and Jenny both nodded. “So where do we start?” Noah asked.

Allison smiled. “You start with Jenny going out to visit with Gary Mitchell at Mission ID. He’s going to start coaching her on how to become Victoria, and the rest of you will begin preparing by studying up on Newsom and the PRA.”

“We’re going to give you,” Jefferson said, “the usual identity kits, but of course they’re for use only in travel and such. Anyone who believes you to be Victoria won’t expect you to be using a real name on identification, anyway, so you should only need them for hotels or if you happen to be pulled over by local police.”

“Okay, no problem,” Jenny said. “And if it turns out Newsom is not the head guy? How long do you want me to pretend I’m going to take whatever contract they offer?”

Allison made a grimace and cocked her head slightly to the left. “Probably as long as you can. Depending on the contract, you may have to actually carry it out to maintain your cover. This is the first chance any of us have had to get somebody inside that organization, and we can’t afford to let the opportunity slip away. If we can cut off the head, it’s possible this is a snake that will actually wither and die.”

“Then that’s what I’ll try to do,” Noah said.

“One other thing,” Allison said. “You’re going to be mostly on your own with this one. We’re providing you with ample financing through the credit cards we’re giving you, but we won’t be able to use many of our assets to help you out, once you leave. Victoria worked independent of any government or organization, always arranging anything she needed on her own. We’ll give you contact information for a few of our people who aren’t directly affiliated with any embassy or agency, of course, and you can use them to get weapons, equipment and such. Other than that, you have to stay away from any American agents. Can’t risk anyone spotting you talking to them, it’s always possible they’ve been identified.” She smiled sadly. “If stopping PRA wasn’t so important, we probably would have refused this mission. As it is, you’re the only team that has a chance of actually pulling it off, or I wouldn’t have given it to you. I can’t afford to lose you, Noah, so whatever you do, you make sure you come back. We’re down to only three teams, and I don’t know how long it will be before we can resurrect any of the others. Don’t let this become a suicide mission.”

“Understood. I guarantee I’ll do my best.”

Jefferson passed out the wallets and files, while Allison handed a large purse to Sarah. The two of them whispered over the contents for a few minutes, and Noah couldn’t help noticing that they giggled like a couple of schoolgirls at times. On their last assignment, Sarah had been given an engagement ring to wear, posing as Noah’s fiancé. He found himself wondering what surprise Allison had given the girl this time.

THREE

The five of them left the briefing room and headed back to Noah’s place. When they got there, they gathered in his dining room to talk the situation over.

“Jenny,” Noah said, “you’re scheduled to spend this afternoon and tomorrow with Gary out at Mission ID, learning whatever they can teach you about Victoria. I’m assuming we’re going to fly out sometime early Thursday, so we all need to study the files on the PRA and Peter Newsom, so the rest of us can work on that while you’re busy out there. You’ll just have to catch up what you can in the evenings. Marco, you and I will be choosing the weapons or equipment that we need to take along. I’m thinking Glocks for you and me, Rugers for Sarah and Neil, a couple of the Paratus take-down sniper rifles.” He turned to Jenny. “Jenny, anything in particular you want us to get for you?”

“I like my little Kimber,” Jenny said. “Problem is, it sounds like Victoria likes to do things up close and personal. I’m not sure a gun is going to be all that useful.”

“That could be true,” Noah said. “I think you should bring it along, anyway, and your knives, of course. Can you think of anything else you might want?”

“Ask me this evening,” Jenny said. “First, I need to learn as much as I can about Victoria.”

“That makes sense. It’s important that you find out all you can about her previous assassinations. Remember to ask about techniques she might have used, because it’s quite possible Newsom already has that information. If he brings up previous assignments, you need to know what you’re talking about.”

Marco chuckled. “Hey, if there’s anybody who can pull off pretending to be a highly skilled female assassin, it’s Jenny. I mean, think about it, she’s really just going to be acting like herself.”

Jenny rolled her eyes and grinned at him. “Oh, trust me, there’s no doubt in my mind that I can pull this off,” she said. “I just don’t want to blow the mission for the rest of us, so I want to be sure I get her down as pat as possible.”

“That’s what’s important,” Noah said. “You better get on out there, and get to work. We’ll start studying the files on Newsom and the PRA.”

“Hang on a minute,” Neil said. “Hasn’t anybody but me noticed that it’s getting close to lunchtime?”

Jenny glanced at the clock on the wall and smiled. “Neil, it’s just barely 11 o’clock. Didn’t you get full on doughnuts this morning?”

“Not really,” he said. “You know me, I like the cream-filled longjohns, and they didn’t have any of those this morning. I can’t help it if I’m still hungry.”

Marco grinned and knuckled his shoulder. “You’re always hungry,” he said. “Come to think of it, I could probably stand an early lunch, myself. What do you say we go to Charlie’s and grab a bite to eat?”

Jenny and Sarah looked at Noah, who nodded. “That sounds fine,” he said. “It might be the last chance we get for a while.”

Neil got to his feet quickly. “Great,” he said. “We can all ride down there in the Hummer.”

“That’s all right,” Sarah said. “I don’t think I could take your driving today. We’ll just meet you there.”

Marco chuckled and announced that he would take his own car, so Noah and Sarah went out to get into the Corvette, while Neil and Jenny got into Jenny’s Jaguar, and then all three vehicles headed for Charlie’s in downtown Kirtland.

Charlie’s had recently become their current favorite restaurant, partly because of its proximity to the head office. They had discovered it a few months earlier, and it became a frequent hangout for many of the E & E personnel, since the owner and most of its staff were connected to the organization.

“Hey, gang,” the waitress said as she put glasses of water in front of each of them. “Glad you came by. I hear you’re getting ready to go out on a business trip, is that right?” Her name was Carolyn, and she actually worked part-time for E & E, herself, so she was cleared for general information about the organization and its missions.

“Yep,” Marco said. “Might be a long one, so I figured we ought to come by for lunch.”

“We don’t leave till Thursday,” Sarah said. “But poor little Neil was hungry, so we figured we should come grab a bite to eat.”

Since they all ate there fairly often, it didn’t take long for them to decide on what to order. Their mealtime chatter was casual and friendly, with Jenny and Neil spending a lot of the time talking between themselves. Jenny was barely five foot one, while Neil stood six-foot-five, and the two of them had a tendency to draw a lot of attention whenever they were out together. Noah and the others had gotten accustomed to the way they mooned over each other, and had learned to ignore them.

When they had finished eating, they headed back to Noah’s house and then started working on their individual agendas. Jenny dropped Neil off, then drove out to Mission ID. Marco headed for the armory to start gathering weapons, while Noah, Sarah and Neil sat down in their living room and began going over the files on PRA and Peter Newsom.

PRA was fairly new on the national scene, and while it had gotten itself a lot of publicity, most government agencies were not fully aware of it. Over the past few years, a lot of terrorist actions seemed to have connections back to it, but they were vague and often undefined. In many cases it was only money, but there was mounting evidence that the organization might be providing conventional weapons, explosives and even chemical weapons to known terrorist organizations. The CIA felt that this explained the fact that a lot of smaller terror cells, who simply didn’t have the people or assets necessary to make some of the explosive or chemical devices they had been using, were lately finding access to them.

The file on Newsom was actually pretty small. Until relatively recently, it had always been assumed that he was little more than he appeared to be. Despite the fact that he had made more than a billion dollars trading in weapons, there hadn’t been any credible evidence that he was doing anything illegal, or that he had any dealings with any known terrorist groups.

Now, it appeared that he had been funneling many such transactions through PRA, keeping them completely off of most government radars. By running them through intermediaries like Jermaine, he could personally avoid having any contact with organizations that might have exposed him to risk.

The same was true of his financial dealings. It was apparent that there were many accounts scattered throughout several countries that could be tapped for resources as needed, including right near his home in Brazil. There was little doubt that Jermaine had left his meeting with Newsom carrying a large amount of cash, and yet there were no financial records connected to Newsom showing any kind of transfers or withdrawals. None of the big government agencies had been able to determine how Newsom managed to have large amounts of currency in his possession, but it was clear that he had found a way.

“He’s got some kind of system set up,” Sarah said, “a way to move money around with nobody knowing how he does it. The CIA says they don’t have any idea how he’s getting his hands on so much cold, hard cash.”

“He spends a lot of time traveling,” Noah said. “It really wouldn’t be all that hard to pick up cash in different places, amounts small enough not to raise any radar flags, and then smuggle it back home. You could get an awful lot of money into the false bottom of a well-built suitcase, or it could be hidden inside souvenirs he brings home.”

Sarah looked at him. “I wonder why CIA hasn’t thought of that. Or, do you think they have and they just aren’t saying anything?”

Noah shrugged. “They probably have,” he said. “There could be a lot of reasons why they keep that under their hats.”

Sarah nodded. “Good point.” She read a bit further, then looked up at Noah again. “He definitely gets an awful lot of visitors, from all over the world. And it isn’t just the normal type of people you’d expect to be involved with mercenaries and arms dealers, it’s not just terrorists and criminals, there are people on this list who are big names in the business world. I can’t help but wonder how he had stayed off the radar all the way up until now. From what I’m seeing right here, the CIA has been watching him for quite some time. It’s a little hard to believe that none of these contacts set off any red flags, you know?”

“Look at the notes on the very back page. Apparently, these types of people are normal visitors for someone in his line of work, so that wasn’t necessarily any cause for alarm. Newsom has even gone through the motions of reporting contacts he thought might be suspicious to both the Brazilian and American governments. It looks like nobody was all that surprised.”

Neil cocked his head to the right. “Wait a minute, we’re talking about the CIA. Are you really going to tell me that they didn’t check out all these visitors of his? Those guys are absolutely paranoid about everyone, that wouldn’t make any sense.”

“You’re right,” Sarah said. “I’d bet there was at least some part of the CIA that was paying attention, but somehow fumbled when it came to connecting the dots. I can agree that any arms dealer is likely to be contacted by representatives of terrorist groups as well as legitimate military forces, but it’s quite a stretch to think the CIA would not bother to investigate at least some of these people.”

“That’s part of what Jenny is going to have to figure out,” Noah said. “By making contact with them as Victoria, she’s going to be in a position to learn some of the details of their operations. I just hope she can contain herself until we are absolutely certain that Newsom is the right target.”

Neil put down the folder he was studying and looked at him. “Noah, this thing has me worried a bit. If Newsom or any of his people think for a single moment that she’s not really Victoria, I don’t think she’s coming out of that party alive. I mean, think about it, wouldn’t they have people of their own there to watch her when she gets close to Newsom?”

“Without a doubt,” Noah said. “That’s why she has to get her act together quickly, and make sure that it’s as perfect as it possibly can be. On the other hand, there is no way in the world I’m going to let her go to that party alone. One of the things I want you to do, Neil, is get on your computer and find out everything you can about the event. If it takes invitations, I want you to figure out how to get or forge invitations for the rest of us. We are all going in with her.”

Neil and Sarah both stared at him for a long moment. “Thank you,” Neil said softly. “I was trying to figure out how to suggest that.”

Noah shrugged. “If it ever comes up again,” he said, “just ask.”

THREE

Jenny arrived at Mission ID just as most of the staff there was breaking for lunch. A security guard in the building checked her ID, made a quick phone call and then directed her to an office where she met Gary Mitchell.

“Jenny Lance, right?” Mitchell asked. “Come on in and make yourself comfortable. Have you had lunch yet?”

“Yes,” Jenny said. “Did I interrupt yours? I can come back later, if you want.”

Mitchell shook his head. “Oh, no,” he said. “I eat lunch at my desk, and I actually just finished it. I’m the acting coach for ID Development. Whenever any of our people have to impersonate someone, they send you out to me to give you some pointers on how to accomplish it. You have an advantage with this Victoria, because nobody knows what she looks like. We are at a disadvantage, however, because we don’t have any kind of information about how she acts or talks or walks or anything else. It’s basically going to be a matter of just adjusting your mindset into that of a killer. If we do it well, nobody should doubt that you are capable of committing these types of assassinations.”

Jenny stared at him. “Gary, you do know who I am, right? My codename is Cinderella.”

“Oh, yes, I know,” Mitchell said, his eyes suddenly going wide. “I didn’t mean to imply that you’re not capable of doing it, just that we want to work on projecting the image they’re expecting to see. Does that explain it better?”

Jenny grinned. “Okay, I can handle that, I guess. So, where do we start?”

“Well, I got hold of some information about some of her more well-publicized killings. I think the idea should be for you to study those carefully, and then try to tell me about them as if you’re describing something you did yourself.”

Jenny grinned. “That shouldn’t be difficult,” she said. She took the file that Mitchell handed to her and began reading through it. “Oh, this was a good one. I killed the deputy defense minister of England, by poisoning him with cyanide. And this one, where I killed the wife of the man who owned the biggest private bank in Germany, I shot her in the head in front of thirty different witnesses. That was a good one. The Russian general, I got him to let me into his hotel room and cut his throat.” She looked up at Mitchell. “Trust me, I’m not going to have any problem talking about these if they come up. This girl worked a lot like I do.”

“It sounds like it,” Mitchell said, suppressing a grin. “To be honest, Jenny, I don’t see how I can be a lot of help to you. I think what you ought to do is take that file with you and study it, and try to memorize all of the different cases. If you can do that, and discuss them in the way you just did if someone asked, that I think that’s pretty much going to put you where you need to be.”

“Okay, I can do that,” Jenny said. “Should I still come back tomorrow morning?”

“Yes, just so we can kind of go over it and play around a bit, to make sure you’ve got it covered. We’ll need to be as sure as possible that you can stay in this persona, so we’ll experiment with that a bit tomorrow.”

“Cool, I’ll see you then.” She picked up the file and left the office, waving at the security guard as she walked out the front door.

* * * * *

Marco had finished up at the armory, picking up the weapons Noah had requested, and then driven out to R&D. Wally looked up with a smile when he entered.

“Marco, right? Where’s Noah?”

Marco grinned and shook the hand Wally offered. “He’s getting ready for the next mission,” he said. “Decided to send me out as the errand boy. I’m supposed to talk to you about what kind of equipment we might need, but I got a couple of ideas of my own.”

“Okay,” Wally said. “I got an email from Allison about the mission, so I know the basics. What do you need?”

“Well, first off, we’re going to be basically running support for Jenny on this one. Number one priority in a case like that is going to be communications. We need a way to be able to keep in touch with her no matter what’s going on, so I’m thinking about wireless communications that she can keep on her all the time. Any suggestions?”

Wally giggled. “Oh, boy, do I ever! We’ve got something brand-new, and it’s ready for the field. Well, I shouldn’t say brand-new, there have been things like it before, but none that ever worked like this. Come on, let me show you.” Wally took off down the hall, and Marco hurried to follow.

They came to a door marked “Clandestine Communications,” and Wally used a key card to open it and led Marco inside. There were several people in the room, and the first thing Marco noticed was that it was incredibly quiet.

“Should we whisper in here?” Marco whispered.

Wally giggled again. “No, it’s not necessary. Just come on, let us show you what we’re doing here.”

He walked over to one of the people in the room, a young woman. “Judy, this is Marco. Can you tell Leo to come on over?”

The girl grinned at him, and her lips moved slightly. There was absolutely no sound, but a man across the room suddenly turned and looked at her, then hurried over to Wally.

“You wanted me, sir?” he asked.

“Yes,” Wally said with a grin. “This is Marco. Marco, did you notice that Judy didn’t say anything out loud at all?”

“I did,” Marco said. “In fact, I couldn’t tell that she actually said anything. She didn’t make a sound, and I couldn’t even read her lips at all. This is something that doesn’t actually need sound?”

“Bingo,” Wally said. “I call it digital telepathy, but that’s not really accurate. Properly, it would be called a subcutaneous communication system, so we call it subcom. Everybody in this room has this little implant, a microchip gizmo that they developed right here. It draws its power directly from the electrochemical reactions in the body, so there’s no battery to recharge or anything, and it allows those who have it to transmit and receive messages. You don’t have to speak aloud, because it can actually read the slightest whisper, so low that someone standing right next to you can’t hear a thing, and it converts that into sound that is delivered directly to the bone of the skull right next to the eardrum. Nobody else can hear a thing, but you can hear the message crystal clear. Right, Leo?”

“Yes, sir,” Leo said. “The chip has five channels, and you can switch between them verbally. It’s got a microprocessor built right into it that can understand a dozen different commands, so you can tell it to switch from one channel to another, mute its microphonic processor, mute its sound reproduction processor, raise or lower the volume, all that kind of stuff, and if you crank the microphonic processor’s sensitivity all the way up, you can even let other people on your channel hear almost everything you can hear. It’ll pick up voices from people you’re talking to, so someone monitoring can hear both sides of the conversation. Right now, all of us are on one channel, so we can talk directly to each other this way.”

He glanced away for a second, and his lips moved silently. Another young woman across the room picked up a glass that was sitting on a table and carried it over to hand to him.

“This is Linda, and I just asked her to bring me my glass of tea. We’ve gotten so used to having these that we don’t even bother speaking aloud, most of the time. At least, while we’re here at work.”

“That’s pretty impressive,” Marco said. “How hard is it to implant one of those?”

“Well, it has to be in contact with the cranial bones right beside the ear, so there’s a tiny little incision that has to be made. It’s less than an eighth of an inch, though, and a dot of surgical superglue is all it takes to seal it and make it invisible. It doesn’t really hurt, but that spot might be a little sore for a day or two. The nice thing is that it starts working instantly, as soon as it’s in place.”

“What kind of range does it have? How close do you have to be to talk to each other?”

“It’s actually pretty surprising,” Leo said. “Out in the open, we can talk to each other over about a half mile range. Now, here inside the buildings, we tend to find that range cut down to about 1200 feet. If there were a lot of metal between us, that might reduce it by another 15 to 20%.”

“Okay, here’s another question. Can you turn it off, so nobody’s listening in on your private moments?”

“Oh, yes,” Leo said with a grin. “Again, you just tell it to turn off, then tell it to turn on again when you’re ready to use it, or there is an emergency override; you can tell it, ‘activate all,’ and it will instantly turn on every other subcom unit within range. That’s so that you won’t miss an emergency message from one of your teammates, or you can broadcast one to all of them at once.”

Marco turned to Wally. “Well, I’m impressed. It’s up to Noah, of course, but I think this is something we’ve needed for a long time.”

“We’ve been working on it for a couple of years,” Wally said. “It’ll give teams like yours a way to keep in constant communication when you’re out on a mission, so I’ve sort of been pushing it. You think Noah will like the idea?”

“Wally, come on,” Marco said. “To Noah, everything is about logic. I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t think this was an extremely logical tool for us to have at our disposal.”

Wally giggled again, and rubbed his hands together. “Then, come on,” he said. “I’ve got something else to show you.”

They left the communications room and went further down the hall, where Wally opened another door and walked in. This room was notable for all of the video displays that were mounted on the walls, each of them showing a different view. Wally motioned for one of the technicians inside to come over, and then he pointed at a particular monitor.

Marco looked at the monitor, and was surprised to see himself and Wally on the screen, but he was even more surprised to see that they were growing. As the technician walked toward them, the view of them on the screen grew larger.

“That guy is wearing a camera, right?” Marco asked.

Wally’s giggle was starting to get on Marco’s nerves, but he was too polite to say so. “He is, but I bet you can’t spot it. Go ahead, try.”

The scientist had stopped right in front of them, and was wearing a slight grin. Marco looked him over, but Wally was right. He couldn’t see anything that could possibly be a video camera.

“Okay, I give,” he said. “Where is it hidden?”

“It’s in my eyes,” the technician said. “What you’re seeing on the screen is a video image transmitted by the contact lens I’m wearing in my right eye. To me, it’s completely transparent, but there is a micro camera built into the part of it that is over the iris of my eye. If you look closely, it looks like a slight imperfection in the iris, a black dot, but it’s actually the camera. With it in place, it can transmit a video image up to 100 meters to a receiver that can be hooked up to a television, or even to a smartphone with a special app installed.”

Marco’s eyes were wide. “So, if Jenny was wearing one of these, we could actually see what she’s seeing?”

“Yes, yes,” Wally said excitedly. “And we’ve also got a special pair of sunglasses that can receive the video, so that Noah, or you or whoever, could wear them and keep track of what she’s looking at.”

“That’s true,” the technician said, “but Wally forgets to mention that it can be hard to differentiate between what you’re really seeing through the glasses and what is being put on the display. In practical use, we’ve learned that it’s best to be sitting or standing perfectly still when you wear the glasses. Just thought I’d throw that out there.”

“I think I better call Noah,” Marco said. “He needs to come look at this right now.”

FOUR

Jenny got back to Noah’s house just as Marco called to tell him about all of the exciting new gadgets he was seeing. Noah agreed that both the implanted communication system and the video transmitting contact lenses sounded like good ideas, so they all climbed into Neil’s Hummer and headed for R&D.

Wally and Marco were waiting in the foyer when they arrived, and took them straight back to the Clandestine Communications lab.

“I think you’re going to love this,” Marco said. “It blew my mind, and it strikes me as exactly what we need. This is a way we can all stay in touch with each other, all the time when we’re out on a mission.”

As they had done before, Leo, Judy and Linda demonstrated their ability to communicate with each other silently, and Noah admitted immediately that he was impressed. He decided to test them a bit, having Sarah take Linda into another room off the main lab, and then giving Leo questions for Linda to ask Sarah. Each response came back perfect, and Noah turned to Wally.

“How long would it take to get us set up with this?” he asked.

“No time at all,” Wally said. “We could actually do it right now.”

Noah looked at him for a second or two, then nodded. “Let’s do it. All of us.”

Wally barked orders, and Leo and Judy got busy. Noah decided to go first, and was taken into another room where he lay face down on a table. His face went into a padded recess, so that they had access to the area just behind his right ear.

Leo swabbed on Betadine solution, and then injected a local anesthetic.  He gave it a minute to take effect, then made a tiny incision just behind Noah’s ear, and used a tiny set of forceps to push the microchip up against the briefly exposed bone. He wiped away the tiny bit of blood that had leaked out, applied the surgical glue and pronounced the job complete. The whole thing had taken less than three minutes, and Noah got up from the table.

“The anesthetic will wear off in an hour or so,” he heard, though Leo had not spoken aloud. “I put myself on the same channel as you for the moment, so that I could demonstrate it directly. Can you hear me okay?”

Noah replied by sub vocalizing, barely even whispering. “There’s a very slight echo sound. I’m guessing that’s just because it’s inside my head, rather than coming from outside?”

Leo smiled. “That’s right,” he said. “That makes it easy to tell whether you’re hearing through the device, or actual outside sounds. The difference in the way it sounds helps to avoid any confusion on that point.”

Twenty minutes later, all of them were outfitted with the devices. They had been coached on how to change channels and adjust the volume, and were quietly experimenting amongst themselves.

“Ready to see the contact lens?” Wally asked.

“Yes,” Noah said. “Wally, I think this is one of the best things you’ve come up with yet.”

Wally giggled. “It’s really awesome, isn’t it? I have one myself, and I’m thinking about making everybody out here get one. I think it would be awesome if I could talk to everybody in the department this way.”

Noah stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “But you might need more channels.”

They followed Wally to the video lab and Noah was equally impressed with what the contact lens could do.

“How is it powered?” he asked.

“It has an ultra miniature battery that is recharged by the case that it’s kept in when you take it out at night. The case doesn’t look any different from any other contact lens case, but it has a much bigger battery that can keep recharging the lens for up to a month.”

“And how long can it transmit on a single charge?”

“Well, there is a bit of a limit on that,” Wally said. “The lens battery is only good for about five hours before it has to be recharged. It takes about an hour to recharge it, so as long as you have the case with you, it’s possible to charge it up and put it back in.”

“Is there a way to turn it off? To conserve the battery?”

“Not with this one,” Wally said. “The next generation will probably have that ability, but this one comes on as soon as you take it away from the charger.”

They set Jenny down in a chair, and one of the technicians showed her how to take the lens out of the case, rinse it off with a saline solution and put it into her eye. She put it in and removed it a couple of times, picking up the ability easily, and then another technician sent each of them the app that would allow them to watch the video on their phones.

“Marco said something about glasses?” Noah asked Wally.

“Yes,” Wally replied. “They look like conventional glasses when you’re inside, but they’re polarized so that they turn into sunglasses when you get out into bright light.”

A pair was instantly produced, and Noah put them on. Wally showed him the little stud on the side of the earpiece that turned them on, and Noah activated them.

The display appeared in the left lens of the glasses, holographically placed to make it clearly visible. To Noah’s eye, the image appeared to be some distance away, rather than only an inch away from his eyeball. The glasses were paired to the lens Jenny was wearing, so he saw himself in the image as she looked toward him.

He turned off the glasses and put them into his pocket. “Wally, you’ve outdone yourself. I think these are exactly what we need.”

“Glad to help, glad to help,” Wally said. “Can you think of anything else you might need?”

Noah shook his head. “Not at the moment,” he said. “We’ve got a couple days, so I’ll be in touch if we do.”

They all headed back to Noah’s house, and Sarah looked at him as they rode in the back seat of the Hummer. “Hey,” she said. “Think we can take the boat out for a while this afternoon? We haven’t been out on it in a while.”

“That actually sounds like a pretty good idea,” Noah said.

“Hey, I’m in,” Jenny said. “Sarah, we can sunbathe on the deck.”

Sarah grinned. “Exactly what I had in mind,” she said.

Despite the fact that it was only mid spring, the sun was shining brightly and the air was warm. All of them got dressed in shorts and T-shirts, and they packed a cooler full of sandwiches and soft drinks that Marco carried down to the boathouse. Noah started up the big Mercury engine and backed the boat carefully out of its slip, then gave it power as they moved out to open water.

“I’m supposed to memorize the killings Victoria has done in the past,” Jenny said, “and then I’m supposed to go back out to Mission ID tomorrow morning so that guy can grill me on it, see if I remembered it properly.”

Sarah grimaced. “I always hated having to memorize things in school,” she said. “I’ve got a good memory, but I didn’t like being forced to work. Seems like I would always get it wrong, not matter how I tried.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Noah said. “From what you said, Victoria doesn’t sound a whole lot different from you.”

“Hey,” Neil said suddenly, “that’s my girlfriend you’re talking about. Don’t be comparing her to a psychopathic serial killer.” He looked at Jenny. “Oh, wait,” he said, “she is a psychopathic serial killer. Okay, go ahead and compare.”

Marco smacked him playfully on the back of his head. “You’re such a dweeb,” he said. “I don’t think Jenny would consider that anything other than a compliment.”

Neil grinned at him, and Jenny leaned against Neil. “It’s a compliment,” she said. “This Victoria, she’s actually pulled off some pretty incredible hits. And stop hitting my boyfriend or you might find out just how much like her I really am.”

The banter continued throughout the evening, and all five of them seemed to enjoy the outing. Noah called it a night when the air began cooling enough that the girls were occasionally shivering and took them back to the boathouse. Thirty minutes later, after Marco had gone home and Jenny and Neil had made their way to the trailer, he and Sarah were alone once again.

“I’m a little nervous about this mission,” Sarah said. “I know Jenny has actually run her own team before, but this will be the first time she’s had any kind of leadership role with us. What happens if she decides not to follow your orders?”

“I think she’s professional enough to handle things,” Noah said. “She didn’t have any problem following my orders when we were trying to get you back from the Chinese, so I’m not anticipating a problem. She did fine on the last mission, too, even with the nightmare fiasco it turned out to be. It isn’t often that any soldier is forced to assassinate his own commander-in-chief, let alone a fair sized slice of the government.”

Sarah nodded. “Yeah, she did okay,” she said. “I just wish the news would let up on that story. The political pundits are using it to try to claim we’ve become a police state, and that Delta Force is the new secret police. Too bad they got the blame for all the bodies you had to drop.”

“They’re big boys,” Noah said. “I think they can handle the heat.”

Sarah grinned at him. “And, speaking of heat,” she said, “I’m going to start the shower. You coming?”

Morning came on schedule and Noah let Sarah sleep in. He took another shower quickly and slipped out, then went to the kitchen and started breakfast. He had just gotten the coffee on when he heard a knock on the front door, and opened it to find Neil standing there.

“Jenny had to go back out to Mission ID,” he said, “so I thought I’d come on over and hang with you for a while.”

“Come on in,” Noah said. “I got the coffee on, and I’m about to scramble some eggs.”

Neil grinned. “Good. I didn’t feel like going out for breakfast, but this will work.”

At Mission ID, Gary Mitchell had been waiting patiently for Jenny. He smiled when she walked in and pointed at a chair.

“Ready to go? I made notes on a lot of her jobs, so I can ask some intelligent questions.”

Jenny nodded. “Go for it,” she said. “I bet I don’t miss anything.”

“Okay, try this,” Mitchell said. “Who did you kill in June of last year?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Jenny said. “That was Tariq Saheed, a general in the Iraqi military. I was hired by the man who ended up getting the job to replace him.”

“Geez, that was dead on.” Mitchell shook his head. “Let’s try another one. How did you kill Helmut Hauser?”

“With a twenty-two. Single shot to the back of the head. One of my favorite methods, but I think everybody knows that.”

“And who hired you to do it?” Mitchell asked.

Jenny grinned at him. “Now, wouldn’t it be bad for me to tell you who hired me? Haven’t you ever heard of killer-client privilege? I keep that to myself.”

Mitchell smiled. “That’s a good answer,” he said.

For three hours, Mitchell fed her questions, and she answered every one perfectly. By the time they were finished, he was acting as if he was truly amazed.

“I don’t think there’s anything else I can do for you,” he said at last. “You’ve got this down perfect, as far as I can tell.”

Jenny grinned and shook the hand that Mitchell extended to her. “I think I can handle it all,” she said. “On the other hand, if she’s supposed to be not much older than me, she’s been one busy girl.”

“That’s the truth,” he said. “I counted twenty-seven kills in less than three years. I doubt you’ve had that many successful missions.”

“That depends on how you count the bodies,” he said. “I took out quite a few last year when we went to rescue Sarah. That wasn’t me doing it up close and personal, though, it was more like some kind of battlefield.”

It was almost noon, so Jenny said goodbye and drove back to Noah’s place in the hopes of getting there in time for lunch. She made it, and with a half an hour to spare. Sarah had decided to make beef stew, and Jenny was delighted to find that there was plenty to go around.

“Well, Mr. Mitchell says I’m ready,” she said. “So far, this has been pretty easy. All I really have to do is be myself, but pretend I did all these things that Victoria did. That just isn’t very hard.”

“Not for you, it isn’t,” she heard inside her head. Her eyes went wide, and she had to look around to figure out that it was Neil who had subvocalized the message to her.

He grinned, and she said-whispered back, “Oh, this could be fun.”

“Yes,” she heard, and she could tell that it was Sarah, “except that you are broadcasting. Noah and I can hear you, as well, so keep it clean, kids.”

Jenny laughed so hard she snorted, but Neil turned slightly pink.

“The whispering makes it a little hard to tell who’s talking,” Noah said. “I suggest that when we use this, we start by saying who is speaking.”

“Like this,” Neil said with a grin. His lips moved silently, and they all heard, “Neil to Noah, you’ve got gravy on your shirt.”

Sarah, Jenny and Noah all looked at his shirt, but saw nothing.

“Just kidding,” Neil said. “I just think that should be the way to handle it. Say who’s speaking and who we are talking to as we start each statement.”

“I agree,” Noah said. “That should be the best way to handle it.”

“So, you’re done at at Mission ID?” Sarah asked.

“Yes, but I probably should keep working on making sure I got all this memorized. Neil, you can help me with that later on.”

Neil nodded. “No problemo,” he said. “I’ll be glad to, honey.”

They finished lunch and decided to relax for a while. Marco showed up shortly after they had finished eating, and they practiced using the silent communication method. Within half an hour, they were all easily transitioning into the format they had decided to use, and then they began to experiment with range.

It took only a short time to figure out that Neil and Jenny could hear the others even when they were over at the trailer. Despite the fact that the trailer was covered in metal, the signal came through loud and clear.

“You’re just going to have to make sure you mute it every night,” Sarah said with a grin, when they came back. “The last thing I need is to listen to you two being all lovey-dovey.”

“Speak for yourself, girl,” Jenny said. “You guys get pretty romantic yourselves, sometimes.”

“Yeah, but we’re married,” Sarah said, sticking out her tongue. “We can get away with it.”

FIVE

Their flight took off a few minutes late the next morning and landed four hours later in Miami. They rented three separate cars, with Jenny taking one, Neil and Marco in another and Noah and Sarah in the third. Jenny wasn’t due to meet with Newsom until the following evening, but Noah wanted time to check out the place where the party would be held and look for potential dangers. They checked in to their rooms and gathered for lunch in the hotel restaurant. Neil had done some research before they left, so they had already located the venue where the party would be held.

“The place is called Intuition,” he said. “It’s a nightclub on Biscayne Boulevard, the kind of place where music is loud and the dancers are crazy enough to make you wonder why you got on the dance floor.”

“Oh,” Jenny said, “sounds like my kind of place. Is it open this afternoon?”

“It opened at eleven, doesn’t close until 2 AM.” Neil looked at Noah. “Think we ought to go and check it out?”

“That’s the whole reason for coming early,” Noah said. “Sarah, Marco and I will go and look it over. I don’t want Jenny seen there until the party tomorrow. For all we know, Newsom could have people watching the place.”

“Oh, come on,” Jenny said. “I’ll put on a wig and sunglasses, nobody will know it’s me.”

Noah looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “All right, but only in disguise.”

Sarah grinned at Jenny. “Hey, this could be fun,” she said. “Music and dancing, and a couple of drinks.”

They finished up their lunch, then went back to their rooms. Jenny always carried a couple of wigs with her, so it took only a few minutes to get into her disguise. They met up at Noah and Sarah’s room, and Noah agreed that she looked just different enough not to be easily recognizable.

“We’ll all go,” he said. “Jenny, you need to wander around by yourself, just get a feel for the place. Marco, you and Neil can hang out together, while Sarah and I try to act like a normal couple. We’ll all spend a half-hour just casing the place, looking for the most likely spots a threat could come from. After that, we can slowly gravitate together. Neil, you and Jenny can flirt with each other, but be sure to act like you are meeting for the first time. Marco, you’re just the spare wheel. We let the girls get up and dance a bit, so that we can check to see if anyone is watching them. If we see anyone paying too much attention, I want to know who it is.”

“That’s fine,” Marco said, “but remember that guys are always watching the girls dancing together. Could be nothing but typical male interest, you know?”

“That’s what we want to find out. If it’s anything else, I want to know the reason behind it.”

Since it was already past noon, they were all dressed casually. They got into their cars and headed toward Intuition.

The nightclub was in a busy area not far from the beaches, and was in what used to be an old warehouse. There were neon lights and lasers flashing everywhere, and a band was on the stage even though it was still early afternoon. The dance floor was already crowded, but there was a lot of empty tables and spaces at the three different bars.

Jenny went to the biggest bar and climbed up onto a stool. Neil and Marco took stools a slight distance away from her, while Noah and Sarah sat down at a table just behind her. All of them were watching the others in the place carefully, trying to get a feel for the type of clientele that it served. Most of the people they saw were young, the vast majority in their early twenties. They seemed to be a mix of both professional people and regular workers, and there were even a few people out on the dance floor in work uniforms.

“What will it be?” asked the bartender.

Jenny smiled at him. “Something easy,” she said. “How about a screwdriver?”

“Coming up,” the bartender said. A moment later, a glass of orange juice and vodka was placed in front of her.

Jenny handed the bartender a card.

“You want to start a tab?”

“Might as well,” Jenny replied. “This looks like a fun place to hang out.”

The bartender shrugged, but smiled. “It’s all right,” he said. “It gets a lot better in the evenings, naturally, but it’s a great place to hang out during the day, too.”

“Lots of tourists?” Jenny asked.

“Oh, yeah, we get them. Not everybody, though. This is one of the most popular places for the locals to go, at least most of the time.”

The barmaid approached Noah and Sarah, and they each ordered a drink. Noah went for a beer, while Sarah had her favorite vodka Collins.

“Pretty big place,” Sarah said. “How does it look from a tactical point of view?”

“Well,” Noah said, “there aren’t a lot of places to hide. I don’t see any doors or blind corners. About the only place somebody could hide would be behind the bar, but that would interfere with the way the bartenders move. I don’t see any sign of it at the moment, but the bartenders seem to be having to move around obstacles. Later on, I want to know why.”

“This actually looks like a pretty fun place. You want to dance?”

Noah looked around one more time, then nodded. He stood up and took her hand, and they walked out onto the dance floor.

The music was fast, and Sarah was pleasantly surprised to see that Noah had some serious moves. The two of them were able to put on a bit of a show, and it was obvious that quite a few of the other dancers and many of the people seated at tables were watching them closely.

“Drawing attention,” she said during a moment when they were close to each other. “People are staring at us, but they all seem to be smiling.”

“They’re probably just wishing they were me,” Noah said.

Sarah chuckled. “That was sweet,” she said. “Actually, I see an awful lot of women watching us. I suspect some of them are wishing they were me.”

“Just don’t let them cut in,” Noah said. “I don’t want to dance with anybody but you.”

At the bar, Neil and Marco were nursing bottles of beer and talking about commonplace things. Nobody seemed to be paying them any attention, but they continued watching the mirror behind the bar. Marco caught Noah’s eye in the reflection and sent him a questioning look, but Noah pretended not to notice.

“Boss seems to be taking it cautiously,” he said softly to Neil. “I’m watching everybody else, why don’t you go ahead and make a move on Jenny?”

Neil had already looked at Jenny a couple of times, sitting off to his right, and he turned to look at her again. He kept his attention focused on her for a moment, and she finally turned to look back, so he smiled.

“You come here often?” Neil asked.

“Nope. First time,” Jenny replied. “You guys local?”

Neil shook his head. “No, down here on business. I’m a computer technician, and some of my clients are having network issues. I like coming to Miami, it’s a lot of fun down here.”

“I’ve been here a couple of times,” Jenny said. “Not to this club, just to Miami.” She looked at the three stools between them, then got up and moved over to sit beside Neil. “Goodness,” she said, “you’re pretty tall.”

“He is, isn’t he?” Marco asked, turning to look at Jenny. “I call him Treetop, and he hates it.”

Jenny giggled. “Treetop? Why don’t you like it? That sounds like a good nickname for somebody as tall as you.”

“Makes me sound like I might be stupid,” Neil said. “A tree? Sounds like a wooden head. Not a lot of brains inside a wooden head.”

“I get the impression you got plenty of brains,” Jenny said. “I don’t think you need to worry too much about people thinking you’re a wooden head.”

Neil smiled at her. “Ah, thanks,” he said. “I really just hate my buddy picking on me. Hey, do you like to dance?”

Jenny’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I love to,” she said. “Think you can keep up with me?” She smiled at him coquettishly.

“Don’t know until we try,” he replied, returning the smile. “Shall we?” He held out a hand, and Jenny took it.

Neil led her onto the dance floor, and they seemed to fit together perfectly. They carefully danced their way closer to Noah and Sarah, who was still on the floor, and Neil “accidentally” bumped into Noah.

“Oops, sorry,” he said.

Noah grinned at him. “No problem,” he said. “Dancing can get kinda crowded out here. You guys from Miami?”

“Not me,” Neil said. “I’m from up by Chicago.”

“And I’m from New York,” Jenny said. “What about you two?”

“No, we’re just here on vacation. Thought we’d see what the nightclub life was like around here.”

“I’ve heard some good things about this place,” Jenny said. “This is my first time actually visiting it, though.”

“Alberta here,” Noah said. “I’m Jack, and this is my wife, Deanna.”

“I’m Lisa,” Jenny said. She looked at Neil questioningly. “Hey, I haven’t even gotten your name yet.”

Neil chuckled. “It’s Leon,” he said. “Nice to meet you, Lisa. And my big buddy over there is Chuck.”

Sarah leaned toward Jenny. “Lisa, why don’t you guys grab Chuck and come join us at our table.” She stopped dancing and took Noah’s hand, and Neil and Jenny followed. Jenny sat at the table beside Sarah, while Neil went to fetch Marco.

“Come on,” he said quietly. “Boss wants us all over there.”

“Sure,” Marco said boisterously. “More the merrier.” He picked up his bottle of beer and followed Neil back to the table.

“Hey, everybody,” Neil said, “this is Chuck. Chuck, this is Jack, Deanna and Lisa.”

The two of them sat at the table and they all began a simple conversation. As they spoke, however, each of them was looking in different directions, searching for anyplace that might serve as a hiding place for a potential shooter.

They stayed for another hour, then Noah said he and Sarah needed to get back to their hotel. The two of them walked out, and the rest followed only a short time later.

“That place is pretty solid,” Neil said, when they got back to the hotel rooms. “I didn’t see any place that a shooter could hide without being visible from some point in the bar.”

“I agree,” Noah said. “Newsom couldn’t have picked a better place, if you wanted a public meeting spot. I suggest we take it easy tonight, and get ready for whatever activity might begin after Jenny meets with him tomorrow night. We’ll all be there, just to keep an eye on the situation, but I don’t really anticipate any trouble at this point.”

“There won’t be any,” Jenny said. “I get the feeling that whatever they want Victoria for is pretty important to them. Let’s give them the chance to tell us about it, and then figure out what the next move will be. Right?”

“That’s exactly what I’ve got in mind,” Noah said. “The most important thing of all is to figure out who’s behind the PRA, whether Newsom is really the top guy or not. After that, we need to know what it is they want Victoria for. Once we have those two pieces of information, it will be time to take Newsom out and hopefully shut PRA down.”

Jenny smiled. “I am so looking forward to it!”

SIX

The team took it easy the rest of the day, staying at the hotel and ordering room service for dinner. They gathered in Noah and Sarah’s room for the evening, and relaxed while watching a movie during dinner, and then another one after they had finished.

“Okay,” Noah said at about 10 o’clock, “we all need to get some sleep. We can plan on meeting for breakfast downstairs, I don’t think there’s any risk of our being spotted here at the moment. After the meeting tomorrow night, we might need to keep our distance from Jenny for a bit.”

“Well, that’s gonna suck,” Neil said.

“You’ll survive, babe,” Jenny said. “This mission shouldn’t take very long, then you can be my cuddle bunny again.”

Neil, Jenny and Marco went to their own rooms, and Noah and Sarah showered together before climbing into bed. Sarah turned on her side to look at her husband, and smiled.

“So,” she said. “I was thinking that maybe, after this mission, we might ask for a little time to go back to Feeney Manor for a while. All of us, just go take some time off there. What do you think?”

“I wouldn’t mind it,” he said. “It wouldn’t break my heart at all to spend a little time relaxing. I’m sure the rest of them would be up for it.”

“Good,” Sarah said, and she raised up to kiss him. “Because I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the world where I’ve felt so much at peace.”

The two of them slept well, and Noah awoke when the sun came through the curtains. A glance at his phone told him that it was only a little after seven, so he got quietly out of bed and showered before Sarah even woke up. He was getting dressed when she rolled over and looked up at him, and she smiled.

“You could’ve stayed in bed a while longer,” she said. “It’s not like we’re in any kind of a hurry this morning.”

“Actually, I want to get breakfast over with and start getting ready for tonight. Jenny’s supposed to go to the party about seven thirty, and that time will be here a lot sooner than you think. I want to make sure our communication systems are working properly, check her video feed and make sure we’re all in the right places when things start to happen. I just figured we can spend a few hours planning, so that we don’t make mistakes later.”

“Yes, boss,” Sarah said. She threw off the covers and slid out of bed, and kissed him as she walked by on the way to the shower. Noah heard the water running only a moment later, and sat down on the bed to wait for her.

“Neil to Noah,” he heard in his ear. “Are you guys up and out of bed yet?”

“We are,” Noah said in a whisper. “Marco?”

“Marco here,” Noah heard. “I’m up and ready.”

“It’s Noah again. Sarah is in the shower, but we should be ready in about twenty minutes. If you guys want to go on down, you can.”

“Neil to Noah, we’ll wait.”

“Noah to Neil. Okay, sounds good.”

Sarah came out of the shower ten minutes later, but it took her another twenty minutes to be ready to go down to breakfast. Blow drying her hair occupied the majority of that time, and she was rushed as she put on her makeup.

Finally, she was ready to go and Noah used the silent communication system to let the others know that it was time to head down for breakfast.

“Noah to team,” he said silently. “We are ready. Meet you all in the breakfast room.”

Sarah turned and grinned at him. “Oh my God,” she said, “you’re playing with that thing.”

“No,” Noah said. “It’s just easier than dialing a phone, and I can reach everybody at once, as long as we’re so close. Come on, let’s go eat.”

Still grinning, Sarah followed them out the door where they found Neil, Marco and Jenny waiting.

“About time,” Neil said. “My stomach is beginning to think somebody cut my throat.”

“You’re always hungry,” Sarah said. “If only we knew where you put it all.”

“You got a hollow leg,” Jenny said. “That’s what my dad always used to say, when somebody could eat a lot.”

They took the elevator down to the lobby level and went to the breakfast room. The hotel had the standard complimentary breakfast, with waffles and fruit and cereal. They all went for waffles, but Neil made sure to grab a few extra oranges.

“I was thinking,” Jenny said when they were finished eating, “that it might be a good idea for me to be there before Newsom arrives. What do you think, Noah?”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Noah said. “Of course, that just allows more time for something to go wrong. And there’s always the possibility that he won’t show up.”

“In which case,” Jenny said with a grin, “we can go track his ass down. That almost sounds like more fun, anyway.”

“I suspect he’ll be there,” Noah said. “I just like to look at all possibilities. Realistically, you being there before him could put you in a position to better observe the way he acts. That could tell us a lot about whether he really is the man in charge.”

“Then,” Neil said, “I think Marco and I should be there even before Jenny. That way, if anything does go wrong, we’ll be there to try to pull her out of it.”

Noah looked at him. “I’m okay with that,” he said, “but I want Marco in charge. You listen to him, because it’s too easy for you to become emotional where Jenny is concerned.”

“I know, I know,” Neil said, nodding. “I’ll let him run the show, no problem. What about you and Sarah?”

“If we’re going to stagger out our appearances, then she and I should come in last. I don’t see any reason to make it obvious that we are together, and by that I mean all of us. You and Marco should look like buddies, Sarah and I should look like a couple. Jenny is supposed to be Victoria, who was a loner. Those are the impressions we need to give.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Jenny said. “I’ll be ignoring all of you, unless some kind of trouble goes down. Right?”

“Right,” Noah said. “The idea is for you to be as alone as possible, even with us watching out for you. Newsom shouldn’t have any idea you have backup.”

“And it’s only nine thirty.” Sarah looked around the table. “What do we do for the next eight hours or so?”

“Well, our cover is tourists,” Noah said. “I suppose we could go to the beach.”

“Now, that could be fun,” Jenny said. “And I just bought a new bikini.”

Sarah grinned. “My dad brought me here when I was twelve. We went out to South Beach, and it was absolutely awesome. I have never felt the waves and the water like that anywhere else in the world.”

“This sounds like a pretty good plan to me,” Marco said. “Catch a little sun, play in the waves for a bit and just relax before all the crap hits the fan.”

There was a small line at the elevator, but it was only a few moments before they were up in their rooms and getting changed. Within twenty minutes, they were in their individual cars, headed for South Beach and a few hours of plain old rest and recreation.

* * * * *

“Where did he go?”

Sarah was standing waist deep in the water, her hair and body glistening in the sunshine. Noah had been right beside her a second before, but she had turned to look over at Neil and Jenny, and when she turned back he was gone.

She spun around twice, looking for him, and suddenly he popped up right behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, and she squealed in surprise but then spun around and threw her arms around his neck.

“We should do things like this more often,” she said. “I think this is the most relaxed I’ve ever seen you.”

“I’m feeling pretty mellow,” Noah said with a grin. “At least I don’t feel like somebody is about to open fire on us.”

“No worries on that score,” Marco said from a few feet away. “I’ve been watching, and there’s absolutely nobody paying any attention to us except a few of the older men staring at the girls.”

“That’s understandable,” Noah said. “It feels good to be able to let my guard down.”

The five of them weren’t avoiding each other. Noah had decided that if anyone were to ask how they knew each other, they would mention running into each other at the nightclub the evening before. It was a simple explanation, but those were usually the best. Especially if one is prevaricating.

At lunchtime, they wandered across to a place called Wet Willie’s, the typical Florida eatery with frozen drinks and mostly American cuisine. Since there were hours to go before the meeting with Newsom, Noah allowed them each to have a drink.

Sarah and Jenny each went for a frozen margarita, but the men stuck to bottled beer. They ordered burgers and fries, and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the place. When they were finished eating, they went back to the beach and simply relaxed on the beach towels, laying out in the sun and soaking up the rays.

“Mmm,” Sarah said. “If Feeney Manor had a beach like this, you’d probably never get me to leave the place. I’d be in absolute heaven, I swear.”

“I’ve heard there are even better beaches,” Noah said. “Some of the islands in the Caribbean are famous for their white sand beaches, clear blue water. Maybe we could get a cottage on one of them, someplace to get away to now and then.”

“Are we rich? I know they pay us pretty well, but I’m not too sure about being rich enough for a hideaway on an island.”

“We could all pitch in,” Neil said.

“It’s not like we really need to worry about money,” Noah said. “I’ve come to the conclusion that the organization loses probably half a billion dollars every year in different expenditures that never quite make it in the books. It wouldn’t be hard to make the system work for us.”

Neil chuckled. “You know, now that you mention it,” he said, “I could probably get away with buying a nice little estate on Jamaica or one of the other islands without ever leaving a paper trail. There are an awful lot of accounts the organization has that never get audited.”

“That might be similar to what I had in mind,” Noah said. “What about you, Marco? Are you in?”

“Only if I can bring Renée,” Marco replied. “I think she’s finally got me where she wants me, which is ready to pop that big question.” He’d been laying on his back with his eyes closed, but he opened one eye and looked over at Sarah. “You guys started something, and it seems to be spreading throughout the entire outfit. I heard a few days ago that Elaine Jefferson is planning to marry Jim Marino.” Elaine was the daughter of Donald Jefferson, the Deputy Director, and had once been the great love of Moose Conway, whom Marco had replaced when he was killed in action.

“Jim is getting married?” Jenny asked. “That jerk, he didn’t send me an invitation.”

“Oh, all I said was Elaine is planning to marry him,” Marco said. “I’m not sure Jim even knows about it yet.”

Sarah and Jenny laughed together, and even Neil joined in. Jim Marino had been Jenny’s intelligence man when she had run her own team and they had all worked with him at one time or another. That team had been reassigned once Jenny became a permanent member of Team Camelot.

The relaxation and easy banter continued for a few more hours, and then they gathered up everything and went back to the hotel. It was only about three thirty, but Noah wanted plenty of time to let the ocean lethargy fade away. They showered to wash off the saltwater, then met in the hotel restaurant at five for an early dinner. They would be drinking, although very little, and they didn’t want to do any drinking on an empty stomach.

“Okay, dinner is over,” Noah said. “Time to get this show on the road. Neil, Marco, you guys go ahead. We’ll give you a half-hour head start, and then Jenny will come and make her own entrance. Keep a watch over her, but don’t make contact with her unless it’s absolutely necessary. Sarah and I will arrive shortly after she does. Jenny, don’t make any contact with Newsom until we are all in place. Everybody got your comm system on?”

Inside his head, he heard four replies. Silently he asked, “Noah to Jenny, what about your contacts?”

“They’re in my purse,” she sent back the same way. “I don’t want to put them in until I have to, because they come on as soon as I take them out of the case. I figure we should save those for times when I have to be out of sight, right?”

“That’s good thinking. Okay, let’s do this.” He spoke aloud again. “Okay, guys, we’ll see you in just a little while.”

Neil squeezed Jenny’s hand under the table, and then he and Marco got up and left. Noah and the two girls remained at the table, sipping coffee and trying to look like regular tourists. Sarah and Jenny were talking to each other, and Noah was wearing the slightly bored face of the odd man out.

* * * * *

It was close to seven by the time Noah and Sarah arrived at the club, and they spotted Jenny instantly, sitting alone at the bar. Neil and Marco were not too far away, sitting at a table against the wall. They had the chairs turned so that their backs were to the wall, making sure that no one could get behind them. The position was pretty secure, and Noah whispered his approval.

“Noah to Neil and Marco, good positioning. Have you spotted Newsom yet?”

“Marco to Noah, he’s here. I saw him come in just a few minutes ago, and I think he’s on the other side of the dance floor from where we’re sitting. I can’t see him at the moment, but there are a half-dozen booths and tables over there.”

“Noah to Marco, that would make sense. He’s at least somewhat concealed over there, so he probably feels safer. Sarah and I will move to that side of the room.”

He took Sarah’s hand and led her across the bar, past the dance floors and to the slightly more private area behind it. He spotted Newsom, sitting at a table with two other men and a woman, and was relieved to see that the only empty table was very close to Newsom’s. He pulled Sarah along with him and held out a chair for her, and she kissed his cheek before sitting down.

“You are such a gentleman,” she said.

She had spoken just loudly enough to be overheard, and Newsom glanced over. He looked her up and down once, then turned his attention to Noah. His calculating eyes took in Noah’s size and obvious physical power, and then he turned his attention back to the people at his table.

The barmaid came to take their orders, and then Noah and Sarah leaned close to one another. They spoke softly, mostly romantic little comments that were designed to make listeners feel like they were intruding, but they slipped into silent mode when they had something important to say.

“Sarah to Jenny, Newsom is here and with three other people. There’s a woman and two men. They seem to be deep in conversation, and it doesn’t look like anything frivolous.”

“Jenny to Sarah, okay. You guys tell me when you want me to make my move.”

“Noah to Marco. Why don’t you and Neil find some dance partners and get on the floor? Make your way to this side of it, so that we can see you clearly and you can see what’s happening over here.”

“Marco to Noah, we’ll see what we can do. Shouldn’t be hard, there’s plenty of women in the joint.”

It only took a few moments for both of the men to find ladies who were willing to dance, and then they were on the floor. Marco was dancing with a heavyset brunette, and Neil had found a girl almost as tall as himself. They maneuvered themselves close to where Newsom’s table was situated, but not close enough to overhear his conversation.

“Sarah to Noah,” Noah heard. “I wish we could hear what they were talking about. I wonder if those people are part of PRA.”

“Noah to Sarah, no way to tell. Noah to Jenny, you can move in now, whenever you’re ready.”

“Jenny to Noah,” came the reply. “Buddy, I was born ready. Coming that way.”

She appeared only a few seconds later, and walked directly to Newsom’s table. He and his guests looked up at her, and Newsom himself broke into a smile.

“Can I help you?” Jenny had turned up the sensitivity on her implant to its maximum setting, so Noah and the others could hear him clearly, but with the echo they had become accustomed to.

“I think it’s the other way around,” she said. “I believe you invited me to this party. My name is Victoria.”

Newsom nodded. “I suspected that was you, when I saw you sitting at the bar. There was just something about you that made me think you might be capable of the sort of things that you do. Please, have a seat.”

Jenny slid into a chair at the table, and Newsom pointed at the man to his left. “Please allow me to introduce my associates. This is John Roderick. The man beside him is William Baines, and the lady is Marissa Beauchamp. They are, shall we say, my advisors. It is actually Mr. Roderick who suggested we contact you.”

“All right,” Jenny said. “And what is it you wanted to speak with me about?”

“Why, your specialty, of course. It’s no secret in the international community what you do, or that you are one of the best available. We have a few situations that could require your touch, and we hope to convince you to make yourself available for our needs.”

Jenny leaned back in her chair and looked at him, then let her eyes rove over the other three for a moment. When she brought them back to Newsom, she gave him a shark tooth smile.

“And just what kind of jobs did you have in mind? Can you give me the specifics?”

“Well, only one, at the moment. We have a particular gentleman who is causing us some problems, and would like him to be dissuaded from further complications of our goals.”

Jenny waited silently for a moment, then raised her eyebrows. “Specifics, I asked for?”

Roderick cleared his throat. “His name is Randall Whitcomb, and he is the Chief Constable of the Ministry of Defense Police in the United Kingdom. We need him to be eliminated because his successor, who has already been named, will be more amenable to our operations in the U.K.”

“That’s ironic,” Jenny said. “I dealt with one of his deputies just last year. I take it the PRA is planning some actions in the U.K.?”

Newsom grinned. “I wasn’t aware that you knew who we were,” he said. “However, I suppose I should not be surprised. You have a reputation for learning just about anything you want to know. So, you will take the assignment?”

“Possibly,” Jenny said. “There is the small matter of the fee. For someone like this, it’s not going to be cheap. I’m thinking three hundred thousand U.S. dollars, and I would want half of it in advance.”

Newsom hesitated for only a second. “That is agreeable,” he said. “If you have a secure account we can transfer the money into, we can take care of it today.”

Jenny winked at him. “In a hurry, are we?”

“Unfortunately, that is the case. We need his successor installed within the next three weeks, because we have an operation that Mr. Whitcomb is likely to interfere with. His successor, James Bradley, is considerably more willing to cooperate with us, especially when it’s of great benefit to him personally.”

“Noah to Neil,” Noah broadcast. “Do we have an account she can use?”

“Neil to Jenny,” they heard. “Bank Duquesnes in the Cayman Islands. When you’re ready, I’ll send the source code and account numbers.”

Jenny smiled at Newsom. “I use Bank Duquesnes in the Caymans. Are you ready for the account numbers?”

Newsom pulled out a small tablet computer and tapped on its screen for a moment. “Yes, go ahead,” he said.

Neil recited a string of numbers, and Jenny repeated them perfectly. Those at the table were left with the impression that she had memorized the numbers.

Newsom tapped on his tablet again, and then nodded. He turned it around so that she could see the screen, and showed her that a transfer of one hundred and fifty thousand United States dollars had been made to that account.

“Of course,” Jenny said, “I’ll confirm it before I actually take action. I’ll also need a way to contact you when the job is done.”

“Naturally,” Newsom said. He reached into a pocket again, and produced a business card. “My special number’s on the back, including a satellite phone that can reach me anywhere in the world. You can call me at any time.”

“And I’m likely to,” Jenny said with a grin. “As long as the money is there, you can consider the job done by the middle of next week. Will that be soon enough?”

“That, my dear,” Newsom said, “will be ideal. And afterward, if you would be willing, we will have more such works for you. We seem to have other nuisances that are lining up for the opportunity to be eliminated.”

Jenny glanced at the other three, then looked at Newsom again. “I’m interested,” she said. “There could be some benefit in having steady work for a while.”

“Then I hope to hear from you very soon.”

Jenny scooted her chair back and started to rise.

“Must you leave so soon?”

“Yes,” Jenny said. “I don’t like to put my work off. If I’m going to England, I want to make preparations immediately. Mr. Whitcomb may turn out to be a difficult job, so with the time to do it on schedule I need to get started on those preparations. Don’t worry, you’ll hear from me next week.”

Baines suddenly looked like he was going to object, but Noah caught the look on his face.

“Noah to team,” he said, “converge on Jenny.” He stood quickly and took Sarah’s hand, and the two of them stepped over beside Jenny as she stared Baines down.

“You didn’t think,” she said, as Marco and Neil abandoned their dance partners and came to stand beside her, “that I would come in without backup, did you? Mr. Baines, I don’t know why you want to keep me here, but that’s enough to make me consider whether you should be removed from the world gene pool. Is there something you’d like to say?”

“Well—I—I was merely hoping that we could discuss some further opportunities.”

“Don’t you think you ought to wait until you see how I handle this one? Don’t worry, boys, I’ll be in touch.”

She turned and walked away, and Noah signaled the rest to follow. As they walked away, Noah said softly, “Noah to team. Jenny, you drive away first. Marco, you and Neil will follow at a distance. Sarah and I will bring up the rear. Nobody follows us.”

Marco, Neil and Jenny all acknowledged, and they walked out to the parking lot.

* * * * *

“So, what do you think?” Jenny asked. “Is this a test, or is this the real contract?”

Noah looked at her. “I think the contract is genuine,” he said, “but I think it’s still a form of the test. They made it clear they want to talk to you about other contracts, so we have to assume there are even bigger targets on their list. My concern is the fact that the others were even present. If Newsom were the top dog, I would’ve expected him to meet you alone.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Marco said. “It doesn’t make sense that he would bring along the others, unless they have some say in the matter. These terror organizations are pretty much all beginning to operate like a corporation, with the Board of Directors that makes the big decisions. I suspect Jenny just met some of the board members.”

“I agree. The problem is that we need to identify the rest of them, assuming there are more. I think that’s a safe assumption, and we’ll go with that until we know otherwise.”

“So,” Jenny said, “we are off to England?”

“I think that would be the next step. The only question is whether you should actually pull off the contract. I know Allison said you are authorized, but we’re talking about a major official of an allied country. I think some sleight-of-hand might be necessary, in this case.”

SEVEN

The four of them packed their things the next morning before heading down to breakfast. Noah and Sarah got there first, with Marco and then Neil and Jenny arriving only moments later.

“I arranged for a private Gulfstream jet,” Neil said, “and it will be ready to go as soon as we can get to the airport. I told the crew we would probably be arriving around nine, so we have plenty of time to eat.”

“Good job,” Noah said. “That should put us in London around nine o’clock London time at the latest. When we get there, we’ll get a car and look the situation over. I’m fairly sure Whitcomb moves around the U.K. a lot, so we have no idea if he’s in London at the moment or not. I called our old friend Catherine Potts last night and let her know that we’re going to need to speak to her soon after we arrive. We’re going to need all of her assets to pull this off.”

“I like Catherine,” Marco said. “She’s a pretty tough gal.”

“She’s efficient, and that’s what I’m counting on,” Noah said. “With her double connection to both our outfit and MI6, she’s got the resources we need right now. I’m not exactly sure how we’re going to do it just yet, but we have to convince MI6 to help us stage a fake assassination on Whitcomb.”

“Are we going to stay in a hotel In London?” Sarah asked. “I mean, couldn’t we go out to Feeney Manor? It isn’t that far from London.”

“Not right at the moment, no. I’m going to have Jenny take a room at the Hilton tonight, with Marco and Neil in separate rooms on the same floor. Sarah, you and I will go somewhere else and get a room. If everything goes well, we might be able to spend a little time at the Manor this trip, but I don’t want anyone to get their hopes up.”

“Why do we have to stay at the Hilton Hotel?” Neil asked. “We never stayed there when we were in London.”

“No, but the file on Victoria indicates that she likes luxurious accommodations. Jenny needs to stay in character, just in case someone figures out where she’s at. We don’t know for sure that somebody won’t be waiting at the airport, or that Newsom and company didn’t get some photos of her. If she was spotted, she’s got to fit the profile they would have on Victoria.”

They ate their waffles as soon as they were ready and then checked out of the hotel and drove the rental cars back to the airport. The pilot was waiting with the big Gulfstream already fueled and ready for the nine-hour flight, and his copilot helped them stow their bags and get comfortable in the passenger compartment. Less than fifteen minutes after their arrival, the plane was moving into position for takeoff.

The plane hesitated at the start of the runway for a moment, and then the pilot shoved the throttles forward and they began moving. All of them were shoved back into their seats as their velocity rapidly climbed to the point that the wings grabbed the air and lifted them away from the earth.

The flight attendant appeared once they were in the air and in level flight to ask if they wanted anything to drink, but they all shook their heads, so she settled into her own seat. The team sat and looked out the windows, not bothering to try to talk over the loud roar of the engines, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

Noah woke up about an hour before they reached Heathrow, and began trying to plan for the various contingencies they might run into. He had made light of the possibility that Jenny might be spotted, but he was actually a little concerned that it might be seriously possible. If nothing else, it was always conceivable that one of the people at that table, or someone else they didn’t know about, could have been wearing a camera. When the pilot announced their descent, the others finally stirred and awoke, and then they were making their final approach to the Heathrow International Airport.

“We’re here,” Neil said as the engines began winding down.

Getting through customs from a private flight was pretty easy. The bored inspectors asked them if they had anything to declare, then waved them along to passport control and immigration. No one bothered to look into their bags, so the guns hidden in the false bottoms of their bags were safely carried through.

Finishing up with immigration took only a short time and then they walked to the Avis counter and rented three identical Land Rovers. Sarah smiled as she slid behind the wheel of the one she and Noah were taking and adjusted the seat for her short frame. “Oh, yeah, back in the saddle again!”

Jenny was delighted with her own. “You know,” she said to Neil, “this is only the second time I’ve ever driven in England. It’s a lot of fun over here.”

“Just remember to drive on the right side of the road,” Neil said.

“No, this is England,” Marco said, “she has to drive on the wrong side.”

“And you, too! I’m pretty sure we’re going to have plenty of chances to get killed on this mission without worrying about getting hit head on by some giant truck!”

“Oh, relax, Neil,” Marco said, “I promise to drive safely, don’t worry. And just for the record, I’ve driven in England a dozen times. It’s really not all that hard to do.”

“Yeah, well, let’s just keep it that way. Your driving scares me bad enough even back home.” He stood at the passenger door, looking nervous.

Marco looked at him and then reached for his cellphone. “Hang on a minute, I want to record this and post it to YouTube.”

“Oh, good grief!” Neil said, and then he climbed in and slammed the door. He was buckling his seat belt as Marco slid behind the wheel and started up the car.

Noah looked at them and then spoke softly. “Noah to Neil, do we have an address on Whitcomb yet?”

“I’ve got it,” Sarah said. “He gave it to me a while ago.” She reached into her purse and brought out her own phone, then called up its navigation app. “I programmed his address in before we left the airport, because I figured you’d want to check it out.” The computerized voice began giving her directions, and she had to turn the car around at the next intersection.

Since they were well within range of each other, Noah activated the subcutaneous comm unit, speaking aloud so that Sarah could hear him directly. “Noah to team, follow us. We’re going to get a look at Whitcomb’s place, just in case he’s at home.”

The ride to Whitcomb’s large estate in Kensington took almost an hour, most of which was spent in dealing with the traffic as they made their way through the city itself. The big stone house sat in the midst of a large and forested lot, and could barely be seen from the highway that ran along in front of it.

“That place would make a pretty fair fortress,” Marco said through the comm. “Think we’ll have to invade the place, Boss?”

“Not if we can avoid it,” Noah said. “The way the place is designed, he could have a small army for security, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he does. After all, he’s a high-ranking political official.”

“It wouldn't be that bad,” Marco said. “We could always make our approach from the south, where the trees are not all that dense. If we stayed low, and were careful to keep some of the brush between us and anyone inside that perimeter until we got close to the house, we could probably make it all the way without being spotted.”

Noah nodded. “We’ll keep that in mind, but I doubt we’ll be coming here. I’m still convinced that we’re going to do a phony assassination in this case, if for no other reason than we promised the Queen we would behave ourselves while we’re here. You guys go on to the Hilton, and Sarah and I will let you know where we decide to stay.” He turned to Sarah. “Okay, baby, let’s go pick a hotel.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” she said, grinning. She turned the car at the next crossroad and stopped, then Googled hotels on her phone. “How about the Qbic Hotel? It’s supposed to be pretty nice.”

“That’s fine,” Noah said. “It’s not that far from the Hilton, so that’s a plus. Subcom units ought to work between the two.”

Sara pressed the button to get directions, and the nav app came to life. Once it began talking, she followed its directions on to another highway, the A308, that led them back to London. The other two cars followed.

“Neil to Noah,” Neil asked, “have you already got a plan on how to fake the assassination, or are we still working on it? I mean, the mission is really supposed to be about cutting off the PRA’s head, right? Should we really be working on this, instead of that?”

“Remember that satellite phone Newsom said he’s got?” Noah asked in return. “Once this job is done, Jenny’s going to call him and say she’s ready to talk about other work. I know you can track that satellite phone, so at that point I want you monitoring everything it does. If he calls somebody else to talk about what jobs they might want her to do, we want to know who it is he’s talking to.”

“Okay,” Neil said. “Then we’ll probably do it the same way we did before, right? Monitor all his calls and crack the encryption, so that we can get whatever information is available on the numbers he calls. It doesn’t matter how cautious he might be, I’ll still be able to get their GPS locations, so we can find some way to identify them.”

Noah nodded. “At that point, we will probably just be starting to figure out who we’re dealing with. I don’t want to make a move on PRA until we are absolutely certain we’ve identified everyone who needs to be taken out. Neil, can you lock onto the phones he calls and monitor their activity, as well?”

“Neil to Noah, won’t be any problem at all. I have apps for that built right in to my computer, nowadays. All I have to do is feed in a number, and we can listen in on every call that goes in or out.”

“Good,” Noah said. “When we get to that point, you may have to activate it pretty quickly.”

“Not a problem,” he said. “With the software I’ve got on this computer, now, I can listen in on any cell phone call in the world.”

“All right. Sarah, let’s go by there after we look at the hotel. Neil, just remember what I said before. You’ll be staying there at the Hilton with Marco, but remember that he’s in charge. If Jenny gets into any kind of trouble, you follow whatever Marco tells you to do. Got that?”

“I got it,” Neil grumbled. “Don’t worry, boss, I know Jenny can take care of herself. I just like being close, just in case.”

“I know,” Noah said, “I just don’t want you making any mistakes that could blow the mission. And don’t take that to mean I don’t trust you, Neil, because I do. It’s just that I know how shook up you can get if you think Jenny’s in danger.”

They drove along in silence for a few minutes, and then Sarah pointed at a large building ahead. “That’s the Qbic,” she said. “Place looks pretty darn nice. I was expecting an old building, but that looks almost new.”

“It’s definitely not old,” Noah said, “but that wouldn’t really matter. It should be fine for what we’re doing.”

They drove into the parking lot and found a spot, then went inside to check in. The clerk looked at them for a moment and smiled.

“And would we be interested in the honeymoon suite?” he asked.

Noah glanced at Sarah, then nodded to the clerk. “Yes, please,” he said, and he enjoyed the smile that spread across his wife’s face. A bellman took their bags and carried them to the elevator to the top floor, then showed them the various amenities of the honeymoon suite.

The huge, heart-shaped bed was the dominant feature of the room, but there was also a large heart-shaped Jacuzzi right next to it. Sarah giggled as the bellman showed Noah how to operate its controls, and Noah made certain to tip him well.

He turned to Sarah after the bellman was gone. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

Sarah nodded and grinned. “Starving. We probably should have eaten something on the plane, but I figured I might not get many chances to sleep on this mission so I didn’t want to waste one.”

“Smart thinking. Let’s go find some dinner. There’s a restaurant on the ground floor that’s supposed to be excellent. Will that do, or would you like to go somewhere else?”

“That’ll be just fine,” Sarah said. “We’ve got the honeymoon suite, Noah. I want to get back up here and put it to use as soon as possible.”

They rode down the elevator and were seated in the restaurant only minutes later. The food and service were every bit as good as the reputation claimed, and they managed to enjoy dinner without thinking much about the mission.

“Jenny to Noah,” they heard suddenly, while they were finishing their dinner. “We’re all settled in, and we all had dinner. Any word from your friend Catherine, yet?”

“Noah to Jenny, nothing yet. I don’t really expect to hear from her before morning, so we might as well all try to get whatever rest we can. Is everybody on the channel?”

“Neil, here,” they heard, followed by, “Marco’s here.”

“Jenny to Noah, no problem. I’ll talk to you in the morning. Everybody shut down for the night, we don’t want to hear the lovebirds.”

Sarah snickered, then shut down her own comm unit. She grinned when Noah did the same.

“Well,” Noah said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go back up to the room.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Sarah said, smiling.

EIGHT

Noah was already up, showered and dressed when Sarah finally awoke at seven the next morning.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Hey, there,” Sarah said sleepily. “Anything going on yet?”

“No, I’ve been up for a while. I was about to wake you and see if you’re ready for breakfast.”

“Hmmf. Can you give me ten minutes? Okay, make that twenty minutes?”

“No problem. I’m going to go ahead and give Catherine a call while you get a shower and get dressed.”

“Okay, babe,” Sarah said. “I’ll be ready as fast as I can.”

Noah picked up his phone off the nightstand as she went into the shower, then dialed Catherine Potts’ number. It rang three times before she answered, but there was a pleasant sound in her voice.

“Catherine Potts,” she said. “Mr. Lightner?” she asked, using the most recent cover name she had known Noah by.

“Yes, it’s me. Are you available for a meeting this morning?”

“For you? Absolutely. Why, Her Majesty would probably have my hide should I say no. When and where?”

“Mrs. Lightner and I are at the Qbic, and will be going down for breakfast in about twenty minutes. Would you perhaps care to join us?”

“Why, I think that would be lovely. I can be there in just about that time. You’ll forgive me if I need a few extra minutes?”

“Of course,” Noah said. “We’ll be delighted to see you again.”

Sarah came out of the bathroom just a little over fifteen minutes later and Noah waited while she finished getting dressed and putting on her makeup. By the time they finally got down to the restaurant, nearly thirty minutes had passed since he spoke to Catherine and she was waiting at a table by herself.

They told the hostess that they saw their party waiting, and walked straight to the table. Noah held Sarah’s chair for her while she sat, then took the one opposite Catherine Potts.

“Catherine, it’s good to see you,” Sarah said. “I was just telling my husband yesterday that I hoped we’d get to come spend some time at the Manor soon. Maybe you can come visit when we do?”

“That would be lovely,” Catherine said. “At the moment, however, I’m more concerned about the urgency of your call from the States. Naturally, anything that brings you to the U.K. is of great interest. Can you tell me about it now?”

Noah glanced around and made sure no one was close enough to overhear, then nodded. “We’re on a mission that is similar to the first one that brought us together. This time, I’m running support while Mrs. Jamieson—you remember her?—she’s the one who has to impersonate an assassin. The problem is that the contract target is one of your high-ranking officials, so we don’t actually want to kill him. I need your help to arrange a fake assassination, because the client who hired her has to believe that it’s real.”

Catherine’s eyes had gone wide, and she stared at him. “And who might we be talking about?”

“Randall Whitcomb,” Noah said. “I understand he’s the…”

“Dear heavens,” Catherine said. “You do bring us some conundrums, don’t you? Mr. Whitcomb is the Chief Constable of the Ministry of Defense Police. He’s responsible for counterterrorism throughout the U.K.”

“Yes,” Noah said. “The people behind this contract are the PRA, you’re familiar with them?”

“Of course,” Catherine said. “Ruddy bastards have been quite a thorn in our sides over here, lately.”

“Well, Whitcomb’s successor is apparently already in their pocket, which is why they wanted him out of the way. By cooperating with us, you’ll be able to build a case against him, as well. James Bradley is the name we were given for the successor, is that correct?”

“Indeed it is,” Catherine said. The look on her face told Noah that she was quite furious at the news that Bradley had been compromised. “I’ll have to go to MI6 with this. Don’t worry, I’ll get approval even if I have to go to Her Majesty. While she doesn’t actually run the country, she certainly has the influence to make sure that things go the way she wants them to. How soon do you need to make this happen?”

“Within the next three days would be excellent. You’ll need to leave Bradley in his position for a short time, until we can positively identify all the players in the PRA. The mission is to bring them to an end, but we have to get our girl in their good graces, first.”

“Then let’s order breakfast,” Catherine said. “Let me get on about business. I’ll find out about Mr. Whitcomb’s itinerary and send you a copy. Let me know when would be the best time to make a move, and I’ll see that our end is ready to cooperate.”

The waitress came then and handed the menus to them, and they all chose an American-style cheese omelette, with a fresh cup of coffee for Sarah and Noah, and a refill for Catherine. The waitress drifted away to put in their order and the three of them sat and chatted as they waited.

“So, when do you expect to visit the Manor again?” Catherine asked.

“I’m hoping to spend a couple of weeks there after this mission,” Noah said. “It’s definitely one of the most relaxing places we’ve ever been, and we definitely need a break now and then. Have you been out there lately?”

“Oh, no,” Catherine said. “I’ve no reason to visit out there unless you are in residence, in which case Her Majesty expects me to make sure I do so. I’ll confess, however, that I greatly enjoy the time I spend out there with you. As you say, it’s very relaxing.”

“Neil to Noah,” Noah heard suddenly. He had remembered to reactivate the comm unit when he awoke, and was suddenly very glad that he had. He picked up his coffee cup and held it in front of his mouth as he whispered a reply.

“Noah to Neil, go ahead.”

“We are all up and having breakfast. Sucks I can’t sit with Jenny right now, but we’ve got eyes on her. Any news?”

“I’ll tell you shortly. Noah out.” He set the cup down and looked at Catherine. “How have you been? Things going okay for you?”

Catherine nodded. “Quite well,” she said. “Any particular reason for asking?”

“Not really,” Noah said. “I’m afraid I’m not real good at making polite breakfast conversation.”

Catherine smiled. “You’re doing fine,” she said. “Of course, I’ve never forgotten that the very reason I’m here is because of you. If you hadn’t convinced that drug addict to call an ambulance, I probably would not be. Come to think of it, I’ve never thanked you for that, have I? Well, thank you, and I mean that with the utmost sincerity.”

They continued chatting through breakfast, and then Catherine went on her way. As Noah and Sarah were finishing up, she suddenly became quiet. Noah turned to her.

“Something on your mind?”

“I was just thinking,” she said after a moment. “The last time we had a mission similar to this one, we lost Moose. I can’t help worrying just a bit that this one is so close to that one.”

“There are definite similarities,” Noah said, “but there are differences, as well. This time, at least, the real Victoria isn’t out there waiting for the chance to strike at us.”

“As far as we know, anyway. All Allison said was that the Mossad claims they blew her up. She didn’t say that there was any proof she was dead.” She shook her head, as if to clear it. “Okay, so what’s on our agenda for this morning? Anything special or unusual?”

“I think not,” Noah said. “We can probably go drive around the city for a while, just to keep ourselves busy. I don’t see any point in sitting around here while we wait to hear from Catherine.”

They left the restaurant and went back to their room for a few moments. Noah considered taking his guns, but decided against it. For the moment, at least, they could afford to act like simple visitors to London. They freshened up, then went back down the elevator and out to their car.

“So,” Sarah said as she slid behind the wheel. “Where would we like to go?”

“I’ve always enjoyed checking out the architecture,” Noah said. “We could just drive around and look at the buildings.”

“I guess that’s a start,” Sarah said. “You think we won’t actually be working today?”

“Probably not. I figure it will take at least a little time for Catherine to get something set up with MI6, so it’s probably safe to relax for a little while.”

“In that case,” she said, “you might as well be prepared for me to do a little shopping. There are some wonderful stores in London, and I don’t get the chance to go out shopping for good clothes all that often. Think you can indulge me?”

Noah looked at her for a few seconds, then nodded. “I don’t think it would be a terrible experience.”

Sarah laughed, then put the car in gear and drove into the city. Noah waited until they were some distance from the hotel, then took out his phone and dialed Neil.

“Hey, boss,” the skinny kid answered.

“I wanted to bring you up-to-date,” Noah said. “We spoke with Catherine Potts over breakfast this morning, and filled her in on what’s going on. She’s going to check in with MI6 and see how hard it’s going to be to set up the faked assassination. I also let her know that Whitcomb’s successor, Bradley, is corrupted. She’ll relay that information to her superiors on the side, and they’ll take over and run their own investigation once he is installed into the post that Whitcomb will be vacating.”

“Sounds good,” came the response. “I don’t know if anybody else is awake yet, but I’ll make sure they get the message. So, what do we do today?”

“Sarah and I are just going out to do a little sightseeing and maybe some shopping. It’s doubtful we’re going to be involved in anything mission related today, so it’s okay to let your hair down. Yes, Neil, that means you can all three go out together for a while. Newsom and his people saw you when we left the club with her, so I don’t guess we need to keep up any pretense that she’s alone.”

“Man, couldn’t you have thought of that last night? Oh, well, at least you thought of it this morning.”

“No problem,” Noah said. “I’ll call you if I get any news, or you guys can call me if you run across any.”

“Sounds good, boss,” Neil said. “Neil out.”

“Noah out.”

Noah looked at Sarah. “I told them they can take the day off, as well. So, what is it you want to go shopping for?”

Her eyebrows raised slightly. “Some new clothes,” she said. “Anything in particular you want to see?”

Noah nodded. “Yes. I think you need some formal wear, if we’re going to be spending any time at the Manor. As far as anyone knows, we’re wealthy; I think we should start to act like it when we’re around there.”

Sarah smiled and turned back to face the road. She pushed a button on the dash and told the car’s “Intelligent GPS” to give her the best route to the London Mall. A feminine voice with a crisp British lilt began speaking only seconds later, and Sarah had to hit the brakes to make the next required turn.

NINE

Albert Lingenfelter was, on most days, a relatively happy man. As an employee of MI6, he was lucky enough to enjoy the occasional burst of excitement in his life, but most of the time it was a fairly mundane existence that he endured.

And then there were mornings like this one.

The alarm went off beside Albert’s bed and he flung out an arm to silence the horrible thing. His palm hit the reset and killed the noise, but he was already awake. He tried to lay there for a few more minutes, but he was fully aware that there was no hope of going back to sleep, so he tossed off the blanket and rolled over to let his feet land on the floor.

His wife, Margaret, looked up at him. “Do you honestly have to go so early?”

Albert gave a sigh. “I fear I must,” he said. “Lazy lot we’ve got working nowadays can’t seem to accomplish anything if I’m not there to ride herd on them.” He patted her lightly on the bottom, then got onto his feet and made his way into the loo. After more than fifteen years of marriage, he knew that she would be back to sleep by the time he managed to flush.

Margaret was a good wife and Albert considered himself to be quite a lucky fellow, but she had never made it a secret at all, even at the beginning of their marriage, that she was never, ever, ever going to be the kind of wife who got up and prepared a hearty breakfast for her husband every morning. Taken against all of the many other wonderful things about her, Albert felt he was still quite some distance ahead of the field. Almost every other husband he knew spent most of his time complaining about the little woman at home, but Albert was fortunate enough to think fondly of Margaret throughout the day.

He went directly to his office when he got to Vauxhall Cross, but his secretary told him he was to report immediately to Mr. Simmons. Simmons was his boss, the head man of the FEG, but Albert shared the opinion of everyone else in his department that Simmons was a bloody fool. Still, it was necessary to play nice with Simmons, if for no other reason than in consideration of his retirement pension. It would be substantial enough to allow Albert to consider dealing with Simmons as simply another part of his job, and he was already comfortable thinking of it that way.

Simmons had been around for quite some time, although he had nearly lost his job a year or two earlier, over some terrible plot that he almost overlooked. Rumor had it that Prince Charles had actually been targeted by an assassin at the time, but there was no official documentation on the case anywhere.

Albert knew. He had searched diligently for it, hoping to find something he could throw into Simmons’ face the next time the bloody idiot decided to interfere in one of his investigations.

He sighed and made his way down the hall to Simmons’ office, and tapped on the door frame. He was waved inside, and stepped through the door doing his best not to notice the horrible paintings that Simmons had decorated with. There was probably nothing wrong with having paintings of daffodils, but these looked like they had been done by a six-year-old who is colorblind. “I was told you wanted me to report to you, sir?”

Simmons looked up at him and Albert thought the man looked like he’d been awake all night. “You should probably have a seat,” he said. “I understand there’s going to be something big going on, this morning, but I’m not privy to the details just yet. We shall learn them together when Ms. Potts arrives.”

Albert suppressed a grin and took a seat in the chair that sat in front of Simmons’ desk. “Something big? And it has something to do with Catherine?” Albert considered Catherine Potts to be one of the nicest perks of his job. She was not only quite lovely to look at, but she always seemed to have a kind word and a ready smile.

Simmons nodded. “Yes, actually. All I’ve been told so far is that she’s gone to meet with some American agent, a fellow we’ve actually had to deal with in the past. The last time, it nearly cost me my position, so we shall bloody well get on top of it right away this morning. She called a bit ago to tell me that she would be meeting the Yank for breakfast, and she’ll tell us what’s going on when she gets back here.”

Albert’s eyes had grown wide as Simmons spoke, and he leaned forward to look closely at his boss. “Nearly cost you your position?” he asked. “Is this the chap who was involved in the Prince Charles incident? I’d begun to think that was only a bit of a myth.”

Simmons raised his eyes to meet Albert’s. “No, it’s not a myth. This bloody American is from their bloody death squads, that lot of theirs who handle making people vanish on a permanent basis.” He scowled in Albert’s direction. “Somehow, he was brought in to deal with the assassin known as Adrian, the one who was alleged to have been after Prince Charles. Of course, the real target was the Prime Minister, but the tabloids simply got it all wrong.”

Albert’s mind was racing. So the stories were true, at least to some extent. He wondered if it extended to the part about Simmons nearly botching up the whole case and getting Charles killed. “What do you think he’s here for this time? Have you any ideas at the moment?”

Simmons shook his head. “None, and if I did, I’d probably already be speaking with the Home Secretary. This is not the sort of case to take lightly, I can assure you that much.”

Albert leaned back in his chair and just looked at his boss. “Then I suppose,” he said. “that there’s really naught to do but wait for Catherine to get here and brief us on the situation.” He let his eyes meet Simmons’ own. “So, this American is one of their assassins? I know they have such an organization, and I am aware that Catherine is some sort of liaison with them. I can see why you think this can’t be a good thing, that the American is here once again.”

Simmons nodded. “Yes, yes, I know,” he said. “Unfortunately, despite the fact that Catherine Potts is officially on our rosters as one of my subordinate investigators, it’s been made abundantly clear to me on more than one occasion that, in any case dealing with the Yank death squads, she outranks me in every possible way. Of course, we’ve got to wait for her to fill us in, and we are not to even speculate about anything until she does.”

“I see,” Albert said. “We’ve got an American assassin here in the U.K., and we apparently had no advance warning of his impending arrival, nor any sort of tip on just what it is he might be doing over here. Have you any idea just what the PM is likely to say about this sort of thing?”

Simmons cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I’ve become somewhat accustomed to being stuck in the middle of these bloody situations. To be honest, I’ve nearly resigned over this more than once.”

Albert stared at him. “You nearly resigned over it? Being a bit melodramatic, are we?”

Simmons let out a sigh. “I think not,” he said. “Believe me, if it weren’t for my pension, I would’ve done so without a moment’s hesitation. Ever since that awful day, my own superiors look at me with pity in their eyes. It’s enough to make a man wish he was dead, I can tell you.”

“Oh, really? And who would be working to make sure the people are safe, if everyone who botched it up now and then should just give up and go home? I’ve often wondered what kind of man you truly are, Simmons, but I never truly believed you were just a tit until now.”

Simmons came up out of his chair, both fists planted firmly on the desk as he glared at Albert. “That’s enough! You will show me some respect, Agent Lingenfelter, I’m still your superior, you know.”

Albert stared at Simmons as if he had lost his mind, and the way the man was talking made that possibility quite believable. “With all due respect, Mr. Simmons,” Albert said sarcastically, “I shall show you every bit of the respect you deserve. Perhaps you might be so good as to send Catherine to see me when she gets here? I’m sure she can brief me just fine without my having to wait here in your office.”

He got up and walked out of the office, making his way back down the hall toward his own. This would be another of many days when he wondered if he could take any more of Simmons’ whiny, self-deprecating pretenses, but under it all he knew that he would show up again the next day, and the next, just like he always had. He always fancied that he made his journey through life on a road paved with bricks of national security, which meant that Simmons was only a pothole.

He sat down behind his desk and started going through his emails and other morning communications. There was nothing regarding Catherine Potts or her mysterious American agent, but that wasn’t terribly surprising. Albert was what the SIS referred to as a local field agent; other agents told him who to go out and round up, and he simply ran the errands. That was all right with him, because it limited the amount of ass that was likely to be chewed off when something went pear-shaped.

He finished up the morning comms and went to fetch himself some coffee. He had just gotten back to his desk with it when he heard his secretary answer the phone.

“Mr. Lingenfelter’s office,” she said. “Yes, sir, I’ll tell him.”

Albert looked up as the secretary poked her face into his office. “You’re wanted in the conference room,” she said. “A briefing, I understand.”

Albert nodded, then got up and walked down the hall once more. He took his coffee with him, despite the standing rule that coffee wasn’t allowed. When he got to the conference room, he saw that Merkel, Abner and a few others were already there, and they had ignored the anti-coffee Nazis, as well.

“Come on in, Albert,” Abner said. “I understand Ms. Potts is coming to deliver a briefing.”

“Yes, so I’ve heard,” Albert said. “Anyone know any details yet?”

“Not me,” Merkel spoke up. “First I heard was when they told me to bring my arse down here.”

Albert started to speak, but the swish of a sweater and the hint of perfume cut him off.

“Sorry I’m late, boys,” Catherine Potts said. “Did you miss me?”

“Morning, Catherine,” Albert said, and the other men echoed him. “Always a pleasure to see you. Something big afoot, is it? You got Simmons afraid to come out of his office, I believe.”

Catherine opened a folder and passed a sheet of paper to each of them. “This information, gentlemen, is so far beyond top-secret that I should probably cut out your tongues before I even tell you what’s happening, but we haven’t time for such niceties. Instead, I’ll give you the gist of it as quickly as I can.”

Albert shook his head. “That would certainly be helpful,” he said. “So far, the boys and I are starting to feel like we’re being left out in the cold.”

Catherine smiled at him. “Albert, you know I’d never abandon you. This problem, however, is bigger than any of us, so I need all of the support I can get from each of you. Here’s the situation: some of you know that I am a liaison officer for an American special operations branch. As a result, I’ve been occasionally consulted when some of their people need to conduct operations in the U.K. I got a phone call a couple of days ago telling me that such an operation was coming, and it apparently arrived yesterday. I met this morning with one of the American agents, and learned that the organization we know as the PRA has let out a contract on Randall Whitcomb, Chief Constable of the MDP. They want him eliminated, and quickly, so that his successor can be sworn in to office right away. This, they claim, is because James Bradley, who will succeed Whitcomb, has already agreed to offer them certain levels of cooperation.”

“Bloody hell,” Albert said. “Never did like that Bradley, he’s too bloody oily!”

“The PRA has been seeking the services of a contract killer,” Catherine said, “but it seems they wanted someone in particular. You’ve all heard of Victoria? They went after her, but the Americans say they have reason to believe that she is dead. They substituted one of their own female assassins to pretend to be Victoria, because they’re trying to identify the top people in the PRA. If they are successful, the PRA will come to a bitter and bloody end.”

“Cheers for them, then,” Merkel said. “Catherine, we’ve been chasing those bloody bastards for three years, now, and not got anywhere near them. You think the Americans can pull this off?”

“Have any of you ever heard the codename Camelot?” Catherine asked sweetly.

“Good God,” Albert said. “Are you talking about him? I thought you said it was a female assassin.”

“Camelot, who I’ve known for quite some time now, and who happens to enjoy some favor from Her Majesty, is in charge of the operation. I don’t know who the girl is who’s impersonating Victoria, but Camelot seems to have every confidence in her ability to do what needs to be done.”

“Nevertheless,” Albert said, “we’re surely not going to allow Whitcomb to be assassinated. There’s got to be a plan, I presume, and so I’m sure that’s what this briefing is about. Am I correct?”

“You’re always a few steps ahead of me, aren’t you, Albert?” Catherine asked. “All right, as I mentioned earlier, I met with Camelot this morning. Naturally, he doesn’t want to kill Mr. Whitcomb, but it’s necessary for his operation for it to appear that the assassination was successful. We’re going to assist him in making it look that way. We’ll call this our initial planning session, so start giving me your ideas.”

Albert shook his head. “Not a lot, there, I’m afraid,” he said. “We can probably set something up, perhaps a car bomb. The car blows up, everybody thinks he was inside.”

Catherine shook her head. “Victoria wasn’t a bomber,” she said. “All of her kills were done at close range, usually with a single shot with a twenty-two caliber pistol. Because of the necessity for this assassination to be widely publicized, it’s going to have to happen in front of many witnesses.”

Albert leaned back and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Strikes me,” he said, “that we are going to run into some serious problems on this. First off, somebody has to convince Whitcomb to go along with it, right? Second, if we do it in front of witnesses, we’re going to be traumatizing a lot of people. That’s certainly not going to do the administration a lot of good in the press, even when it comes out that Whitcomb is still alive. And third, what the bloody hell are we going to do with Bradley? If the man’s been corrupted, we certainly can’t let him take over running the ministry.”

“I can assure you, Albert,” Catherine said, “there’s absolutely no possibility that Bradley will have any genuine authority. Abner, I think that you should head up that phase of the operation. You’ll be investigating Bradley for corruption, but your cover will be helping with the transition of authority. Put yourself a team together and get me a list of names by this afternoon.”

She turned to Merkel. “Merk, I want you to take charge of Whitcomb’s current security detail. You cannot let them in on what’s really happening, so the best we could do is replace some of theirs with some of ours. Find four people you can trust and submit the list to me today.”

Abner and Merkel both nodded, and the two of them got up to leave the room. Catherine turned to Albert, but didn’t speak until the door was closed and they were alone.

“All right, that leaves you,” she said. “Albert, I need you to get to Whitcomb and convince him that he has to go along with this plan. And don’t give me that look, I know just how bloody stubborn he can be, which is why I’m giving you the job. Everyone calls you the salesman, because you’re always able to convince people to do what you want them to do. This is one of those times when I need that talent.”

Albert looked at her, and his eyes were cold. “I bloody well know what they call me, and it’s a bit more like confidence man than salesman. I detest being deceitful, which makes it absolutely miserable for me to be so bloody good at it, don’t you agree?”

Catherine met his gaze evenly. “I do,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t use it to my advantage, anyway. Albert, you’re the only one I can trust with this assignment.”

TEN

Shopping took up the morning, and Noah made it clear that he approved of the purchases Sarah made. She even talked him into picking out some new clothes, things that were suitable for a young, dot-com millionaire.

“Just to keep up appearances,” Sarah said, “since probably everyone around Feeney Manor has heard about us by now. We have to look the part.”

Noah nodded. “I agree,” he said. “Anybody around there who hasn’t heard of us by now is probably either dead or senile. Thomas the butler, along with his family, will have seen to that by now.”

“Well, I’m sure a lot of people ask about us,” Sarah said. “I don’t think it’s Thomas’s fault.”

“I wasn’t complaining,” Noah said. “Naturally, the people in the area are going to be curious about us. It’s only normal that they would ask the butler and his family.”

They decided to stop for lunch at a little after one, and Sarah spotted a chip shop in the mall food court area.

“Fish and chips,” she said. “Do you remember the last time we ate at one of these places?”

“Actually, I do. It was during the Adrian mission, and there was an old couple there that seemed to think we were quite an item. Willie and Alice, that was their names.”

“Yes, and they were a delightful old couple,” Sarah said. “Married for years and years, and still completely in love. Think we have that to look forward to?”

“That would mean assuming we’ll get old, and I can’t even guess whether that’s likely. I guess all we can do is try. I certainly prefer it to the alternative.”

Sarah looked at him for a moment, a wistful smile on her face. “I know you still struggle with the concept of love, sometimes,” she said, “but I just want you to know that I love you, Noah.”

“I know that,” Noah said. “And I’ve come to the conclusion that I love you, as well. I may not be able to display it as well as old Willie could, but that has to be what it is. Nothing else could explain the sensations I get when you’re in danger, or when I’m away from you.”

She cocked her head to one side and looked at him. “When you’re away from me? What kind of sensations?”

“Well, it sort of feels like there’s something missing from the world around me, something that should be there. I can’t tie a kind of emotional feeling to it, but it’s a sort of discomfort, and it goes away as soon as I’m back with you again.”

“That’s actually kind of sweet,” Sarah said. “So, what about when I’m in danger? What do you feel then?”

Noah looked into her eyes. “Determination,” he said. “I sense a determination inside myself to remove that danger, and to punish anyone involved in putting you in danger. It’s probably as close to fear and anger as I ever get, but it’s not like anything I’ve seen other people go through. I don’t lose focus, I don’t stop thinking logically, I simply incorporate the desire to protect you and to punish whoever endangered you into my thinking.”

“You are without doubt,” Sarah said as she began eating, “the most incredible and unusual man in the world. How on Earth did I get so lucky as to be the woman you love?”

“I’m not sure what led me to this—I guess I’ll call it a feeling, even though it’s not what most people would think of that way. I look back at other relationships I’ve had in the past, and what I remember most is the looks of disappointment. Any woman I was with was always disappointed at times, because I couldn’t actually feel what they wanted me to feel. The problem was that, other than Molly—and that was just a mutually agreed arrangement so that people would leave us alone about not dating other people—I never actually told any of them about my lack of emotions. They figured that out for themselves after a while, of course, and that’s when I would see the disappointment.” He reached across the table and took hold of her hand. “Because of the work we do and the way we were thrust together, you already knew about my condition. What I’ve always wondered is why you developed feelings for me.”

Sarah shrugged. “I think it started out as just needing a strong man in my life,” she said. “Before you, the only man I’d ever even been really close to was my dad. I’d had a couple of boyfriends, but they didn’t last very long because we were always moving around to keep from getting caught, so I hadn’t ever really had a relationship that could be considered normal. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that our relationship is anywhere close to normal. I’m just saying that, once I realized that you would protect me and watch out for me, I suddenly wanted to be closer to you. It wasn’t very long before I realized I was falling in love, but I was afraid to tell you for quite a while.”

They both grew quiet then, and sat there while they ate. When they were finished, Sarah declared that she had done all the shopping she could stand for the day, so they headed for the car park and loaded all their bags into the back of the Land Rover.

Noah got in and when Sarah started the engine, Noah’s phone rang. He glanced at it to see that it was Catherine Potts calling, and answered it immediately.

“Hello, Catherine?”

“Yes, Camelot,” Catherine said. “I wanted to give you an update on the meeting I had this morning. I’ve assigned my best man to explain to Mr. Whitcomb what’s going on, and I’ve already started an investigation into James Bradley’s corruption. Arrangements are being made to replace some of Whitcomb’s security with people of our own, who can be in on what’s going to happen. I’ll have his itinerary within the hour, and will send it to you immediately.”

“That sounds good,” Noah said. “It’s going to be necessary for me to speak with Whitcomb, because I’m going to have to figure out how to make this look real. Incidentally, we’re going to need a death certificate. Can you make arrangements for that?”

“I actually anticipated that problem,” Catherine said. “I’ll have a coroner ready to certify his death within an hour after you make your move. It’s going to be interesting, seeing how we get out of this mess when it’s over. Oh, and incidentally, Her Majesty told me to express her appreciation for coming directly to me with this problem. Bradley, it seems, is a friend of hers, so she’s particularly furious with him at the moment.”

“When you see her again,” Noah said, “please give her our warmest regards. That is one grand lady.”

“She is that, isn’t she?” The phone went dead, and Noah blinked once as he put it back into his pocket.

He turned to Sarah. “It’s coming together,” he said. “We’ll have Whitcomb’s itinerary shortly, and we can begin working out a plan.”

“Okay,” she said. “The sooner this is over with, the better I’m going to feel.” She turned and looked at him for a moment before turning her eyes back to the road ahead. “I’m a little worried about Jenny. Sometimes, I don’t think she takes this stuff as seriously as you do.”

“And you may be right,” Noah said, “but she’s become a professional. She has to do some of these things her own way.”

Sarah nodded and switched lanes, following the traffic back toward the hotel. When she got to the entrance of the parking lot, she whipped quickly into it and found a space, then passed it by briefly and backed into it.

The doorman opened the hotel door for them and they carried their purchases inside. Several other tourists in the lobby smiled knowingly, nodding at the young couple with all the packages.

* * * * *

Neil, Jenny and Marco had decided to go sightseeing. They wandered along the Thames, took a ride on the Eye of London, the gigantic Ferris wheel that overlooked the river and the city, and ended up having lunch at a Burger King.

“I’m just curious,” Marco said, “but what kind of American idiots come all the way to London to eat a Whopper? There are thirty other restaurants around here where we could have gotten some kind of typical British faire, but we end up settling for a burger.”

“Shut up,” Jenny said. “I happen to like Burger King, and we don’t have one back in Neverland.”

“Oh, I like Burger King, all right, but we could have had that anywhere. Tonight for dinner, I want a genuine London broil, and I want it here in London.”

Neil shook his head. “That’s easy enough,” he said. “It’s on the menu in the restaurant in our hotel.” He shoved the last of his fries into his mouth and looked at Jenny. “How you feeling? Everything okay?”

She looked at him. “Yeah,” she said. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Hey, I know you, remember? You’re getting ready for your part in this mission, so I figured the bloodlust is probably starting to build up. You handling it okay?”

“I’m fine, baby,” she said. “As long as I know it’s coming, I can handle holding off. As soon as we get done with this Whitcomb situation, I’ll probably get to take out Newsom and his pals. I can hold off until then.” She grinned at him, and there was a gleam in her eye that he recognized. “Of course, there are other ways to help me keep things under control.”

They headed back to the hotel, and Marco told them to call him when they wanted to think about dinner. Neil and Jenny waved as he walked off toward his own room, then Neil opened their door and they stepped inside.

The door slammed behind them, and they both spun to find Peter Newsom standing behind it. The gun in his hand was enough to make them think twice before taking any action, so Neil looked him in the eye.

“What the hell do you want?”

“To find out what’s really going on, here,” Newsom said. He waggled the gun in Jenny’s direction. “There’s something about you that isn’t ringing true, Victoria. Some of my associates have had dealings with you before, and they seem to think you’re acting out of character. I had you followed, because I wanted to be certain that we are getting what we’re paying for. I thought we might sit down and discuss the matter.”

Jenny moved suddenly, her hand lashing out, and suddenly she was holding the gun that Newsom was pointing at them a second before. Neil lunged forward, took Newsom by his arms and shoved him roughly into the chair that was just to his left. The man yelped but didn’t try to fight, and then Neil and Jenny sat on the edge of the bed, keeping him covered with the big pistol. Jenny had passed it to Neil, and the skinny kid looked like he was daring Newsom to move.

“Okay, we’re sitting,” Neil said. “What’s this all about?”

Newsom swallowed again and then smiled. “Are you familiar with the name Efraim Nelson?”

Neil glanced at Jenny, who shook her head. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “Who is that?”

“Efraim Nelson claims to be a former client of yours, Victoria. He claims, in fact, to be the only client that you ever agreed to meet face-to-face. According to him, there is no possible way you would’ve showed up at the club the other night. Too public, he says, and then there’s the matter of his description of you. To be frank, he thinks you’re just a little too pretty to be Victoria.”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “First,” she began, “I’ve never heard of Efraim Nelson, so we can start with the assumption that he’s a braggart who’s trying to build himself up with his claims. Second, as you’ve already seen, I’m extremely cautious. It’s necessary to do face-to-face meetings sometimes, but I never go into one without putting some effort into changing the way I look, and I never go in without my backup team.” She nodded toward Neil. “Especially not without Neil. He gets pretty upset, by the way, when people point guns at me.”

“Yes, well, I’m sorry about that. The problem is, some of us have known Efraim for quite a while, and he isn’t one to ever stretch the truth. He first mentioned you to us almost two years ago, when he hired you to kill a South African reporter who was closing in on some of his own, shall we say, illicit business dealings.”

Jenny narrowed her eyes. “That would be Thomas Longo,” she said. “I remember that particular job, because it involved having to kill him on his honeymoon. The client, however, was not named Nelson.”

Newsom looked her in the eye, and his confidence began to waver. “Are you certain? Forgive me for asking, but he seems quite believable.”

“If she said it wasn’t Nelson,” Neil said with a growl in his voice, “then it wasn’t.”

Newsom looked down at the floor, and seemed nervous. “And will you kill me now?” he asked.

“Why should I kill you?” Jenny asked. “I don’t have a problem with you wanting to verify my credentials. My only concern is that this Nelson character is going to end up causing me some kind of problems. Where can I find him?”

Newsom rubbed a hand over his face. “Victoria, please,” he said. “Efraim is quite useful to my organization. I would hate to lose his contacts and experience.”

“He should’ve thought of that before he started dropping my name,” Jenny said. “You don’t want to die? The price of your life is the answer to my question. Where can I find Efraim Nelson?”

“He’s…” Newsom swallowed. “He’s back in Miami, at one of his hotels. He owns five or six of them, I can’t remember which ones.”

Jenny nodded slowly. “You just sit here and think about it,” she said. “Maybe it will come back to you.” She looked at Neil. “I need to freshen up,” she said. “If he moves, kill him.”

Neil nodded. “No problem there,” he said. “If it was up to me, he’d be dead already.”

Jenny giggled and kissed him quickly on the cheek, then got up and walked toward the bathroom. She stepped through the door and immediately started whispering.

“Activate all,” she said subvocally. “Jenny to Noah, are you there?”

“Noah to Jenny, go ahead.”

“Got back to our hotel room and found Newsom waiting inside with a gun. He claims somebody named Efraim Nelson told him that I’m not Victoria. Nelson claims to have hired Victoria to kill Longo in South Africa, and says he’s the only client she ever met face-to-face.”

“Are you in danger?”

“Oh, no, I took the gun away and Neil is keeping him covered. I just think we need to get Nelson out of the picture. This could cause problems. I told Newsom that Nelson is a liar, and I’ve never heard of him.”

“All right. I’ll touch base with Neverland.”

“Marco to Jenny,” they heard. “You guys need me?”

“Jenny to Marco, I think we’ve got it covered. Keep this on, just in case. Jenny to Noah, let me know what happens.”

She stepped out of the bathroom a moment later, and sat down beside Neil on the bed once again.

“Now, where were we? Oh, yes, we’re going to talk more about these other jobs you might want me to do. This thing with Mr. Whitcomb, that’s obviously just a test assignment. He may be some kind of bigwig in the U.K. police, but I have trouble believing he could actually cause you any serious problems. Who is the real target, the one you were not planning to tell me about until after this?”

Newsom looked at her, and a small grin appeared on his face. “If I tell you that now,” he said, “what will I have to surprise you with later?”

“If you don’t tell me,” Jenny said sweetly, “you don’t have to worry about surprising anybody later, because there won’t be any later.”

The grin faltered. “All right, look,” he said. “There are targets that are pretty much impossible...”

“There is no such thing as an impossible target,” Jenny said. “It all depends on the difficulty, and what it’s worth to the client.”

“It’s worth a lot, I assure you, my dear,” Newsom said. “That’s because it’s an extremely difficult one. There’s also the fact that you have to be absolutely certain that it could never come back to the PRA. Is that something you can handle?”

“I don’t believe anyone has ever found out who my clients were. To be honest, I’ve always prided myself on that.”

Newsom nodded nervously. “Yes, yes, I’m sure,” he said. “On the other hand, I don’t think you’ve ever taken on an assignment quite like this one. The target is the head of a very secure organization, and is literally surrounded by people with skills that rival your own.”

ELEVEN

Noah checked the time and saw that it was nearly 2 PM, which made it almost 7 AM back at Neverland. He dialed Allison’s direct cell number.

“Camelot? Report.”

“We may have a slight problem,” Noah said. “Newsom showed up here in London and has confronted Jenny. He claims that a man named Efraim Nelson told him that Jenny could not be Victoria. Nelson apparently owns hotels in Miami, and he’s at one of them now. Can you arrange for him to disappear?”

“What’s his connection to the situation?” Allison asked.

“According to Newsom, Nelson claims to be the one who arranged for Victoria to kill Thomas Longo, a South African reporter. Jenny denied knowing him, of course, but this could become a serious issue.”

“I’ll handle it,” Allison said. “Any progress on identifying leadership of the PRA?”

“The only thing we know so far is that Newsom is not running it alone. He had several people with him in Miami, and they all seemed to have a voice in the activities of the organization. This is going to take a little longer.”

“Very well,” Allison said. “Report when you know more.” The line went dead.

Noah dropped his phone onto the nightstand and looked at Sarah. The expression on her face made him tune into Jenny once again.

“Noah,” Sarah said, “do you hear this?”

Noah nodded. “I do. He’s talking about Allison.”

* * * * *

Jenny looked at Newsom. “Okay, so there might be some difficulty,” she said. “That’s never stopped me before.”

“And that’s precisely why we wanted to test you on Mr. Whitcomb,” Newsom said. “As the chief officer of the British law enforcement community, getting to him will present some difficulties of its own. If you can accomplish that, then we can believe that you might be able to accomplish the other assignment.”

“So, Whitcomb is not really an important target? Did you pick him at random, just for a test of my abilities?”

“Of course not,” Newsom said. “Whitcomb is definitely a problem, and we absolutely want his successor in place as soon as possible. We’ve already got arrangements made with him that will simplify a lot of our operations in the U.K.”

Jenny looked him in the eye. “Well, you’ve already paid the retainer, so I’m committed. I’ll take care of Whitcomb, but you can go ahead and give me the details on the next job. Of course, I want the rest of my pay for this one and a retainer on the next before I actually commit to it.”

“Naturally,” Newsom said. He seemed to be starting to relax. “And we’ll be happy to pay. I simply had to be sure that you were exactly who we believed you to be. Surely you can understand that.”

Jenny leaned down until she was almost nose to nose with him. “Of course I understand,” she said. “However, if you ever try to surprise me again, I’m going to cut off certain very important parts of your anatomy and feed them to you. Do we understand each other?”

Newsom swallowed hard. “Of course, Victoria,” he said. “I can assure you, there is no longer any doubt in my mind that you are the person we want for this kind of work.”

“Noah to Jenny,” she heard inside her head. “Try to confirm that the next target is Allison.”

She leaned back and smiled. “Excellent. Now, let’s talk about this second job. You said the target will be surrounded by people with skills like my own. Just who is this target?”

“Have you ever heard of the American organization known as E & E?” Newsom asked.

“Of course I have,” Jenny said. “They handle assassinations for America and its allies. You’re talking about whoever runs it? I take it you’ve learned who that is? The last I knew, that was one of the United States’ most closely guarded secrets.”

“Yes,” Newsom said with a grin. “E & E is run by a woman, and her name is Allison Peterson. According to our intelligence, she was a low level CIA analyst until she got the attention of the president. For some reason, she was chosen to run the organization and was given absolute control over decisions regarding assassinations. Every other organization has to submit a request to her, and she decides whether or not the assassination is justified. Unfortunately, she has been authorizing the assassinations of certain people we prefer to have in place. We believe that if she is eliminated, it will stymie the organization for at least several months, allowing us to complete some plans that are already laid out.”

Jenny hunched over as if deep in thought for a moment, closing her eyes and appearing to concentrate. In reality, she was talking to Noah.

“Jenny to Noah,” she whispered. “Holy crap, Noah. Allison is going to go through the roof.”

“Noah to Jenny. Agree to the job, but set a very high fee and demand to meet with his superiors. This might be how we identify the top people in the PRA.”

Jenny opened her eyes and looked at Newsom. “I can accomplish it, if my fee is met,” she said. “For something like this, we are talking about ten million, and one half of that upfront. On top of that, I want to sit down face-to-face with your bosses. I’m not taking on something like this until I know everyone involved.”

Newsom’s eyes went wide. “I can ask,” he said. “However, we don’t ever get together in one place. That would be madness, because it would risk exposing our association. I could arrange individual meetings, perhaps.”

“Noah to Jenny, agree to it. The key is identification. Once we know who they are, taking them out won’t be that difficult.”

Jenny nodded. “Then get it set up. Just make sure they understand that I’m not playing games, here. If I decide to take on this job, then I’m going to want to move quickly. For now, though, I want you to get out of my sight and out of my hair. You want Whitcomb taken out, and you already paid my retainer, so get your ass out of London and wait for me to contact you after the job is done. Understood?”

Newsom looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he simply nodded his head. “All right,” he said. “What do you want me to do about Nelson? If he’s been lying to us, then we need to…”

Jenny smiled. “You do nothing,” she said. “I’ve already taken care of it.” She reached over and took the gun from Neil, and removed its magazine and cleared its chamber, then handed it back to Newsom. “You can keep this, but don’t ever point it at me again.  You won’t live through it a second time.”

Newsom swallowed again as he took the gun, then tucked it into the holster at the back of his pants and got to his feet. “I’ll have the meetings arranged once this job is finished,” he said. “I look forward to hearing from you.” He turned and walked out the door, and Neil stuck his head out to watch him walk away. When he closed the door, he turned and looked at Jenny.

“Are these people for real?” he asked. “Neil to Noah, this is getting crazy.”

“Noah to Neil, I agree. Scan the security in the building, make sure he doesn’t have anybody watching you. Sarah and I will be right over. Marco, meet us there.”

“Neil to Noah, you got it, boss.” He went to the table and opened his computer, then hacked into the building’s security video system as Marco came inside the room. As near as he could tell, there was no one standing around in the lobby or hallways that seemed to be overly watchful. He scanned for any kind of listening or recording devices, but found nothing. By the time Noah and Sarah arrived ten minutes later, he was confident that no one was paying any attention to them.

“I think we could all hear fairly well,” Noah said. “These subcoms are worth their weight in gold, for that ability alone. I’m going to call Allison and bring her up to date now, so everybody be quiet for a moment.” He took out his phone and dialed Allison’s number again, and she answered even before he heard it ring.

“Camelot, report,” she said.

“There’s an entirely new development,” Noah said. “Jenny was able to learn the identity of the next target, the real target. It’s you, Allison. Somehow, they know your name, how you came into your position and everything, and they believe that if you are taken out, it will throw the organization into an uproar and keep us from accomplishing anything for a while.”

“Seriously?” Allison asked with a chuckle. “I think I’ve got contingencies covered better than that. If anything happens to me, Don Jefferson knows exactly how to take over and run this outfit without even missing a beat.”

“Yes, ma’am, but my concern is how they gained so much information. We may be able to find out, because Jenny has arranged to meet with PRA’s so-called Board of Directors. They won’t gather in one place, so she’s going to have to meet with each of them individually.”

“Well, that will at least let us identify their top people. Don’t get me wrong, Noah, I’m a little concerned about how my identity got out there, myself. On the other hand, if it leads to shutting their organization down, it may well be a small price to pay.”

“Understood,” Noah said. “We’re going to proceed with the Whitcomb fake assassination, then. She’s to meet with these people after that’s accomplished.”

“Good work, Camelot,” Allison said. “And give Jenny a pat on the back for me.” The line, as it always did when Allison was finished speaking, went dead.

Noah looked around at his team. “All right, onto this mission. I got Whitcomb’s itinerary from Catherine Potts just a bit ago. Jenny, since we want to do this in front of witnesses, the ideal opportunity is going to come tomorrow at lunchtime. He’s going to be having lunch with none other than James Bradley in the Excelsior restaurant tomorrow at twelve thirty. We’re going to set it up for then, because that way even Bradley will be convinced.”

“Okay,” Jenny said. “Now, Victoria likes a headshot with a twenty-two. Any idea how we’re going to pull this off without actually killing the man?”

“I’ve already figured that out,” Neil said. “A little Hollywood movie magic is all it will take. I can rig up a squib, the little gizmo that makes it look like somebody’s been shot. Whitcomb has a full head of hair, so we can hide it in the hair on the back of his head. I’ll set it up with Bluetooth; Jenny will have an app on her phone that will make it go off and splatter blood just as she fires a blank at the guy, activated by the sound of the blank going off. And all he’s got to do is fall down and groan for a bit. Twenty-two doesn’t always kill instantly, even with a headshot, so he gets loaded in an ambulance and hauled off to the hospital, where he passes away conveniently.”

Jenny grinned. “Oh, I like it,” she said.

“So do I,” Noah said. He picked up his phone and dialed another number, then said, “Catherine? Camelot. I’ve gone over the itinerary, and we’ve chosen Whitcomb’s lunch tomorrow as the perfect opportunity. He’s having lunch with Bradley, so that lets the PRA’s new fair-haired boy be the number one witness.” He quickly explained how they wanted to pull off the fake assassination, and Catherine assured him she would make all the necessary arrangements.

“And incidentally,” she said, “I spoke with my man Albert just moments ago. Whitcomb is furious about this, but he’s agreed to cooperate. I told him that he would need to meet with you, and he said to let you know that he will be available at any time. I’m assuming you want that meeting in the morning?”

“Yes, because we’ll have to set up the device that makes it look like he’s been shot. Let’s arrange to meet with him at ten. That should allow plenty of time to set it up, and make sure we are out of sight before all the excitement begins. Now, once the shot is fired, we need to coach him not to try to play dead, but to moan and groan. The story will be that he was shot in the head with a twenty-two, which doesn’t always kill immediately. He needs to look and act like a man who’s completely disoriented as he’s hauled off to the hospital. You’ll need an ambulance to pick him up, and be ready to make a public announcement that he passed away at the hospital after the shooting.”

“That’s actually going to be the easiest part,” Catherine said. “I’ll make sure the right doctor is on duty in the trauma ward, a man I can trust. He’ll cooperate, because there will be great recognition for him when this is all over. Whitcomb will be pronounced dead in the trauma ward, and the coroner will certify it almost immediately.”

“That’s good. What about security around him for his lunch meeting?”

“They’ll all be my people,” Catherine replied. “They know what’s coming, but they also know not to catch the shooter.”

“That’ll be perfect,” Noah said. “I wish all of our jobs went as smoothly as they do when we work with you. Set up the meeting for tomorrow morning, and we’ll be ready.”

He ended the call and turned to Neil. “What do you need to set this up?”

Neil grinned. “A quick trip to the electronics store, and something to use for fake blood.  And I can probably get that at any costume shop.”

“All right, you and Marco go get what you need. Jenny will stay here with us. Don’t forget about the twenty-two blank round. We don’t want to accidentally kill the guy.”

“Quick question. Do we have anybody in London that can provide us with guns and ammunition?”

“Well, Leon Kendall is our station chief, here. He can generally get anything we need, let me give him a call.”

He dialed the number from memory and put the phone to his ear. When it was answered, he said, “This is Travis Lightner. Would Mr. Kendall happen to be in?” He waited for a moment, and then Kendall came on the line. “Mr. Kendall, this is Travis Lightner. You remember me?”

“Of course, Mr. Lightner,” Kendall said. “This line is secure, what can I do for you?”

“I’m in need of a small, easily concealed twenty-two caliber pistol, and some blank cartridges. Can you help me out with that?”

“No problem at all,” Kendall said. “When and where?”

“You tell me. I got a couple people going out to do some shopping right now, so they could meet you wherever you like.”

“Hey, that works. I was just about to take a break for a late lunch. I can gather up what you need and meet somebody at Nine Elms Tavern. It’s just across the road from the U.S. Embassy, on the Riverwalk. Say thirty minutes?”

“It might take them a few more minutes to get there, but they’ll meet you. I think you’ll recognize them.”

“Sounds good,” Kendall said. “Looking forward to it. By the way, what brings you to town?”

“We’re here on business,” Noah said. “I’ll let them fill you in, or you might talk to Catherine. I’m afraid she’s gotten ahead of you on this one, too.”

Kendall laughed. “That doesn’t surprise me a bit. Just let me know if you need anything else.”

“We will, and thanks.” Noah ended the call and told Neil and Marco where to meet Kendall. “He says he can provide what you need. Tell him what’s going on, the part about Whitcomb. Let’s not mention anything about Allison being a target.”

“You got it, boss,” Marco said. Neil kissed Jenny goodbye, and the two men walked out the door.

As soon as they were gone, Jenny turned to Noah. “Well? What’s your take on this?”

“I don’t think Allison being a target is really all that big a surprise,” Noah said. “As head of the E & E, she’s undoubtedly expected to be on somebody’s radar at some point. My concern is how they got their information. It could point to a leak inside the organization, and if there is one, we need to plug it as soon as possible.”

“Shouldn’t you mention that to Allison?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t need to,” Noah said. “She will have figured it out for herself. What we need to do is continue with our mission. That’s our priority.”

“Okay,” Jenny said. “We just have to finish faking Whitcomb’s death, then start this round of meetings with the PRA. It’s just frustrating that we can’t get them all together at one time, that would make it so much easier.”

“Yes, but since Newsom is not the top man,” Noah said, “we have to figure out who’s running the organization, and who he answers to. Those meetings are the only way we’re going to identify everyone necessary, but once we know who they are, they won’t be hard to take out. We can put every team on it if we have to, and even split them up. The whole bunch of these people needs to go down all at once, if possible.”

Sarah nodded. “Every team has someone like Marco, so that gives us more potential assassins. Hell, even Neil and I could make a hit if we absolutely had to.”

“It could come to that,” Noah said. “We’ve got four active teams, so that’s potentially as many as twelve people. If this Board of Directors isn’t bigger than that, then we can leave somebody on each one as you meet them.”

“Why do you think they want to kill Allison?” Jenny asked. “Newsom said it’s because they think the organization will be somehow handicapped if she’s gone, but that doesn’t really make any sense. It’s a government outfit, it’s going to have contingency plans, a way to keep going if something happens to its leadership. That standard operating procedure for any government organization.”

“I would imagine there would be a short time where things were in an uproar,” Noah said. “Look at what happened when Andropov attacked Neverland, or when Allison was arrested. The whole place was shook up, and even Doc Parker had a hard time keeping his hand on the reins.”

“Well, at least we were lucky enough to intercept this thing,” Sarah said. “If Victoria hadn’t gotten herself killed, Allison might have been in real danger.”

Noah looked at her. “If the PRA doesn’t believe Jenny really is Victoria,” he said solemnly, “she still might be.”

TWELVE

Allison hung up from talking to Noah and pressed the intercom button on her phone. “Susan,” she said, speaking to her secretary, “get Don and Molly in here.”

“Yes, ma’am,” came the reply. Three minutes later, Molly arrived only a split second before Donald Jefferson. Jefferson was the first to speak.

“What’s going on, Allison?”

“I just heard from Camelot,” she said. “Jenny has managed to get the identity of the next target that the PRA wants eliminated. Surprise, surprise, it’s me.”

“You?” Molly said with a gasp. “They’ve got to be kidding.”

“Somehow I doubt it,” Allison said. “Noah said they know an awful lot about me, such as how I got this job. I hate to say it, but you know what that means.”

“It means we have a leak,” Jefferson said. “And it’s got to be somebody high enough in the organization to be able to give them that much info. Any suspects?”

Allison looked at him with a grin. “Besides you? Not at the moment, but I’m counting on you to put a list on my desk by the end of the day.” She turned to Molly. “As long as they keep thinking that Jenny is Victoria, I’m probably not in any real danger. However, Donald can tell you that I have always planned for this eventuality. Should anything happen to me, he takes over as director immediately. At that time, Molly, you will step in as his deputy. Understood?”

Molly’s eyes went wide. “Me? Ma’am, that would put me in the position of being third in command. I’ll be blunt and honest, and tell you that I don’t know that I could make the kind of decisions that job could require.”

“Nonsense, you’re perfectly capable of it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about you in the time you’ve been with us, is that you understand the necessity of our existence and of the things we do. If it ever comes down to you having to order a sanction, you’d do it because it has to be done. Trust me, Molly, I’m a very good judge of character. I wouldn’t put you in this position if I wasn’t certain you can handle it.”

Molly swallowed. “Well, then,” she said hesitantly, “I suppose I would do my best.”

“Of course you would,” Allison said. She turned back to Jefferson. “Donald, talk to Parker. We need to start looking for the leak, and we need to find them as soon as possible. When we do, I don’t want any specific action taken. We just need to identify the leak so that we can use them to our own advantage.”

“Naturally,” Jefferson said. “Sometimes, knowing who the spies in your midst are is the most powerful weapon in your arsenal.”

Allison grinned. “Exactly.”

* * * * *

Marco and Neil were gone for almost two hours, but Neil was obviously happy when they returned. Marco dropped a big bucket of fried chicken onto the table in Neil and Jenny’s room while Neil started digging things out of bags. Noah picked up the chicken and took a piece while Neil started talking.

“I got everything we need,” the skinny kid said. “And, just for the record, Kendall is a freaking genius. Jenny, check this out.”

He held out a small box, and Jenny took it from him. When she opened it, her face broke into a smile.

“Is this what I think it is?” she asked. She reached into the box and took out what looked like a large electronic cigarette, then turned it over and over in her hands. “Wait a minute, I don’t see any openings.” She looked up at Neil.

“That,” he said with a grin, “is a single shot, twenty-two caliber pistol. It’s also a fully functional vape unit, just push the button and take a puff.”

Jenny stuck the tip in her mouth and pushed the button on the side of the unit, inhaled for a second and then blew out a stream of water vapor. “Tastes like ice cream,” she said with a chuckle. “But how do I fire it?”

“Press the button five times in rapid succession, and the bottom cap opens up. When it’s open, that exposes the barrel. The next time you push the button, it fires, and then the cap closes. Kendall said the reason it’s so thick is because it’s got a sound suppressor built into it. It shouldn’t be much louder than the sound of a firecracker.”

Jenny grinned. “This is pretty sweet. I’ve seen things like it before, but nothing I could get away with carrying openly.”

“It’s got enough vapor fluid and battery for about half an hour of puffing away, so you can be using it while you wait for the chance to shoot. Of course, it’s loaded with a blank cartridge, so there’s no risk of you actually shooting the poor guy. You just have to remember to turn on the app on your phone a couple of minutes before you fire off the blank.”

“You just get it set up,” Jenny said. “Trust me, I know what to do.”

“I’m on it,” Neil said. He sat at the table and started working, connecting small electronic components to various other parts. The rest of them munched on chicken while they watched, until Neil finally inserted his contraption into a small balloon. He then used a syringe to fill the balloon with a thick, red liquid that looked for all the world like real blood.

“That’s it,” he said. “We hide this up under the guy’s hair, and when Jenny hits the button, it goes pop and blood starts running down the back of his head. It doesn’t really make any noise to speak of, but he’ll feel it. As soon as he does, all he’s got to do is fall forward and start groaning. As long as he doesn’t sit up and start talking, it’s going to look like a very well-planned assassination.” He leaned in toward Noah. “You know, she wouldn’t really even have to fire that blank cartridge. Just the fact that blood flies around all of a sudden is going to make it obvious he was supposedly shot. I could just rig it up on a simple remote control.”

Noah shook his head. “That’s exactly why she has to fire it,” he said. “The idea is for Jenny to be close enough to be spotted in video of the shooting, but to be able to get away before anybody catches on that it was her. That way, the PRA will see her in the news footage and be convinced that she really is Victoria.”

“You expect to have news cameras there?” Jenny asked.

“He’s a bigwig,” Noah said. “There will be some kind of camera trained on him, you can count on it. It may only be cell phones, but the footage will make it to the news pretty quickly. We just have to hope that none of the other patrons of the restaurant realize it was you and try to restrain you. The last thing we want is for anyone to actually get hurt.”

Neil looked at him. “Hey, I could help with that a bit. I can make a few other little explosives to go off at the same time the squib does, louder ones that will sound like a gunshot. One of us could place them around the restaurant, so there will be a lot of confusion about which direction the shot came from. They’d even be louder than the little vapor gun, so almost nobody would think she did it.”

Noah sucked in his cheek and chewed on it for a second, then nodded. “Do it,” he said. “You and I are probably the most recognizable of our team, but Marco and Sarah could pose as tourists who stopped in for lunch. If they put some of those in different spots, it should add to the confusion and make it easier for Jenny to slip away.”

“Which is exactly why I thought of it,” Neil said, grinning. “The last thing we need is for anybody to start pointing the finger at her, or the police showing up too quick and trying to hold onto her for any reason. If the PRA were to think she was compromised, they could go looking to hire somebody else to go after the Dragon Lady.”

“Gee, thanks,” Jenny said. “And for a moment there, I thought you were just trying to take care of your best girl.”

“But isn’t that exactly what I’m doing?” Neil asked, holding out a hand toward her.

Jenny grinned and took it, then threw both arms around his neck and kissed him.

“Okay, get a room,” Marco said. “Hey, Noah, what’s the chance I can get Renée added onto our team?”

Noah glanced at him. “You have to ask Allison,” he said. “To be honest, I can’t think of any particular talent she has that we could use out here in the field.”

Marco grinned. “I can.”

“Ignore him, Noah,” Sarah said. “He’s just jealous because he’s the only one who doesn’t have a sweetheart along with him.”

Marco opened his mouth to make a retort, but Noah’s phone rang at that moment. He picked it up and saw that it was Catherine Potts calling, and put it on speakerphone.

“Catherine?”

“Yes, Camelot,” she said. “I hate to bother you, but I just got off the phone with my man who’s handling Whitcomb, and it seems Mr. Whitcomb is demanding to speak with you tonight. I believe he simply wants some kind of reassurance that the assassination isn’t going to be a real one, but he also wants to speak with me about the security arrangements that will go into effect for his wife and children. Would it be possible for you and your team to join us for dinner, seven-ish?”

“Yes,” Noah said. “Where?”

“There’s a restaurant called Round Table,” she said. “You can look it up for the address, I can’t think of it off the top of my head, but just be sure that nobody follows you.”

“No problem,” Noah said. “You want the entire team to be there?”

“I’m afraid so,” Catherine said with a sigh. “Whitcomb is demanding to meet all of you.”

“We’ll be there. See you then.”

“Cheers,” Catherine said, and then the line went dead.

“Noah? Is this really a good idea?” Marco asked. “If Newsom had somebody following Jenny before, he probably still does.”

“Probably,” Noah said. “But that’s why we won’t be leaving by the usual exits. Neil, can you hack into the building security here? We need to know that no one is watching when we leave, because we’re going down to the basement and leaving through the service exits.”

Neil turned to his computer and opened it up, then started tapping on the keyboard. Less than a minute later, he held up a thumb. “I’m in,” he said. “There’s nobody in our hallway, but there are quite a few people just lounging around the lobby. No way to know if any of them are watching for us, so I suggest we assume one of them is. The elevator goes all the way to the basement, but if I were spying on us, I’d probably have a camera hidden in the elevators. Security cameras in the stairs show no activity, so that’s probably the best way out.”

“What about the basement itself?”

“This place has more cameras than anywhere I’ve ever seen,” Neil said a moment later. “The only people I see in the basement are doing the laundry, washing the sheets and such. I would guess they are just about done for the day, but they may have another shift coming on duty. On the other hand, where the laundry area is located is nowhere near the back service entrance. We should be able to go right past them without ever being noticed.”

“All right,” Noah said. “If we had a tail, they probably saw you coming with the chicken, so it won’t be terribly surprising if we don’t go down to the restaurant for dinner. Check out this Round Table restaurant, see how fancy it is. Can we get by with the way we’re dressed?”

Neil called up the website for the restaurant and scanned through it, then turned to Noah. “Looks like a casual place, to be honest. It’s got a lounge connected to it that even has a dance floor.”

“All right, then,” Noah said. “It’s almost five thirty, and we still need to find a taxi. Let’s head out, and everybody keep your eyes peeled for anyone trying to follow us.”

The girls went into the bathroom to freshen up their makeup, and they were ready to go less than ten minutes later. Neil checked the hallway security cameras once more and declared it clear, and then they walked out of the room and down to the emergency stairwell.

Because the stairs were sometimes used by hotel staff, there was no fire alarm on the door leading into the stairwell. It was unlocked, and they simply opened it and walked through, then made their way down the stairs. When they got to the basement, Noah glanced through the window on the door to make sure there was no one in plain sight, and then they quickly made their way through the hallways between the various rooms used for hotel service operations and to the back service entrance.

The door was locked, and was connected to the alarm system. It took Marco less than a minute to disable the alarm, and only thirty seconds more to pick the locks. They stepped out into the evening and found themselves in an alley behind the building. A short distance away, another alley led directly away from the hotel, and they walked through it quietly to emerge onto a busy street.

There was another hotel just a block away, so they walked toward it. A taxi pulled in to discharge passengers just as they got there, and the driver was happy to pick up another fare so quickly.

“Round Table restaurant,” Noah said.

“You got it, Guv’ner,” the driver said. He pressed the start button on his meter and drove away, and delivered them to the restaurant a half-hour later. Noah paid the fare and added a generous tip, and the five of them walked inside.

“We’re a little early,” Sarah said. “Think we should wait?”

“Probably,” Noah said. There were some benches near the front of the restaurant, and they all sat down to wait for Catherine and Whitcomb to arrive.

They didn’t have to wait very long. Catherine showed up with Whitcomb and another man just a few minutes later, and wasn’t a bit surprised to see Noah and the team waiting for her.

“You could’ve gotten us a table,” she said with a grin.

“I wasn’t sure how many were coming with you,” Noah said. “I figured it would be better to just wait.”

“That’s fine. We occasionally have meetings here, so the staff is accustomed to us. They have a small private dining room toward the back, and that’s where we’ll be going.” She stepped up to speak to the maître d’, and he smiled as he led the way back to the private room.

The waiter came in and took their orders, and Catherine waited to make introductions until he was gone. As soon as they were alone, she turned to Whitcomb.

“Mr. Whitcomb,” she said, “allow me to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Lightner,  Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson, and Mr. Davis. Gentlemen, and ladies, this is Randall Whitcomb and Albert Lingenfelter. Albert is one of my agents, and very good at what he does.”

“It’s good to meet you both,” Noah said.

“Yes, well,” Whitcomb said, gruffly, “I’m not 100% certain I can say the same. Albert has explained to me what the situation is, but I’m a bit flabbergasted. Is it true that a gang of terrorists is trying to have me assassinated?”

“Yes, sir,” Noah said. “In fact, they reached out to hire the most capable assassin they could find. Considering your line of work, I’m sure you’ve heard of the assassin known only as Victoria?”

“Victoria? Bloody hell, of course I have. They actually sent her after me? Surely I’m not that important, or that hard to get to.”

“Well, it seems that the people who wanted you killed consider the job difficult enough to make a good test case for Victoria. They actually have another target they want eliminated, but they wanted to see if she had any difficulty getting to you, first.”

“But she’s not actually going to take the job, is she? I’ve been given to understand that you blighters are going to simply make it look as if I’m dead. Is that right?”

“Unfortunately, Victoria is no longer available to take any jobs. Our friends in the Mossad saw to that, and so we’ve got one of our own people pretending to be her.” He pointed at Jenny. “Mrs. Jamieson will be the one posing as Victoria, and we’ve got a device rigged up that will go into the hair on the back of your head and make it appear that you’ve been shot. I was planning to brief you on all of this tomorrow morning, but it doesn’t hurt to do it tonight. The key you need to remember is that you don’t have to play dead or hold your breath. Once the squib goes off, you simply fall forward on your face and continue breathing naturally. You can moan periodically, as if you’re in pain, but be careful not to respond to questions or anything else. Make yourself as limp as possible, so that you have to be lifted off the table and laid on the gurney.”

“I’ve made arrangements,” Catherine interjected, “for some of my people to be manning the ambulance. They put on a good show of checking you over, but they’ll be fully aware that you’re not truly injured. Once they get you into the ambulance, they’ll rush you to the hospital where I’ve got a doctor standing by to pronounce you dead on arrival. You’ll be spirited out of the hospital, while another corpse ends up wearing your toe tag.”

“And then I’m off into hiding,” Whitcomb said. “What about Ingrid, and the children?”

“Well, obviously we can’t do anything until after the alleged assassination. As soon as you are taken off to hospital, another team of mine will be sent to pick them up for security reasons. They’ll be informed at that time that the assassination is not real, and an announcement will be made that they are being transported to a safe location during Scotland Yard’s investigation. Later in the afternoon, you’ll be brought to the same location, and we shall do everything possible to ensure that no one finds you.”

Whitcomb scratched his ear. “And how bloody long is all this going to go on? All I know is that somebody wants me dead, and I’m supposed to play along because you blokes are trying to handle things in your own way. You bloody Yanks always telling us what to do. This should actually be my investigation, if you want my opinion.”

“Your lordship,” Catherine said, “our government has an agreement with the Americans to allow them to handle that sort of thing. They have specialists for the purpose, and the people you see before you are the very best. It is absolutely imperative that we cooperate with them, and not do anything to jeopardize their operation.”

“Which still doesn’t tell me how long I’ve got to stay hidden. Are we talking a day or two, or weeks? Months, perhaps?”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that,” Noah said. “Our orders are to identify and eliminate the leadership of the PRA. That’s the group behind this contract, but we can’t complete that mission until they are satisfied that Mrs. Jamieson is Victoria. I don’t believe it will take more than a week after the events tomorrow, but I cannot say that with certainty. The only thing I can tell you is that by cooperating with us, you’ll be helping us to make the world a much safer place for many people, including yourself and your family.”

Whitcomb stared at him for a moment, then grunted. “Well, when you put it like that,” he said. “Very well, then, I will cooperate. Just, please, let us not keep me on ice any longer than necessary. Albert has explained to me that Bradley is supposed to take my place, and has already made deals with these people. You cannot imagine the pleasure I will feel when I can walk in and place the bloody bastard under arrest.”

“You’re right,” Noah said. “I can’t.”

“I bloody well can,” Albert said, speaking for the first time. “Never have liked that son of a bitch. Just a bit too greasy for my taste.”

Catherine grinned. “All right, Albert,” she said. “Gentlemen, are there any other questions?”

Whitcomb shook his head. “I understand we’ll be meeting tomorrow morning,” he said. “I’ve arranged a little subterfuge for that, so that my itinerary calls for me to be in my office, but I’ll be off someplace with Albert, here. He’ll let you know where, and we can do whatever it is we need to do.”

Albert took a slip of paper out of a pocket and passed it to Noah. “This is the address of an empty building,” he said. “His Lordship and I will meet you there, in a cargo van behind the building. How long will it take to do what you need to do?”

Noah glanced at Neil, who shrugged. “Maybe two or three minutes,” he said. “I literally just have to clip something into the hair on the back of his head. As soon as I do that, it’s all set.”

“Is it that simple?” Albert asked. “Pity you couldn’t just pass it off and let me do it. We took enough of a bloody risk meeting you tonight, I hate to blow this whole thing because somebody follows you tomorrow morning.”

Neil looked at Noah, then turned back to Albert. “Actually, I had the same thought. If it’s okay with Mr. Lightner, I’ll give it to you now and show you how to set it up.”

Noah nodded. “Excellent idea,” he said.

Neil got out of his chair and walked around behind Whitcomb’s. He took the squib out of his pocket and showed it to Albert, then lifted up the long, wavy hair that Whitcomb had on the back of his head. “I thought of this when I saw pictures of Mr. Whitcomb, and saw how long his hair is. It hangs down past the collar of his jacket, so this will fit up underneath it very well. I would put it right about here,” he said, indicating a spot low on the back of Whitcomb’s head, “and just use this clip to hold it in place.” He demonstrated by putting it into place, then took it out again and passed it to Albert. “Once you’ve got it clipped into his hair, pull that little piece of plastic out and that turns it on. After that, it’ll go off when we want it to and make it look like he’s been shot.”

“This is like what they do in the films,” Albert said. “Simple, but effective.”

“Isn’t that the best way?” Catherine asked.

THIRTEEN

Dinner lasted about an hour, and then they all headed back to the hotel. They took a taxi directly to the front door, and walked through the lobby as if they had not a care in the world. Nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them, but Noah felt sure that somebody noticed they had slipped out. He didn’t anticipate any problems, but it was doubtful their departure had escaped some kind of observation.

As soon as they got back to the room, Noah took out his phone. He hit a couple of buttons and then put it on speaker.

“Brigadoon Investments,” said a feminine voice. “How may I direct your call?”

“Allison, please,” Noah said.

The line was put on hold, and they listened to some old pop tunes for a few seconds. The music ended suddenly, and Allison Peterson’s voice came on the line. “This is Allison.”

“Camelot,” Noah said. “I’m wondering if we have any other assets in London at the moment.”

“In London?” Allison asked. “What do you need?”

“We know that Newsom had somebody following Jenny, at least, because he showed up earlier today. We got to meet with Whitcomb tonight, so we won’t have to go tomorrow morning to set him up, but I still get the feeling we’re being watched. I was hoping you might have somebody around here who could help run interference for us tomorrow.”

“I can call in a few favors, get some eyes out there to watch your backs. You think Newsom still doesn’t believe Jenny is Victoria?”

“I think he’s being ridiculously cautious,” Noah said. “Considering what they want out of her next, though, that shouldn’t be all that surprising.”

“Yes, well,” Allison said. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad we got the opportunity to intercept this mission. We always knew that, sooner or later, word about me was going to get out. I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised that some of these outfits are going to want me dead.”

“From their point of view, it’s understandable. You’re the lady who can order U.S. assets to forgo all due process of law. The simple word from you, and they know that they won’t have very long to live.”

“Okay, okay, that makes even more sense. Are you anticipating any kind of interference in this part of the mission? These people following you, I mean?”

“I don’t really know,” Noah said. “The PRA definitely wants Whitcomb eliminated, and as far as they can tell, Victoria is on the job. I can’t imagine they’d want to risk blowing her shot.”

Allison grunted. “Were dealing with people who are crazy to begin with,” she said. “I’m guessing they’re going to make contact with her after this job is done?”

“Actually, they gave Jenny a number to call when it’s finished. After the little tête-à-tête they had earlier today, Newsom is probably sitting on a plane with that phone in his hand. I think he’s just a bit afraid of our girl.”

“He probably should be. Camelot, I want you to understand something. You have my approval if you decide to call off this mission. If anything smells funny to you, I want you to get yourself and your team out of there.”

“No, I think we’re going to ride this out,” Noah said. “If it was only Newsom, we could be done with this already. The problem is that we know there are others involved, but have no idea who they are. Newsom is supposed to be setting up meetings for Jenny with all of them, which is our best bet for figuring out who they are. If we can take out everyone from Newsom up, the PRA should be finished.”

“Yes, but you guys are too valuable a team to lose. That’s why I’m giving you the go-ahead right now to call it off if you smell a trap. Considering that they seem to have me in their crosshairs, we have to consider the possibility that they might know exactly who you are, who Jenny is. Meanwhile, I’ll get CIA to loan us a few people to keep an eye on whoever is keeping an eye on you. If it appears you’re being followed tomorrow morning, I’ll make sure the followers run into unexpected interference.”

“All right. I’m sending Marco and Sarah into the restaurant where the assassination is going to take place, because Neil came up with a way to help create some diversions when it’s time for Jenny to get out of there. They’ll have to play their part as witnesses, but Catherine’s people will be in charge of the investigation. It shouldn’t be too hard for them to get out within a short time.”

“Your call,” Allison said. “There’s a reason I put you in charge, remember?”

“We’ll handle it. This fake assassination is going to draw enough attention from the news media that every cell phone video or any other kind of footage is going to be blasted all over the news. Jenny should get close enough to Whitcomb to show up on some of that video footage, which ought to cancel out any doubts our new client company might have.”

“What about letting Sarah and Marco get video?” Neil asked. “That way you can be certain that it gets any on camera.”

“But Newsom has seen all of you,” Allison said. “In fact, I think you want to do your best to make sure they don’t show up on any of that video footage. It might look fishy to the PRA.”

Noah was quiet for a second, then shook his head. “On the contrary,” he said. “The fact that Newsom and his friends saw all of us back in Miami can be used to our advantage in this. Sarah, when you and Marco go in, make sure you sit someplace where you can get clear footage of Jenny coming up behind Whitcomb. We’ll get you a phone to use for the purpose, because I don’t want to compromise your actual phone, just in case you have to hand this one over to the police. If you get a clear shot of Jenny pointing her weapon just as the squib goes off, it’s going to look like absolute evidence that Victoria got the job done. However, we won’t give it to the police unless we have to. Jenny can simply send the video directly to Newsom.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Sarah said. “And it means we don’t have to worry about hoping somebody gets it on camera. Of course, if the cops get there in time to take it from me, then it will just end up on the news anyway, right?”

“Exactly,” Noah said. “I’m fairly certain we can make this look the way we want, and Catherine’s people can probably get you out of there in a hurry. Agent Lingenfelter will be there when it happens, and he’ll know that you’re with us. I suspect he’ll be happy to look the other way while you and Marco leave the restaurant.”

“It sounds like you got it under control, Noah,” Allison said. “I’ll leave it in your hands, but call if you need anything.”

The line went dead.

Noah turned to Jenny, Neil and Marco. “Okay, tomorrow is the big day. Why don’t you guys go and get some sleep? Marco, you, Jenny and Sarah need to be at that restaurant before Whitcomb and Bradley arrive. Jenny, you have to avoid any contact with Marco and Sarah, and make whatever escape you can. Neil and I will be close by in a car, so use the subcoms to let us know where to pick you up.”

“There’s one other thing I want to bring up,” Neil said. “What happens if one of the security people forgets it’s an act and gets trigger-happy? If the wrong person were to see Jenny point that thing as the squib goes off, she could be in trouble.”

“Neil, baby, relax,” Jenny said. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry. Besides, Agent Lingenfelter will probably be making sure everyone is looking a different direction. The last thing he’s going to want is for them to actually see me when I take the shot.”

Noah nodded. “I think Jenny is right,” he said, “but there could still be a small risk. Marco, try to be seated close enough to everything that you could run interference for Jenny if you have to. If the security man pulls a gun, you can always claim you thought he was the shooter.”

“You got it,” Marco said. “I’ll kick me some British butt.”

* * * * *

Noah and Sarah went down to the restaurant in the hotel for breakfast the next morning, and weren’t surprised when they were joined by Catherine Potts once again. She was sitting in the restaurant at a table by herself, and smiled when she saw them come in. They took the chairs she pointed out across the table from herself, and ordered coffee when the waitress came to ask what they might like.

“I had a busy morning already,” she began. “Leon called to tell me that some of his friends from the other alphabet agency at the Embassy were busy in the wee small hours. Apparently, there were a couple of people who seemed to be paying an awful lot of attention to you and to your friends and the other hotel. Both of them are currently being questioned, and after recent rumors about waterboarding and other techniques those people employed, I would imagine they are wishing they had stayed home, wherever that might be.”

Noah nodded. “We knew we’d been followed coming over here,” he said. “Yesterday, I asked Allison to round up some reinforcements to try to take care of the problems. Apparently, she was successful.”

“Oh, I would say,” Catherine said. “According to Leon, these people have some fairly serious criminal records, so they probably won’t be back on the job anytime soon.” She took a sip of her own coffee. “I picked up this habit when I was over in the States, and most of my friends back here look at me askance when they see me drinking coffee. I tell them they shouldn’t knock it if they haven’t tried it, isn’t that the expression?”

Sarah giggled. “Yes, that’s it. Personally, I don’t think I can get through the morning without coffee. I think it kickstarts my heart, something like that.”

“Yes, well, perhaps that’s what it does for me, as well. Listen, I got everything in place the way we discussed last night. This should come off without a hitch, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in clandestine service, it’s that things often go wrong when you least expect them.”

“That’s why I’m taking some precautions,” Noah said. “Neil and I will be just around the corner, sitting in a car and waiting. As soon as Jenny has made her move, we plan to snatch her out of there. Can you be certain that none of your people will try to detain her?”

“Absolutely,” Catherine replied. “Albert has orders to make sure she gets away, even if he has to point the finger at someone else. And all of them have been warned not to use their weapons at all. The last thing we need is for any innocent bystander to actually be wounded or killed. That would turn this into a grave disaster. It’s certainly not something I would want to have to explain to Her Majesty.”

“I agree completely,” Noah said. “We’ve got it planned down to the smallest detail. Unfortunately, that’s all we can do.”

“Indeed. I thought of being there myself; there are not a lot of people who are aware of my association with MI6, so I shouldn’t be very noticeable. Perhaps I can scream at the right moment, pointing to a different direction?”

“That certainly wouldn’t hurt. Any distractions after the shot is fired will help Jenny get out of the place. Of course, most of the attention then is going to be on Whitcomb. If he can play his part, we should get through this without any real problems.”

The waitress returned with coffee and took their orders, and the three of them sat and talked about inconsequential things as they ate. When breakfast was finished, Catherine said goodbye and went on her way, while Noah and Sarah returned to their room.

“I’m a little nervous about this,” Sarah said. “If there’s any delay in our getting out, we may end up being questioned by police about what we saw.”

“If that happens, you’ll do fine. Just stay in character, that’s all you have to do.”

They relaxed in the room for another hour, but then it was time to get everyone in position. Noah activated the subcom units.

“Noah to team,” he said. “It’s time to move. Jenny, I want you to use the video contact lens. Once you’ve got it in place, then you go ahead and head on out. Marco, you and Neil come on over here.”

“Jenny to Noah, roger that,” Jenny replied. “I’m on my way. I’m just going to watch the place until the target arrives.”

“Noah to Jenny, understood. Don’t make a move until Marco and Sarah are in place.”

“She’s headed out,” Marco said. “I mean, Marco to Noah, she’s headed out. Neil and I will be there in a moment.”

It was about three minutes later when Neil and Marco showed up at their door. Noah let them in, and they went over the plan one more time.

“We all know what to do,” Noah said. “The most critical factor is that it should be clearly obvious that Jenny is the killer. Be sure to get it on video, and hopefully others will, as well.”

“I think the most critical factor,” Neil said, “is for Whitcomb to pull off his act. After all, he’s got to play dead in front of hundreds of witnesses.”

“He’s a politician,” Marco said. “He’s got plenty of practice, he shouldn’t have any problem acting that role at all.”

“And he doesn’t have to play dead,” Noah said. “All he has to do is be unresponsive, even groan a little bit. That shouldn’t be very difficult for a politician to do.”

“Well, whatever we do, we need to get this show on the road,” Neil said. “We’re supposed to be the backup, so we need to get there.”

“He’s right,” Noah said. “Marco, you and Sarah head on out. Neil and I will follow in a couple of minutes, and will be close enough for subcom communication.”

Sarah grabbed Noah and gave him a kiss, then followed Marco out the door. Noah turned to Neil.

“No matter how this goes down,” he said, “you have to remember that the mission comes first. If anything goes wrong, if Jenny were to be arrested or anything, we stay on mission. We’ll get her out, no matter what it takes, we never leave anyone behind, but the mission has to come first, Neil.”

Neil looked at him, his face soured. “I know that,” he said. “I guess I’m just learning how Sarah must’ve felt all this time. Being part of the team doesn’t make it any easier when we have to watch one of you walk right into a potentially deadly situation.”

“Jenny can handle herself. Now, come on. Let’s go be ready to snatch her away from there when she calls.”

* * * * *

Marco and Sarah were early enough that the lunch rush had not yet begun, so Marco pointed out a booth that was close to where Whitcomb would be sitting. The hostess smiled and put on a hip-wiggling display as she led them to it, and a waitress appeared instantly to take their drink orders. Marco ordered a beer for himself and Sarah opted for sweet tea. The girl hurried away to fetch them.

Whitcomb and Bradley arrived a few minutes later, followed by an entourage that included Agent Lingenfelter. Some of the security officers remained standing, while Whitcomb, Bradley and Lingenfelter sat down around the table.

Jenny came in only a moment after they were seated, and asked the hostess to put her toward the back of the room. She was led to a table and sat down, then picked up a menu while the waitress went to fetch the drink she had ordered.

A block away, Noah parked the Land Rover at the curb, and he and Neil settled in to wait. Neil turned on a tablet he was holding and activated the video player. A second later, they were seeing the inside of the restaurant through Jenny’s eyes.

“Neil to Jenny,” Neil said through the subcom. “I’ve got video.”

Inside the restaurant, Jenny smiled.  “Hey, baby,” she said to Neil. “How you holding up?”

“I was fine till we got here,” he said. “I’m okay, I guess, but I won’t be right until we get this over with and you out of there.”

“Relax, I’ll be fine.” She put down the menu as the waitress brought her a glass of lemonade. “Everything should go off the way it’s supposed to, I’m not really expecting any kind of problems. Lingenfelter has already spotted me, so he’s ready for the excitement.”

Noah raised an eyebrow. “He acknowledged you?”

“Not exactly, but I saw him glance at me, and I can tell recognition when I see it. He looked at Marco and Sarah, too, but anybody else would think he was just evaluating potential threats. I don’t think there’s any possibility he’s giving anything away, so we’re good to go. Any specific moment you want the fun to begin?”

“Noah to Jenny,” Noah got in. “What about the rest of the crowd? Are people noticing Whitcomb? This will work best if there are several people paying attention to him when the shock goes off.”

“Oh, he’s getting some attention, all right,” he said. “He’s apparently well enough known that people are recognizing him, and I can see several people snapping selfies with him in the background. I can’t tell if anyone is taking video, but there are a few phones pointed toward him.”

“That’s excellent. Try to choose a moment when people are watching, then make it happen.”

“You got it. Should be in the next few minutes.”

Neil was watching the video display on the tablet as Jenny looked around the room. It was obvious that several of the people recognized Whitcomb, and Jenny had been correct about people pointing phones at him. In fact, there were several people holding the phones up steady, the way most people only do when taking video footage.

One of those people was Sarah, and Neil pointed her out to Noah. “Sarah’s shooting it,” he said.

“Noah to Sarah, you guys ready?”

“Sarah to Noah, we are. Decoy explosives already dropped. We’re ready when Jenny is.”

“Noah to team, the mission is go. On your mark, Jenny.”

Suddenly, they heard, “Jenny to Sarah, keep filming. Here we go, gang.”

The point of view on the video suddenly rose as Jenny got out of her chair. She was less than ten feet from Whitcomb, looking directly at the back of his head. The view got closer as she took three quick steps, and then her hand appeared in the view holding the vape unit.

Everything seemed to happen at once, but also in slow motion. On the tablet, they saw the puff of smoke from the clandestine pistol and the spurt of fake blood as the squib went off. Through the subcoms, they heard the loud pop of the blank going off, and what seemed like an echo as the decoys exploded at the same time. Jenny had timed it perfectly, firing off the blank, which triggered the app that set off the squib and explosives.

Whitcomb grunted and fell forward, his face dropping directly into his plate of salad. His body seemed to jerk around a bit, as if he was having a small seizure, but then he became still. The men around him jumped up quickly, but passed from view as Jenny walked right on past them.

There was shouting, and then suddenly people were screaming. Neil and Noah could hear it all through the subcoms of Marco and Sarah, and Jenny was rapidly putting distance between herself and the events in the restaurant. She had spotted a back door that led into the kitchen, and walked calmly through it before picking up the pace and rushing toward the back of the building.

The kitchen employees were all running toward the dining room, trying to see what was happening. Only one or two of them glanced her way, but neither tried to stop her. Eleven seconds after firing the blank, she stepped out the back of the building into an alley.

“Jenny to Neil, I’ve come out the back into the alley. I’m cutting through the shopping center so that I can get to the street on the other side of it. Meet me there.”

“Neil to Jenny, on our way.”

Noah started up the Land Rover and put it in gear, then drove inconspicuously down the street and around the block. Jenny was standing on the sidewalk just in front of the shopping center when they got there, and she slid into the back seat as soon as Noah pulled the car to a stop. Once she was in, he stepped on the throttle again and drove off.

“Where did leave your car?” Noah asked.

“There’s a public parking garage five blocks east,” Jenny replied. “I put it in there, so it wouldn’t be noticed close to the restaurant. You can drop me off in front of it, and I’ll meet you guys back at the hotel.” She leaned forward and tugged on Neil’s ear. “Come with me, baby? We can have a little time to ourselves.”

Neil turned pink, but nodded his head. When Noah stopped in front of the car park, they both got out of the Land Rover and walked hand-in-hand into the big garage. Noah watched them for a moment, then drove back toward the restaurant.

As soon as he was within range, he reached out to Sarah on the subcom. “Noah to Sarah, Jenny is clear. What’s happening?”

“Everyone’s being held for questioning,” he replied. “Marco and I may be here for a while. They already took all the cell phones, especially from those of us who said we were filming when it happened. Don’t worry, I had that little key ring thing on, so it should have a copy.”

“Okay. Do you see Catherine around there anywhere?”

“She’s here, now. She missed the fireworks, though.”

“All right. Neil and Jenny have gone back to their hotel, so I’ll wait here in case you need me for anything.”

“Okay, baby,” Sarah said. “Love you.”

“Marco to Noah and Sarah. Get a room, guys.”

* * * * *

Noah turned on the radio in the Land Rover and scanned through the stations until he found a news report. The announcer seemed almost in tears as he reported an assassination attempt on Lord Whitcomb, and another had to take over when the word came fifteen minutes later that Whitcomb had been pronounced DOA at the hospital. The Prime Minister’s office promised a statement would be forthcoming within the hour, and Buckingham Palace announced a period of mourning to begin immediately. The British government was playing it well, just as they would’ve done if the assassination were real.

It took almost two hours of questioning to clear all the witnesses, and then Sarah and Marco were allowed to leave. It was getting close to three in the afternoon, so Noah drove to where he could meet up with them and let Sarah climb into the car with him.

“They’re definitely making it look real,” Sarah said. “Every one of us got searched, and anything that even looked suspicious was enough to get you separated for special treatment. Thank goodness I didn’t have anything on me, but Marco got hassled over having a Swiss Army knife.”

“It has to look real,” Noah said. “Otherwise, all of this was for nothing.” He took out his phone and looked at the time. It was almost 3 PM. “Time to check in with the boss lady.”

He dialed the number and put the phone on speaker. It was answered only a moment later.

“Brigadoon Investments, how may I direct your call?”

“Allison, please.”

“Just one moment.” They listened to the canned hold music for a few moments, and then Allison came on the line.

“Camelot, report. You’re on speaker, Donald and Molly are here with me.”

“Hi guys,” Molly said.

“It went well,” Noah said. “Everything worked exactly as planned, and Jenny made it out of the building with no problem. All of the official offices are doing what they would normally do, so I don’t think there’s anything to indicate this wasn’t a real assassination.”

“Very good. When is Jenny supposed to make contact with Newsom again?”

“She has a number to call,” Noah said. “I’m going to have her wait until tomorrow, let the news circulate around the world, first. It seems they got some good video footage of what happened, so that will turn up on all the international news channels. Sarah also got footage of it, clear footage that shows Jenny taking the shot. She can send that one directly to Newsom.”

“Excellent work, Camelot,” Allison said. “And be sure to let Jenny know we said that.”

“Noah,” Jefferson said, “I thought you’d like to know that Efraim Nelson was picked up in question last night, based on a rumor that he was supposedly bragging about having once hired a professional assassin. He is unlikely to be discussing Victoria anytime in the future, but we did pick up some new intel that will help to bring him down at a later date.”

“That should help convince Newsom that Jenny is for real,” Noah said. “They will almost certainly think he was behind it, and he’ll think they were the ones who leaked what he said. That’s probably better than just killing the guy.”

“It was Molly’s idea,” Allison said. “She’s a pretty smart girl.”

“Yes, she is,” Sarah said. “Good job, Molly.”

“Thank you,” Molly said. “Hey, you guys be careful out there. We haven’t all gotten together in quite a while, and it’s time for a party when you get back.”

“Hey, I’m all for that,” Sarah said. “Hopefully, the rest of this mission won’t take very long.”

“Well, the next step is identifying Newsom’s associates,” Allison said. “Keep us up-to-date, Noah.”

The line went dead and Noah put the phone back into his pocket.

FOURTEEN

It was only moments later when Noah’s phone rang again, and he saw that it was Catherine Potts calling.

“Camelot,” he said. “How did it go on your end?”

“Would have gone lovely, except that Whitcomb is a spoiled brat. As soon as he got inside the trauma room at the hospital, he bloody started demanding to be taken to his wife. Fortunately, the physician I had arranged was smart enough to know that could be a disaster, so he sedated the mouthy bastard. Anyone who heard it probably thought it was the ramblings of a dying man, so we pulled it off. The problem now is that we’ve got only a week before we have to produce the body for funeral. Are you going to be able to complete the mission in that short a time?”

“I think so,” Noah said. “A lot depends on the PRA and how long it takes to set up the meetings with their Board of Directors. In a worst-case scenario, Lord Whitcomb may have to be brought back from the dead in a few weeks.”

“Oh, Lord,” Catherine said, “I can imagine what a disaster that will be. You know how many journalists will be accusing the government of having some sort of immortality potion? They’ll claim it’s something only available to the royal family and the peerage, and the whole thing will start a riot.”

“There’s always going to be conspiracy theories,” Noah said. “I don’t think the world can get by without them.”

“Yes, well,” Catherine said. “I just wanted to give you a report. By the way, I thought I might do you a favor. A lot of the video that they collected from people with their cell phones actually caught your girl as she made her move. Since allowing that video to get out would mean launching a global manhunt for her, I thought it might be best to suppress those. The video we’re releasing to the news has her edited out. Please, if you can possibly complete this before the funeral…”

“Catherine, I promise you we’ll do our best.”

Jenny was impatient. As soon as they were all together in Noah’s and Sarah’s room two hours later, she wanted to make a call to Newsom.

“I think we should,” she insisted. “The sooner we can get these meetings started, the sooner this mission can be finished.”

“She’s getting impatient,” Neil said. “While everything looked good and realistic to everybody else today, she knew she didn’t really get to kill anybody, and she’s getting antsy.”

“Look, I can’t help it,” Jenny said. “It’s like an addiction, and once in a while I just have to have a fix. It’s not my fault, Doc Parker even thinks it’s something genetic. Apparently he found out that my paternal grandfather murdered a bunch of people back in the fifties, and he thinks the damned gene may have skipped a generation with my dad. I ended up with it, so once I got a taste of it, I was hooked.”

“I was planning to have you wait until tomorrow,” Noah said. “On the other hand, the global news networks have been going crazy with this story. Having the head of the British law enforcement community assassinated in public with absolutely no leads on who the assassin might have been, that’s got a lot of the world pretty well shook up.” He seemed to think for a moment, then slowly nodded his head. “All right, go ahead and call. If they have any further doubts, get an email address. We’ll send them the video that Sarah got, the one showing you making the shot.”

Jenny burst into a smile, and giggled as he took out her phone and dialed the number Newsom had given her. She put the phone to her ear and listened to it ring several times, but then it was answered.

“It’s Victoria,” he said. “Have you been following the news today?” She quickly put the phone on speaker, so that the rest of them could hear.

“Oh, yes,” Newsom said. “What amazes me is that you actually managed to get away. From the look of the video we saw on the news, there must have been a hundred people in that place.”

“That’s sort of my trademark, wouldn’t you say?” Jenny asked. “Now you see me, oops, no you don’t. Now, are we ready to proceed to the next mission?”

“We’re ready on our end,” Newsom said. “Here’s the situation. I can get you face to face with each of our board members, but only by taking you to them personally. Only you, nobody else goes along. I can pick you up as early as tomorrow, and we can take care of all of it over the next five to seven days. The board definitely wants to use your services, but it has to be on our terms. Nobody but you will be allowed to meet them, and the only reason you are getting the opportunity is because I’m willing to stick my neck out for you.”

Jenny grinned into the phone. “I never go anywhere without Neil,” he said. “He goes along, or you can forget the whole thing.”

“Then let’s forget it,” Newsom said. “We really want to work with you, Victoria, but we have to protect ourselves. If you cannot do things the way we want, then we can’t do business together.”

“I’m willing to do the meetings alone,” Jenny said, “but Neil goes with me when I travel, and that’s non-negotiable. He can sit at a hotel room and wait, can’t you bend at least that far?”

Newsom was quiet for a couple of seconds, then spoke again. “He can ride along with us, but he’ll be stuck with our security people whenever you and I go to make the meetings. They’ll make sure that he isn’t doing anything that might compromise us. If that’s agreeable, we can get started.”

Jenny glanced at Noah, who nodded. “Perfectly agreeable,” Jenny said. “How do you want to proceed?”

“I’ll be at Heathrow tomorrow morning at 10 AM your time. If you can be there waiting, I’ll notify you when the plane has landed and is ready for you to board.”

“We’ll be there,” Jenny said. “Is there anything you want us to bring along?”

“No,” Newsom said. “Nothing but clothing. No weapons, no electronic devices, nothing else.”

“All right,” Jenny said. “Just bear in mind that, should anything happen to either of us, there are some people who will take action. I don’t think there’s any way you could hide from them.”

“As long as you don’t try anything stupid, no harm will come to either of you. Remember, Victoria, we are hoping to begin a long-term relationship with you. That’s the only reason we agreed to this at all. I will see you tomorrow morning.”

The phone went dead, and Jenny laid it on the table.

“Okay,” she said, “this throws a bit of a monkey wrench into the works. I was hoping to be able to identify each of them and leave somebody to take care of them when we moved on to the next. How do we handle this? He said no electronic devices, so we won’t even be able to send you email.”

“You just get names,” Noah said. “Unfortunately, your little contact lens camera won’t be of any use, because there won’t be anything to record the images it captures. Just concentrate on getting as much information as possible, including any identifying information at all, so that we can track them after you get back. Since you’re going to be busy with Newsom for a week, the rest of us are going back to Neverland for a few days. I want to discuss some of these things with Allison, and maybe Wally can think of some solutions. As soon as you’re free of Newsom, we’ll get started working on taking them out.”

“Okay,” Jenny said. “Just understand that I’ll go completely postal on all of them if they try anything. Any threat to Neil, and people start dying.”

Noah looked at her. “I understand, but the mission has to take priority, Jenny. We have to identify and eliminate all of these people in order to shut down the PRA.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Jenny said. “If they set me off, there won’t be any of them left standing.”

Noah took out his phone and dialed Allison’s number, and she answered almost immediately.

“Camelot, report.”

“Newsom is insisting on taking Jenny and Neil alone,” Noah said. “They’ll be going to meet with the PRA Board of Directors, so hopefully Jenny will be able to get enough identifying information that we can track them down and take them out. I’m going to bring the rest of the team back to Neverland, to start planning and logistics. Is that okay?”

“Yes, we can get together and go over the ideal situations. I’d like to get Molly involved on planning, and you might want to talk to Wally about any new ideas he’s come up with. Are they going to be okay out there on their own?”

“Well, Newsom is insisting they take no weapons or electronics, so they may find it boring, but I don’t think they’ll be at much risk unless one of these people can actually prove that Jenny isn’t Victoria. I doubt that’s likely, but I’m counting on Jenny to handle it if it happens. She’s capable enough without a weapon, and won’t hesitate to take one off someone else if she has to.”

“All right,” Allison said. “It’s your call, Noah, but we do need to shut these people down if we can. Tell Jenny I said to come back safely.”

“I will,” Noah said, but he was speaking into a dead line.

* * * * *

Noah arranged a charter flight for early the following morning, and he, Sarah and Marco flew out before Jenny and Neil were even out of bed. They had given Noah their weapons and electronics, including the video contact lens. Jenny didn’t want to risk losing them and Noah agreed. She wouldn’t be able to use them, so there was no point in simply carrying them around.

Jenny and Neil were up at seven and went down for breakfast.

“What’s frustrating is not having any way to communicate with Noah and the rest,” Neil said. “I don’t like that, not one little bit.”

“Neither do I,” Jenny said. “Unfortunately, they’d be scanning for any kind of electronic signatures so we don’t dare even try to smuggle in a cell phone. I’m afraid we’re on our own, this time. Don’t worry, babe, I’ll take care of you.”

Neil stuck his tongue out at her. “I just wasn’t expecting to be in a position where we couldn’t even send out an email. This Newsom is paranoid, in my opinion.”

“Well, considering I plan to kill him,” Jenny said with a grin, “he probably has reason.”

They finished breakfast and went back to the rooms to pack, then headed out for Heathrow. By the time Newsom arrived, they were waiting patiently in the charter terminal area. Newsom himself came into the terminal to look for them, and smiled when he saw them sitting there.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked.

Jenny gave him a sour look. “Let’s just get this show on the road,” he said. “I don’t like sitting around doing nothing. I’m ready to get onto the next job, but I can’t do that until I’m sure of who I’m working for.”

Newsom shot her a grin, then beckoned with his finger. “Then let’s go,” he said. “The plane is waiting and time is wasting.” He started to rise, and then paused. “Incidentally, I want you not to bring electronic devices. There is a system on the airplane that can detect even the smallest electronic field. If you’ve tried to smuggle something along, I’m afraid your journey will end right here.”

“Neil to Jenny,” Jenny heard suddenly inside her head. “Shut down subcoms, now. When they’re off, they shouldn’t be detectable.”

“Jenny to Neil, you got it. Shutting off now.”

With their subcoms deactivated, Neil and Jenny got up, grabbed their luggage and followed Newsom out to the plane. It was a Gulfstream, similar to the ones they often used on their missions. Two men were waiting at the bottom of the steps to escort them inside, while another one took the luggage and stowed it away.

“I’ll be honest,” Newsom said, once they were seated. “I can’t quite understand why you are so insistent on meeting our directors. I’m not sure that you’re actually going to gain anything from it, so would you mind explaining it to me?”

Jenny grinned at him. “Here it is,” he said. “I want to ask each of them a question, and compare their answers. There’s got to be some reason you people came looking for me, and while I know I’m one of the best at what I do, I’m not the only one who would be willing to take on a job like the one you got coming up. I just want to know why me. Is that too much to understand?”

“Well, then, why didn’t you ask me? I can answer that. The reason we want you is because you always manage to get the job done, but without any collateral damage. Believe it or not, we are not entirely monstrous. We don’t like killing innocent people when it isn’t absolutely necessary. You have always had a reputation for not taking an innocent life, other than your targets. That’s the reason we want you.”

Jenny shrugged and smiled at him. “Then, let’s hope that your directors all give me the same answer. Because, if I think there’s not a unanimous decision behind it, I’m probably going to walk. I’m not going to work for people if I can’t trust any one of them.” She glanced out the window, then turned back to Newsom again. “So, where are we going first?”

Newsom looked at her, but then just rolled his eyes. A few moments later, the hatch was shut and the engines started up, and the plane began to taxi to the runway.

The flight lasted just slightly less than two hours, and touched down again at the Berlin Schoenefeld airport. Jenny and Neil had spent the time relaxing, while Newsom seemed to be asleep. When the flight crew announced that they could depart the plane, a couple of Newsom’s men gathered all the luggage and followed them off the airplane and through the terminal building.

Neil looked around like a typical tourist, but he was actually seeking out as many video cameras as he possibly could, and making a point of looking directly at each one. He was quite certain that Neverland would be scanning all major airport security videos, and he wanted to be as helpful in that regard as he could.

A car was waiting out front, and Newsom indicated that Jenny and Neil should get into the back seat with him. Another vehicle was waiting for the rest of his men and the luggage, and they drove out as soon as everyone was inside.

The drive lasted about forty minutes, and they pulled into the parking lot at a medium quality hotel. Rooms apparently had already been arranged, and Jenny and Neil were given a key to one of their own.

“You can go to your room and freshen up if you like,” Newsom said. “We’ll be going to our first meeting in about twenty minutes, but you should be aware that you won’t be able to leave your room or wander around while we’re here. It’s not that you are prisoners, but we need to be certain of what you’re doing for right now. I’m sure you understand.”

Jenny smiled sweetly. “Oh, of course,” he said. “I just want you to understand that if I get the slightest feeling that anything is going sideways, you’re going to find out that I don’t need weapons to kill you. Other than that, we’re all good.”

Newsom grinned, but there was a nervousness in it. “Of course,” he said. “I assure you, we are doing everything we possibly can to accommodate you. Remember that you are the one who requested these meetings.”

They went to their rooms and relaxed for a little while, but the knock came only about fifteen minutes later. Newsom was waiting at the door, and they followed him out the building and back into the car.

This time, the drive lasted about half an hour, and they found themselves at a large house. The driver pulled up in front of it and got out to open the back door for them. Newsom climbed out first, followed by Jenny and then Neil. The security men got out of the other vehicle and gathered around them.

“We are about to meet with Klaus Niemeier,” Newsom said. “For the record, this is not his home, but belongs to some associate of his. The owner is out of the country so he borrowed it strictly for the purpose of this meeting. For some reason, he has decided to allow your friend to come along with you. This is not the way these things usually go, so don’t get comfortable with it.”

A man came out the door of the house and led them inside, and they were shown to the dining room. A number of men stood around the room, obviously security, and Newsom’s own people took up similar positions. A large man with white hair was sitting at the table, and Newsom led Neil and Jenny to chairs on the gentleman’s right.

“Herr Niemeier,” Newsom said, “I should like to introduce Madame Victoria and her associate.”

The old man looked up and smiled at Jenny, then scowled at Neil. “Sit, sit,” he said. “The kitchen staff is preparing us a light lunch, because I prefer to discuss business over food. I understand they are giving us roast duck with orange sauce. I hope that will be satisfactory?”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Jenny said. “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I understand this is not common for you, but I like to be sure of who I’m dealing with.”

Niemeier nodded. “Of course, of course,” he said. “The things that we do, they are always involving danger, yes? We must always be certain of the decisions we make. I am in fact grateful for the opportunity to meet you. I was given to understand that you do not meet clients face-to-face.”

“I do when we’re talking about potentially major dealings,” Jenny said. “I’m also interested in cultivating certain business relationships, and it strikes me that you might have work for me on a fairly regular basis. In a case like that, I think we each need to know the other, don’t you?”

The old man smiled. “I agree,” he said. “And I would say yes to you, that there could be very much work for you. As you probably already know, we are not simply the terrorism backers that others think we are; our goal is to change the face of the world, by manipulating not the governments, but the people. No matter how dictatorial any government may be, it is always the people who can force the decisions we want. Terror, as distasteful as it may be, is an effective tool in shaping the public opinion.”

Jenny grinned at him. “I would have to agree,” he said. “It is indeed. And may I ask toward what end you are shaping those public opinions?”

“Why, toward sanity, of course,” Niemeier said. “The entire world has gone quite mad in the past few decades, and we are watching it self-destruct. There can be no return to days of peace as long as madmen rule the world. There must be disarmament, both on national and individual levels. In your own home country, the people pride themselves on owning weapons, and yet you have more mass killings than almost every other nation. Children are shot dead weekly even when they are in school, innocents die in bloodshed that is motivated more by the anger of the individual than by political views. As long as the people can have their guns, this will only escalate. Look at Europe, where guns are carefully regulated; they have only a small fraction of the violent crimes that America experiences. Is it not wise to want limits on such things througout the world?”

Jenny looked at him appraisingly. “It may be,” she said. “And you’ve obviously given this a lot of thought. I take it all of you on the board are in agreement?”

“Oh, most certainly,” Niemeier said. “We have been making these plans for some years, and are now putting them to action. You can be a major benefit to us in making it a reality.”

Jenny smiled brightly. “I certainly hope so,” she said.

* * * * *

The flight from London to Kirtland took something over eight hours, and arrived at just after eight thirty that evening. Noah waited until they were all in Sarah’s car, then called Allison’s cell.

“Camelot, report,” she said as soon as she’d answered.

“Jenny and Neil are off with Newsom to meet the PRA Board of Directors,” Noah said. “I brought the rest of us back here to work out planning and logistics. Is there any way we can track where Jenny and Neil go?”

“I’ve already got every facial recognition system on the planet looking for them,” Allison said. “In fact, they turned up four hours ago in Berlin, spotted by security cameras at the airport there. We’re not sure where they went after that, but CIA is keeping all the cameras looking.”

“At least we know roughly where they are. We’re all going to get some rest and get back on the job tomorrow morning. Any particular time you want us at your office?”

“Make it eight-thirty,” Allison said. “I’ll try to have any updates on them ready to share with you.”

The line was dead, so Noah put the phone away and drove on to their house. Marco had left his Mustang there, and was planning on surprising his girlfriend, Renée, by showing up unexpectedly. He grabbed his bags when they pulled up at Noah’s garage, tossed them into his back seat and drove away.

* * * * *

“You’re early,” Jefferson said the next morning. He, Allison and Molly were already in the briefing room when Noah, Sarah and Marco arrived.

“We just had breakfast at the Waffle House,” Noah said, “so we could get an early start.”

“Then I’ve got something for you,” Allison said. “One of the analysts over at Langley ran across a report he thought we ought to see. It seems a source in Rome has heard that his people have identified the head of E & E.”

“And they had your name?” Noah asked.

“Of course,” Allison replied. “Unfortunately, that’s all we got. No indication of how they might’ve gotten their information, but it still leads me to believe there’s a leak inside our organization.”

“I think there has to be,” Noah said. “There’s just no other way I can imagine anyone getting your name. Most of our other agencies don’t even know who you are, do they?”

“As far as I know,” said Allison. “You and your people are going to have to work fast to put a stop to PRA before this goes too far. However, while you’re here, I can use any insight you can give us on finding the leak. Having any kind of a security breach inside our organization is extremely bad news, Noah, but I know I don’t need to tell you that.”

“And we’ve still got to carry out the actual mission, right?” Sarah asked.

“Absolutely. This mission genuinely is of critical importance, so it has to be completed. The PRA has been instrumental in numerous terrorist attacks, and now we know that they have been involved in assassinations, as well. They might not be as big and spread out as Al Qaeda, but they’re still a major problem when it comes to terrorism around the world.”

The three of them sat on one of the couches and Noah leaned toward Allison. “Do you have any suspects at all, as far as the leak goes?”

“We’ve got over six thousand people who work in this organization,” Allison said. “On the other hand, less than three hundred of them actually know who I am. That still leaves more possible leaks than we can possibly speculate about, but we’ve got to find some way to narrow down the possibilities. That’s why I asked Molly to step in here.”

“I’ve been looking at everything I can think of,” Molly said, “on every single person who is aware of Allison’s identity. I’ve been checking all of their social media, hacking their emails, scanning their phone calls, you name it. So far, all I can tell you is that whoever’s letting this information out is pretty clever about covering their tracks.”

“They have to be,” Noah said. “They also have to be fully aware of the consequences if they’re caught. This isn’t the kind of outfit that goes for indictments or fair trials, so they know they’re looking at a bullet to the head. The incentive to take that risk would have to be pretty great. I’m betting that it has nothing to do with money, so I think we should look at other kinds of motivation.”

Molly nodded. “I have to agree. One of the things I’ve been looking at is the background checks that are done on every employee. So far, I can’t find anybody who would have any kind of political motivation to try to shut us down, but there has to be something. On the other hand, other than politics or personal gain, I can’t think of any kind of motivation that could possibly be big enough to justify the risk.”

“Revenge,” Marco said. “What about people who might have some connection to any previous targets? I mean, we’ve taken out quite a few people around the world, and not even a small number right here in the good old U.S. of A. It’s always possible we stepped on somebody’s toes, somebody who had enough connections to worm their way into the outfit.”

“That’s an interesting premise, Marco,” Donald Jefferson interjected, “and one that I think should be explored thoroughly. Unfortunately, the only person who comes to mind at the moment would be Ralph Morgan. You killed his father, and took away the multimillion dollar operation he expected to inherit. It’s quite possible he holds a grudge about that.”

“I would doubt that,” said Noah. “Ralph actually tried to hire me to kill his dad for him, and the last time I spoke to him, he thanked me for bringing him into E & E. I suspect he finds the life of an international assassin far more rewarding than just running a regional organized crime operation.”

“I’m going to go with Noah on this,” Allison said, “because Ralph has done exceptionally well in training. His instructors all seem to consider him an absolute natural, and everything I’ve heard says that he’s all in and gung ho.”

“We can still look at him,” Jefferson said. “Just to be on the safe side. Molly, you can explore the revenge motive angle probably better than anyone else. Tweak your algorithms and see what you can find out.”

Molly nodded and smiled. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I’ll be on that as soon as we’re finished up here.”

“Now,” Allison said. “What about the mission, Noah? Is there any kind of game plan worked out yet?”

“I’m afraid not,” Noah said. “The big problem is that we have no way of communicating with Jenny or Neil. Originally, I had planned on the whole team going along to these meetings, so that the rest of us could stake out the targets and hopefully terminate them. Under these circumstances, however, there was no way to do that. I’m hoping that you can keep track of where they go, and that Wally can help me find some way to get in touch with them.”

“I certainly hope he can,” Allison said. “I’ll be honest and tell you that I thoroughly dislike the situation they’re in. I know it was necessary, but it always worries me when some of our people are completely out of touch, without any kind of backup.”

“Yes, I agree,” Noah said. “Jenny is capable, but until Newsom and his cronies are satisfied, they’re basically prisoners. Neil is going to be under security guard at all times, and I’m sure Newsom is going to have people accompanying him and Jenny into each of the meetings. If at any point they become suspicious, we could lose them.”

Allison looked him in the eye. “If that were to happen,” she said, “I will authorize you to track down every single person involved in the PRA. I want all of their heads if anything happens to Jenny and Neil.”

“Join the club,” Sarah said.

Allison dismissed them and they headed towards R&D. Wally was delighted to see them when they arrived, and took them into his private office so that they could talk without being overheard.

“I wasn’t expecting you guys back so soon,” Wally said. “I’ll bet everything went off okay.”

“The mission isn’t over yet,” Noah said. “In fact, we had to split up. Jenny and Neil are in deep cover, going with one of our targets to meet his superiors. If everything goes according to plan, they should be able to identify them by the time they get back, but for the time being, we are completely out of touch with them. They aren’t allowed any kind of electronic communications devices at all, not even so much as a way to send email. I’m hoping you might be able to come up with some way we can make contact.”

Wally leaned back in his chair and tapped his chin. “Oh, my goodness,” he said. “I really don’t know. We can go talk with Leo, he’s our current resident wizard of communications technology. If anybody can think of something, it will probably be him. Come on, let’s go.”

He got out of his chair and headed out the door, leaving Noah, Marco and Sarah to follow. They were able to catch up with him only a moment later, and followed him through the labyrinth of hallways that led back to the Clandestine Communications Lab.

Wally swiped his ID card to open the door, and then he held it open for the rest to follow. As soon as they were all inside, he turned around and motioned for Leo to come close.

“Leo, you remember Marco and Noah and Sarah? They’ve come to us with a problem, and I’m hoping you can come up with a solution. Jenny and Neil, the other two members of their team, are in a situation that leaves them incommunicado. It just so happens to be a bad situation, so we’re wondering if there’s any way you can come up with to send them a way to get back in touch with Noah and the team.”

Leo grinned. “Actually, there might be a way. You all have the subcom units. We’ve been experimenting with some upgrades, and Judy over there had a brainstorm that was absolutely fantastic. See, we’ve been piggybacking the signal on the same frequency used by most Wi-Fi routers, 2.4 gigahertz. Because of a couple of breakthroughs we made, using quantum states that actually make no sense to anybody at all, we’ve been able to let the units communicate over pretty long range. Well, Judy got to looking at our configuration and discovered that with a simple software patch, we can actually use any available Wi-Fi to extend that range to almost infinite. As long as both the sender and receiver are connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi, all of the units on a particular channel will be able to pick up and decrypt the signal.”

“Are you saying there’s a way for them to talk to us through Wi-Fi?” Noah asked.

“Yes, but not until their units have the software upgrade. And unfortunately, the upgrade has to be initiated from each unit. In other words, we have to get word to them somehow to go ahead and start the upgrade.”

“What about the units that we have right now?” Noah asked. “Can they be upgraded right away?”

“Oh, yes,” Leo said. “Now, the Wi-Fi here is highly restricted, so you’ll have to wait until you get into another Wi-Fi network. When you do, just say ‘activate software upgrade,’ and it will prompt you for the Wi-Fi password. Just speak it aloud, and it will log on and then query our server for the upgrade. Once the upgrade finishes, it will restart itself and then you can communicate with all of the units on your network through Wi-Fi, no matter where they are. As long as they are in range of a Wi-Fi router, the message will go through, and you’ll receive any replies.”

“That’ll be a big help. Now, all we have to do is figure out how to let them know to get the upgrade. I don’t suppose you built in a way to track their GPS locations, did you?”

Leo stared at him for a moment, then turned toward Judy. The two of them had a silent conversation, and then he turned back to Noah. “Again, it would only be able to report the GPS location over a Wi-Fi network, but we can write software that will allow it to receive GPS signals, and thereby determine its GPS location. Judy is getting started on that right now, and it should be ready to go within an hour. It will be included in the update you get. All you would need to do is identify the unit you want to locate, and each unit is identified by the name of the person who has it. If you wanted to know where Marco was at, for instance, you would say to your unit ‘location Marco,’ and your unit would query his storage GPS coordinates and report them to you a moment later, provided he is in a Wi-Fi network somewhere.”

“But only after Marco gets the upgrade, right? There’s no way to find out where our other teammates are at this time?”

“No, I’m afraid not,” Leo said. “Not until you can get word to them to get the upgrade.”

Noah turned to Wally. “I think this is going to help a lot,” he said. “Pretty well solves my problem, as long as I can get close enough to let them know to get the upgrade, and I think I know how to do that.”

“Hey, just glad we can help,” Wally said. “You guys are my favorite team, you know that, right?”

Noah reached out and shook his hand. “And that means a lot to us, Wally.”

The three of them left R&D and went to Charlie’s to get some lunch. Marco had stopped by Renée’s office, and she was able to take her break and go with them.

“There’s something I want to talk to you about,” Marco said to Renée, once the waitress had taken their orders and walked away. “I already brought this up to Noah and he’s okay with it, but—how would you feel about joining the team? Actually going out on missions with us?”

Renée’s eyes went wide, and she looked from Marco to Sarah to Noah and back to Marco. “Are you serious?”

“I am if you like the idea,” Marco said. “Otherwise, it’s all a big joke and we can laugh now.”

Renée swallowed. “You know, I’ve known all along what we do,” she said. “E & E, I mean, the organization. I know what it’s all about. I just never thought about actually being out there where the action is taking place. What would I do? I mean, where would I fit into the team?”

“You’re extremely intelligent,” Noah said, “and we’d keep you in touch with everyone in R&D. It’s quite possible that you could be useful to us in planning and developing strategy, especially with inside knowledge of what R&D is up to. You came to our rescue when we had to deal with faking Randy’s death, because you knew a lot of what was going on out there. I think you can be very helpful when it comes to planning operations, and especially when we have to improvise in the middle of the mission.”

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, then looked at Noah in the eye. “Would I—would I ever have to actually kill someone?”

“You’d have to be trained to use at least some weapons, and you have to receive some basic training in self-defense. I can’t guarantee that you’d never have to kill, but most of the time that’s up to me and Marco and Jenny.”

Renée nodded. She turned and looked at Marco. “And I’d always be going out with you?” he asked.

“If the Dragon Lady approves it,” Marco said, “then you’d be part of Team Camelot. You would go out with us whenever we were sent out on a mission.”

“I want to say yes,” she said, “but I really think I need to think about this. Can I have a couple days?”

“You can have as much time as you want,” Marco said. “I just know that I’d like to have you with me a lot more, and this would mean I could stop worrying about what I say when I’m with you. You would already know about our missions, so there wouldn’t be any secrets between us.”

Renée reached across the table and put her hand on his. “Never mind,” she said. “I don’t have to think about it. How soon will we know if we can do it?”

Marco smiled from ear to ear. “I’ll go see Allison right after lunch,” he said. “Hey, the worst she can say is no, right?”

FIFTEEN

“Are you out of your mind?” Allison asked. Renée had gone back to work, but Noah and Sarah decided to go with Marco. In fact, Noah had been the one to call and ask if they could speak with her. Her response was exactly what Noah had expected, but he had already worked out his response.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’ve actually given this quite a bit of thought, since Marco first brought it up. Renée is quite intelligent, and very resourceful. She was instrumental in helping us handle the situation when we were hunting the mole, and if we keep her in touch with R&D, she should be able to think in terms of what advantages the new developments out there might offer. I think she’s entirely capable of doing whatever needs to be done, and would only need some basic training.”

Allison looked at him. “I can understand Marco coming up with this madness,” she said, “but you actually sound like you approve. You know damn well he just wants to be able to take his girlfriend along, the same way you and Neil get to do. I can’t approve this simply on personal motivations, Noah.”

“I’m aware of his motivations,” Noah said. “Mine, however, are the good of the team. Renée could be an asset, and I believe it would be worth whatever nuisances might come from it.”

Allison glared. “You know, if that was anybody but you saying that, I’d think you were just trying to curry favor with one of your teammates.” She shook her head. “But you aren’t capable of thinking that way. Fine, I’ll approve the transfer, but she has to go through the primary training before she’s authorized to go on mission. I’ll send word out to Wally today, and she can start tomorrow.” She crossed her hands on her desk. “Now, where are we on Jenny and Neil?”

“Wally’s people came up with a way to make these subcom units work through Wi-Fi,” Noah said. “The only problem is that they require a software upgrade, and the only way we can get word to them to get the upgrade is by getting close enough for the subcom units to work the way they normally do. Do we know where they are at the moment?”

“Last report I had said they were still in Germany, but that was a couple of hours ago. It would be nice if we had some idea of where they’re going.”

“Yes, but we don’t have that. I’d like to put a Gulfstream on standby, so that as soon as we know where they are next, we can get there. My idea is to be on the ground in the plane when they leave their next stop, so that we can hopefully make contact with them and tell them to get the upgrade. Once they get that, anytime they get into a Wi-Fi network, they should be able to communicate with us directly.”

“I read the report on those things,” Allison said, “but I never really thought about just how useful they could be. It’s almost like having a phone built in your head, isn’t it?”

“Yes, and especially if it can transmit through the Internet. I’m not sure how they set it up, but Wally’s people say we should be able to talk to them anywhere in the world once they have the upgrade in place.”

Allison nodded. “Then you guys go get some rest, and I’ll make sure the plane is waiting. As soon as we have a destination, you’ll be notified.”

“Thank you,” Noah said, and the three of them got up and walked out of her office.

Marco was almost bouncing with excitement. “Can I tell her? Can I call her now and tell her?”

“Go ahead,” Noah said. He looked at Sarah. “I think he’ll go crazy if I don’t let him do it now.”

She giggled. “No doubt,” she said.

Marco waited until they were in the garage before he called Renée, but the call went to voicemail. “Hey, babe,” he said. “Just thought I’d let you know, we talked to Allison and she has okayed your transfer. Wally should be letting you know before long, but I wanted to give you a heads up. You have to go through the general training, but you should be ready by the time you go out on our next mission.”

He ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket, then climbed into the car with Noah and Sarah.

An hour later, when Marco had gone home to rest, Noah called and reminded him to download the updated software for the subcoms, while he and Sarah did it themselves. Moments later, Noah said “Activate software upgrade.”

In his head, he heard, “enter Wi-Fi password,” and spoke it aloud. A second later, he heard, “Upgrade complete.”

“Marco to Noah,” he heard a moment later, and Sarah grinned at the same time. “Can you hear me now?”

“Noah to Marco,” Noah said. “Loud and clear.”

* * * * *

After their lunch with Niemeier, Jenny and Neil had been taken back to the hotel. Newsom told them they would be leaving the following morning, and to stay in their room until he came to get them for dinner. The two of them took advantage of having the afternoon alone, spending some time in personal intimacy and then relaxing on the bed to watch television.

Dinner was at a restaurant just down the street, and the conversation was mundane. When it was over, Newsom suggested they get some sleep because they were flying out early. He would be coming to collect them at 4 o’clock in the morning.

They were both up, dressed and packed by the time Newsom knocked on the door. “Oh, good,” he said. “That means we can get moving quicker. We’ll have breakfast on the plane, I’m sure, and I’m afraid this will be a bit longer flight than yesterday.”

“And you still won’t tell me where we’re going?” Jenny asked.

“I suppose I can,” Newsom said. “We’ll be making our next stop in Brazil.”

Forty-five minutes later, they were in the plane and in the air.

* * * * *

At just before 9 PM, Noah’s phone rang. He picked it up from the table beside the couch and saw that it was Allison calling.

“Camelot,” he said.

“They just left Schoenefeld Airport in Berlin, and CIA reports that the plane’s flight plan takes it to Rio de Janeiro. If you leave right now, you can probably land in Rio shortly before they do. The plane is sitting at the airfield ready to go.”

“We’re moving,” Noah said. He hung up the phone and immediately said, “Noah to Marco, are you there?”

“Boss?” Marco asked through the subcom. “Something up?”

“Yes,” Noah said. “Drop whatever you’re doing and get to the airfield. Jenny and Neil are on the way to Rio, and we should be able to get there ahead of them. I hope you’ve got a bag packed.”

“Always got one ready, boss,” Marco said. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Noah looked at Sarah.

“We’re leaving now?” she asked.

“Yes. Get the car started while I get our bags.”

They arrived at the airfield at the same time Marco did, and the plane was in the air less than fifteen minutes later. Their flight plan to Rio was as direct as the pilot could make it, and with the throttles all the way forward, they would make it in slightly less than twelve hours. That would put them at Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport in Rio a good half-hour before Neil and Jenny would arrive.

“With any luck,” Noah said, “we’ll be able to make contact with them before they leave the airport. Then we just have to hope they can get on Wi-Fi somewhere to get the upgrade for themselves.”

* * * * *

The flight lasted almost thirteen hours, and Jenny and Neil slept through half of it, as did Newsom and his men. When they landed, he once again led them through the terminal building, where they somehow bypassed customs completely. Jenny was about to ask him how he’d managed that when she suddenly heard Noah’s voice in her head.

“Noah to Jenny and Neil,” came the message. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” Jenny subvocalized, and then heard Neil echo her. “Where are you?”

“Nearby. When you get into any Wi-Fi network, try to get the password and then say, ‘Activate software upgrade.’ The subcom will ask for the password and you just say it, then it will download a new software update that will let the units send signals through Wi-Fi, anywhere in the world. Repeat, in any Wi-Fi network, get the password and say, ‘Activate software upgrade...’” The signal faded out as they passed through the exit onto the lane where a car was waiting.

Jenny kept her face impassive. “Jenny to Neil, did you get that?” she said softly.

“Yes,” he replied. “That’s awesome!”

“Is something wrong?”

Jenny was startled when Newsom asked the question, and quickly shook her head. “No. Why do you ask?”

He narrowed his eyes. “For a moment, it looked like you were deep in concentration. I was afraid you’d seen someone you didn’t want to run into.”

She shook her head again. “No, nothing like that. What you saw was just me shaking off a headache. I’m one of those people who get a headache whenever I fly, but it isn’t too bad, and usually fades when I get back on solid ground.”

Newsom relaxed. “Oh,” he said. “That must be a nuisance, with all the traveling you have to do.”

She grimaced. “It certainly can be. Neil rubs my neck for me at night, though, so it has its good points.”

Neil grinned and nodded, and Newsom looked at him for a second before turning back to Jenny. “I was meaning to ask about him. I take it he’s part of your backup team?”

Jenny let her eyes go wide. “Neil? Not really,” he said. “He’s more like my boytoy. We’re very much in serious lust.” She finished that off with a grin that made Newsom look away.

* * * * *

Noah, Sarah and Marco were sitting in a small restaurant inside the airport, watching as the many arriving and departing passengers moved through the terminal.

“Do you think they heard?” Sarah asked.

“They both responded,” Noah said. “I’m hoping they got the message, but we won’t know unless they are able to pull it off. With no electronic devices of their own, getting a Wi-Fi password might be impossible.”

“I don’t know how it works in Brazil,” Marco said, “but most hotels back home will tell you what it is when you check in, or you can always ask the front desk.”

“That’s worth hoping for,” Noah said. “Maybe luck will be on our side.”

“Okay,” Marco said. “Anybody get a glimpse? The private flights should come through here.”

“Look,” Sarah said, pointing with her chin. “There they go, now. They bypassed customs, Newsom must have some kind of deal with them.”

“Or diplomatic status,” Noah said. “He lives here in Brazil, and he’s a powerful man. It’s possible he’s regarded as a statesman, or connected to the government.” He got up from the table. “If we hurry, we might be able to follow and find out where they’re staying.”

The three of them walked quickly toward the main entrance of the airport, and they spotted Jenny and Neil through the glass as they approached it. They were getting into a limousine with Newsom, while his men were climbing into another vehicle. Both of them pulled out at the same time, and Noah herded the other two through the door and into a taxi.

“Please follow those two cars,” Noah said. “Not too close, we just want to know where they’re going.”

“Sim, Senhor,” said the driver. He punched a button on the meter and put the car in gear, pulling out behind the SUV carrying Newsom’s men.

The cars followed a winding path through Rio de Janeiro, crossing the causeway into the city itself. It took nearly half an hour, but then they pulled up in front of the Hotel Corinto on Rua Maxwell, a main street in the city. Both of the cars pulled in, and Noah instructed the driver to keep going. Two blocks later, he told the driver to stop and let them out, but not to go anywhere. They would be needing a ride again shortly, and the tip that he gave the driver was enough to guarantee the man would wait for them for quite some time.

“We’re close enough,” Noah said. “Noah to Jenny and Neil, can you hear me?”

“Jenny to Noah, I hear you. Are you close by?”

“Neil to Noah, good to hear your voice, boss.”

“We were able to follow your cars, so we know where you’re staying. How soon will you be where you can talk for a moment?”

“Jenny to Noah, give us ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes. We’ll be here.” He looked around for a moment and spotted an open-air bar, and the three of them took seats and ordered coffees. They sat and acted like tourists for a few minutes, looking around and pointing at different things that seemed interesting or exciting, until they heard Jenny and Neil on the subcoms again.

“Jenny to Noah,” they heard. “Okay, we are in our room. Trying to see if there’s anything here about Wi-Fi, but we haven’t found anything yet. The phone in our room does not work, by the way, Newsom had it shut off.”

“Noah to Jenny, give me a second.” He took out his phone and googled the number of the Hotel Corinto, then hit the dial button. “This is Mr. Avery on the third floor,” he said. “Could you tell me the Wi-Fi password, please?”

“Yes, sir,” the clerk said. “It is corintorio star hashtag and the numeral 7, all with no spaces and no capital letters.”

“Thank you so much,” Noah said. He repeated it to Jenny and Neil.

“Neil to Noah,” he heard a moment later. “I’m surprised they gave it to you, since you were not calling from inside a room.”

“Most hotel clerks are too busy to think about such things,” Noah said. “Get yourselves on the Wi-Fi, while we get back to our plane. Once we get there, you’ll be able to communicate with us. All of us have to be on Wi-Fi for this to work.”

“Jenny to Noah, you got it. We’ll be in touch. And, by the way, we met the first member of the board in Germany. His name is Klaus Niemeier and he’s about seventy years old and fat, but I wasn’t able to get much other information about him.”

“Noah to Jenny, I’ll relay that upstairs. Are you having any problems with Newsom?”

“Not that I can tell. He seems to be a little suspicious, but he hasn’t said or done anything to make me think we’re in danger.”

“Neil to Noah,” Neil cut in. “She means not any more danger than we’re obviously already in.”

“Noah to Neil, understood. Try to stay on Wi-Fi wherever you go, because then we can communicate regardless of distance. Let us know if you find out where you’re going next.”

“Jenny to Noah, will do.” She and Neil began talking with each other, simple small talk in case they were being monitored in the room.

Noah got up from the table, and Sarah and Marco followed. They went back to the taxi and got in, then told the driver to take it right back to the airport. Since there was no way to know when Jenny and Neil would be leaving, Noah wanted to stay with the airplane and ready to move on short notice.

The plane had already been refueled by the time they got back, and had been moved to a parking area. It took them a few minutes to find it, and then they climbed aboard. The flight attendant asked if they wanted lunch, but they all decided to wait a while longer.

As soon as they logged onto the airplane’s Wi-Fi system, they heard Jenny and Neil. Their subcom units were on, which meant that the three of them could hear every word they said. They listened for a moment, and then Sarah’s eyes went wide. She turned off her subcom a moment later, her face red.

“Marco to Neil,” Marco said with a sub-vocalized chuckle, “you guys got to learn to turn that off when you start doing things like this.”

The channel went silent only a second later, and Noah blinked. He took out his phone and dialed the number for the home office.

“Brigadoon Investments,” answered the receptionist. “How may I direct your call?”

“Allison Peterson,” Noah said. “Noah Wolf calling.” Hold music began to play, but Allison picked up only a few seconds later.

“Camelot, report,” he said.

“We were able to make contact, and even followed them to their hotel. They got the upgrade installed so that we can communicate over distance, now. Jenny met with one board member in Germany, a man named Klaus Niemeier, approximately seventy years old and apparently obese. No further information available about him, so he might be hard to track down.”

“No problem,” Allison said. “I’ll get our people on it right away. Any idea where she’s going next?”

“Not yet, but they’ll let us know in advance if they can. We should get a heads up when they leave the hotel, so we can at least make contact with them as they pass through the airport.”

“Very good,” Allison said. “Keep me posted.” As always, the line went dead as soon as she finished speaking.

* * * * *

Newsom came and took them down to lunch, which they had in the hotel restaurant. Afterward, they went back to the room to wait for the meeting to be scheduled, but it was more than two hours later when Newsom knocked on the door again, and Neil let him in.

“All right,” Newsom said, “it’s time for the next meeting. We’ll be meeting Alexandra Hofmeyr, who handles a lot of our financial matters. She’s actually the one who will coordinate the payments we give to you. Are you ready to go?”

“I was born ready,” Jenny said. “The sooner we get through these meetings, the sooner I can get to work.”

“I agree,” Newsom said. “I’m afraid, however, that this time you need to come alone. Alexandra is not quite as friendly as Niemeier, so she wishes to meet with the two of us in private.”

Jenny started to protest, but Neil caught her eye. “It’s okay, Victoria,” he said. “I can understand them being cautious. I can kick back here and relax, watch some TV till you get back.”

Jenny looked at him for a moment, then slowly nodded her head. “All right,” she said. “I’ll see you when we get back.” She kissed him quickly, then followed Newsom out the door.

As soon as it closed behind her, Neil turned on his subcom. “Neil to Noah, you there?”

“Noah to Neil, go ahead.”

“Newsom just took Jenny to meet the next board member, a woman named Alexandra Hofmeyr. Apparently she doesn’t like to be around too many people, because I had to wait in the hotel room. We’ll give you more information when she gets back.”

“Good job,” Noah said. “We’ll be monitoring.”

“Good. I’m going to shut it off for now, because I don’t think you want to listen to me watching old Western movies in Portuguese. Unfortunately, that seems to be all that’s on this TV.”

“Understood,” Noah said. “One of us will monitor at all times. Just call out when you need us.”

“I will.” He turned off his unit and picked up the TV remote, then started flipping through channels.

It was almost thirty minutes later when the door opened again, and Neil smiled. “That was a short…”

The smile faded quickly, because it wasn’t Jenny coming through the door. It was two men Neil didn’t recognize, and both of them were holding pistols in their hands. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“You come with us,” one of the men said. “Newson order us to take you.”

“Yeah, okay,” the tall, skinny kid said, “but where are we going? We going to Victoria?”

“You come, no questions.”

It dawned on Neil that these were apparently some local muscle. Since they were armed and he was not, he didn’t see much choice but to comply. As he slowly got to his feet, he whispered the activation code for his subcom unit.

“Neil to Noah,” he subvocalized quickly, “I don’t know what’s going on but I’m being taken somewhere. Local guys just came in with guns, not any of Newsom’s men but probably working for him.”

“Noah to Neil, I copy. Try to stay in touch as long as you can, tell us which way you’re going.”

“Will do.” He slid his feet into his shoes and followed the two men out the door, and they slipped their guns into their pockets. A moment later they walked out the front door, and Neil was put into the back of a car with one of the men beside him, while the other sat in the front. The driver put the car in gear and pulled away from the hotel.

“Going east,” Neil said softly, “no idea where, don’t know how long I’ll have network. Maybe going to use me for leverage, don’t…”

The nearly silent hum that told him his subcom was active disappeared, and Neil knew that he had lost connection to the Wi-Fi, and therefore to Noah. He turned and looked at the man beside him. “So what’s this all about? Where are you taking me?”

“You don’t talk,” the man replied. “You find out later.”

Neil started to protest, but the look on the man’s face made him think twice. He leaned back against the seat and looked out the window.

* * * * *

“Neil? Neil, are you there?” Noah turned to Sarah and Marco. “Neil has been taken, no idea why. Be ready, this could mean there’s a problem. If Jenny has been compromised, the whole mission could be a bust.”

“Well, is there anything we can do?” Sarah asked. “Noah, we can’t leave him. We have no idea what these people could do with him.”

“We have no kind of intelligence on the matter, we know nothing and can do nothing. We need to wait until we hear back from Jenny, or maybe Neil will be able to get onto a Wi-Fi network. Once you know more about what’s going on, I can make a decision about what to do. Until then, all we can do is wait.”

Marco shook his head. “Oh, man,” he said, “if there’s anything I hate worse than waiting, it’s not knowing why I’m waiting. Didn’t they say we can get a GPS location on these things?”

Noah nodded. “Yes, but only when they’re connected to a Wi-Fi network. We just have to wait, there’s nothing else to do.”

SIXTEEN

“Alexandra’s family,” Newsom said as the car pulled away from the hotel, “has long been involved in the intelligence community. Like many Brazilians, she is descended from some of the Nazis who relocated to South America during the last days of the Second World War, but her people never lost many of their contacts. She has literally grown up in the intelligence world, and some of her family are deeply entrenched in other countries. As result, she is often herself a source of incredibly valuable information.”

“Sounds like a good lady to have on your side,” Jenny said. “And it would explain why she would be on your Board of Directors. I’m assuming she also wants to see the world change for the better?”

“Indeed she does. Sometimes, her ideas of what will make it better differ slightly from the rest of us, but we’ve learned to trust her judgment. Between the siblings and cousins who work with intelligence agencies all around the world, and her own somewhat surprising insights, she’s become quite valuable to us. When she speaks, we listen.”

“Then I’ll pay attention. Maybe I can learn something from her, as well.”

Newsom smiled. “Oh, I’m quite certain that you will. We’ll be there in just a few moments, and you can form your own opinion of her.”

True to his word, they arrived at a large house less than ten minutes later. Newsom and Jenny got out of the car and he led her up the front steps, where a man decked out as a butler opened the door for them. The man said nothing, but immediately led them down a long hallway into an ornately decorated office. A woman who looked to be in her fifties sat behind the desk, and looked up at them appraisingly.

“Alexandra,” Newsom said. “It’s lovely to see you again. May I present Victoria?”

Alexandra Hofmeyr looked Jenny over, then pointed toward a chair in front of her desk. Jenny took the seat that was indicated, and Newsom sat beside her.

“I’m pleased to meet you,” Jenny said. “Mr. Newsom has been telling me quite a bit about you.”

Alexandra looked at Newsom for a moment, then turned back to Jenny. “I spent a lot of time studying you,” she said. “One of our people suggested you for the assignment you’re being given, so I made it a point to learn everything I could about you. Peter has probably told you of my family’s connections to intelligence. Perhaps it will surprise you to learn that two of my cousins are Mossad officers.”

Jenny kept her face impassive, but a chill went down her spine. “Why would that be surprising? The Mossad are one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world. Or, if you’re referring to your family’s past connections to the Nazis, I learned a long time ago that many Nazis had Jewish relatives.”

“This is true,” Alexandra said. “The reason I thought it might surprise you is because you have had the nerve to walk into my office. You see, Victoria—no, I tell a lie, your name is not Victoria at all, is it? I know this because the real assassin known as Victoria died some days ago at the hands of the Mossad.”

Jenny let her eyebrows go up, but put a grin on her face. “Is that the current rumor? Over the last two years, I’ve heard that I was killed by the CIA, the SVR, MI6 and several other agencies. I’m happy to say that the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

Alexandra grinned. “And you quote Mark Twain. How bold. Actually, I have been doing my research. Peter was kind enough to get photos of you to send me, and I circulated them amongst those I trust. Would you care to guess what I learned?”

“Oh, no,” Jenny said, still grinning. “Please go on. This is the most entertainment I’ve had in weeks.”

Alexandra’s grin became a smile. “Such courage,” she said. “I was not able to get your actual name, but your photo matched perfectly, by facial recognition, with one that was taken in Sweden last year. In that particular case, it was known that the victim was targeted by the Americans, but all the intelligence agencies were able to pick up was chatter about a fairy tale. The only name associated with that photograph that was taken as you left a hotel room where the bodies of three Russian organized crime figures were found the next morning, was Cinderella. Does that sound familiar to you?”

“Cinderella? I heard the story when I was a kid. What is this supposed to mean?”

“Our goal in hiring Victoria was to eliminate the sitting director of the American assassination organization, E & E. Ironically, one of the death squads that organization employs has been referred to as the Cinderella team. You, my dear, are not Victoria; you are in fact an impostor, I know that you are actually that female assassin from E & E who goes by the codename of Cinderella.”

The door to the office opened behind her, and Jenny didn’t need to look around to know that there were suddenly armed guards in the room with guns pointed at her. She let the smile slip away and looked directly into Alexandra’s eyes. “If you believe that,” she said calmly, “then why am I still alive? For that matter, why am I here?”

“Because we still need the job to be done,” Alexandra said. “In my experience, even the most loyal agent can be turned. It’s simply a matter of finding the right incentive.”

“Assuming, for the sake of argument, that you are correct in any way, what possible incentive could you offer this Cinderella that would make her turn on her own people?”

The chill raced down Jenny’s spine again, and she knew what was going to be said before Alexandra ever opened her mouth. There was only one thing they could possibly try to use against her, and she was suddenly furious with herself for letting Neil come with her on this international jaunt.

“Your lover,” Alexandra said. “Peter and his people have been observing the two of you together since you left London. We have him, and he will remain safe and alive only so long as you do what we tell you to do. Once your mission is complete, we will release him to you, but by then you will have nowhere else to go. You might say that we are simply using him to encourage you to accept long-term employment with us.”

Several options raced through Jenny’s mind, but she knew there was no way she would be able to kill these people and escape alive. She slowly turned her head and counted five men with machine guns behind her, more than she could possibly handle. She had no weapons, no backup…

“I’ve never been all that fond of the Dragon Lady, anyway,” she said. “Do you know how E & E operates? They take young people in bad situations and offer them a new life, but the price of that new life is to become a killer. I’ll cooperate, and then we can discuss the long-term employment. However, and I know you’re expecting me to say this, if any harm comes to Neil, I will personally skin each and every one of you people alive. You might want to know that I’m very good at it, and I can keep you alive for an awfully long time.”

Alexandra burst out laughing. “How delightful,” she said. “Perhaps we should only have offered you money. In fact, when the job is done, we shall pay you the ten million dollar fee, as well as give you back your boyfriend. You will see that he is unharmed, and we will make certain that he is quite comfortable. Now, let us discuss the mission.”

“Yes, let’s do that. The sooner we get on with it, the sooner I get him back.”

* * * * *

The car Neil was riding in left the city, and the Brazilian countryside offered wonderful opportunities for sightseeing. Unfortunately, he was in no mood to enjoy the view. His captors weren’t talking to him, and he had absolutely no idea where he was going or what was happening to himself or Jenny.

After a four hour drive, they pulled up in front of a large house, something that reminded Neil of the old plantation homes in Virginia. There were four huge pillars holding up the porch roof, and the building itself was constructed of a mixture of red and white bricks. It was a lovely place, if he had been in the mood to enjoy architecture, but all he saw when he looked at it was a prison.

His guards made him get out of the car, and the front door opened. A tall man wearing jeans and a T-shirt came out, flanked by half a dozen armed guards. The guards wore uniforms that looked almost military, but not quite.

“Good afternoon,” the man said. “Please allow me to introduce myself. You will know me as Michael, and I will be your host while you are with us. Please let me explain that the guards you see behind me are here as much for your protection as for my own. While it is true that they will prevent you from leaving, they will do everything possible to avoid causing you any harm. The only way you could get yourself shot would be to steal one of their weapons and try to turn against them. In that case, they are authorized to use whatever force is necessary. Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to escape our hospitality at this time. Do you understand?”

Neil glared at him. “I understand that you just signed your own death warrants,” he said. “Victoria will be coming for me, and you probably won’t even know about it until it’s too late.”

“Your young lady is no longer trying to pretend to be Victoria,” Michael said. “You see, my employer has many contacts around the world, and so we know that the true Victoria is dead. We know that your young lady is an employee of the very agency we seek to decapitate, but that could actually work in our favor. We have determined that she will do anything she has to in order to get you back, and so she has already agreed to terminate your director, in return for your safety. It is my job see to it that you are as comfortable as you can be until she completes that mission, and then we will take you back into the city and release you.”

The revelation struck Neil like a sledgehammer, and he felt lightheaded for a second. He recovered quickly, and managed to shake his head.

“I don’t know what you people are smoking,” he said, “but it must be some pretty good stuff.”

Michael shrugged, but he was grinning. “I’ve just gotten off the phone with my employer,” he said, “and she has assured me that your young lady—incidentally, she says her name is Jenny—has already agreed to cooperate. All you have to do is enjoy the comfort of my hospitality and wait for her to return.” He put an arm around Neil’s shoulders, and that’s when Neil realized that Michael was almost as tall as himself. “Come, our dinner is ready. I have told the chef to prepare something to make you feel at home, and he has chosen something he calls Western beef stew. I’m not sure what he’s added to it, but I can tell you that it smells wonderful.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Neil’s stomach had been rumbling for the last hour. As tall and skinny as he was, he had an appetite that never seemed to be satisfied, and it’d been over six hours since lunch. He remembered something Noah had told him once, about how prisoners will refuse to eat in protest, but that it was always stupid to pass an opportunity to keep up your strength, especially in captivity.

“Fine,” he said. “Then let’s eat, and you can tell me more about just what the hell is going on.”

The stew was absolutely fantastic. Who would have ever believed that Brazilian cooks could turn out such wonderful American food? The gravy had been some of the best he had ever tasted, the potatoes had been awesome and the dinner rolls were absolutely fantastic.

Michael had been his only dinner companion, which he had expected. He was one of the most polite men Neil had ever met, but he didn’t let himself forget that it was only a role the guy was undoubtedly trained to play. His job was almost certainly to try to get Neil to relax, so that he would be willing to tell him what he wanted to know, but Neil understood the game and was determined not to let that happen. While some people considered Brazil to be one of America’s allies, Neil wasn’t all that interested in political mattters and didn’t really care. What mattered to him was that anything he said might end up harming Noah or Jenny.

As they ate, Michael told Neil about the conditions of his imprisonment. “You can go anywhere in the house or around the grounds that you like,” he said. “If you try to leave the property, of course, my men have orders to stop you. It really wouldn’t be a wise move on your part, anyway, because there are an amazing number of wild animals around here, and many of them are quite deadly. As I said, we are not supposed to allow any harm to come to you.”

“That’s good to know,” Neil said. “So, if I slap one of your boys across the face, he’s not allowed to hit me back?”

Michael chuckled. “I’m not sure how far I’d want to test that theory, if I were you. They wouldn’t shoot you, but that’s not the only way they could express their displeasure.”

When they finished eating, Michael led Neil up the stairs to the second floor. He was taken to a bedroom, and was surprised to find a closet and dresser full of clothing that would fit him. Whoever these people were, they had done their homework.

“This makes it look like you plan on me being here a while,” he said.

“Well, that’s not really up to us,” Michael said. “That would be up to your young lady. The sooner she completes her assignment, the sooner the two of you can be together again. And please believe me when I tell you that you truly will be released. My employer believes that your Jenny will be coming to work for us on a regular basis, after this mission. After all, she’s probably not going to be very popular within your organization after this.”

Yeah? Neil thought. Apparently, you don’t know anything about Noah and the rest of our team. Jenny will run screaming to him as soon as she can, and he’ll pull out all the stops. Sorry, Michael, you seem like a decent guy, but I’m pretty sure Jenny is going to cut off some pretty important parts of your body before she’s done. And the rest of your men will all end up dead, because you don’t piss off two of the most deadly killers in the world without facing the consequences.

The new room he’d been assigned was very comfortable. There was a large bed that almost seemed to have been designed for him, a TV with satellite service with hundreds of channels, chairs that he could be comfortable in, and it had its own bathroom. All in all, it was one of the nicest jail cells he could ever imagine, but there was no doubt that’s what it was. Two of the guards stood watch outside his door, and there were four of them on the ground outside the windows. If he tried to leave, Michael had warned him repeatedly, they had orders to take him alive and unharmed, but they might have some room for interpretation on just what “unharmed” could mean.

Being Neil, he naturally tried to test the limits. Every time he got close to the perimeter fence around the property, the guards made it clear that they weren’t going to let him go further, so he would turn around and go back toward the house. After an hour or so of testing their resolve, he finally went back inside and found the library in the house. There were thousands of books, and he was looking at many of the titles when Michael came in.

“Are you a chess player, Neil?” Michael asked. “I haven’t had a decent game in quite some time.”

Neil turned and looked at him. “Then, set up the board. At least I can kick your ass that way.”

* * * * *

Newsom and Jenny left Alexandra’s house an hour later and made the drive back to the hotel. Newsom seemed nervous all the way, but Jenny kept up her lighthearted act.

“Relax, Newsom,” she said. “Do you think I don’t think about getting out of E & E? This may turn out to be the best opportunity I’ve had yet.”

Newsom smiled, but the nervousness was still there. “I certainly hope so,” he said. “From what Alexandra said, you could be even more valuable to us than the real Victoria. I’ve got to tell you, you had me fooled.”

“Yes, well, this is the kind of thing you risk in this business. I always knew that my cover would be blown sooner or later, but I always expected to be killed as soon as it was. This turned out to be a potential opportunity to move up in the world. I suspect I’ll be thanking you before this is over.”

They were back at the hotel in short order, of course, and Newsom insisted on taking her directly to the restaurant for dinner. They ate rather quickly, and the conversation was mostly mundane. Forty-five minutes later, Newsom escorted her up the elevator, and she stepped into her own room.

Jenny waited until she was back in her hotel room without anyone paying attention, then turned on her subcom. “Jenny to Noah, are you there?”

“Noah to Jenny, yes. Situation?”

“They made me. Alexandra Hofmeyr is highly connected in intelligence, and knew that Victoria was killed by Mossad. They ran photos of me through facial recognition and found one that matched, from a mission in Sweden last year. They didn’t have my name before now, but they knew I was Cinderella from E & E. I told them my name is Jenny Lindstrom, and they bought it. They don’t know anything about my joining Team Camelot, but they took Neil and are holding him hostage to force me to complete the mission. Noah, they want me to kill Allison, then come work for them.”

“You have to stay with them, then,” Noah said. “Neil was able to reach me for a few seconds, but all I know is that he was taken. He suspected it might be for leverage, and this explains it. Any idea where they’re keeping him?”

“Nothing, not a clue. They told me they’ll give him back as soon as I complete the mission, and since that would burn me, they want me to come work for them. Noah, I can’t let anything happen to Neil. You got to find a way to beat this, and soon. They cut me off from any more meetings, and I’ll be going back to the States tomorrow, to somewhere in California. They want Allison dead within the next four days, and they want absolute proof of death.”

“How do they expect to get that?” Noah asked.

“They’ll settle for video, as long as it shows enough physical damage to make survival impossible. You know, shotgun blast to the chest, chop her head off, something like that.”

“All right,” Noah said. “We’ll head back to Neverland, and start working with Wally on how to pull this off. It’ll be just like London, but it has to be good enough to convince them she’s really dead so that you can get deeper into the PRA. Then, we can complete the real mission.”

“I don’t how you can make it look that real, but if anybody can it’ll be Wally. I’ll be in touch every time I can get into Wi-Fi, and I’ll be out from under Newsom by tomorrow evening. Just remember, we’ve got a very short window. I’m not going to let anything happen to Neil, Noah. You might not understand this, but Sarah would; I waited too long to find him, I’m not going to lose him now.”

“We’ll get him back,” Noah said. “Contact me tomorrow, as soon as you can. One of us will be on and monitoring at all times.”

“All right,” Jenny said. “I’ll talk to you then, unless I come up with something you need to know.”

She left the subcom on as she took a shower and got ready for bed, then curled up under the covers. She fought back the tears as long as he could, but finally they forced their way out. When she felt the sobs starting to build, she quickly turned off the subcom so that Noah and the others wouldn’t have to hear it. It took a couple of hours to get to sleep, but finally exhaustion took its toll on her.

Still, she had the best night’s sleep she’d gotten since the whole mission began. She dreamed she was lying next to Neil, and had wrapped her arms around him the way she always did. She felt his hand clasp hers, pulling her arm tighter. That was something she always loved when he did it, but it was only when he was sleeping. She enjoyed the feeling for the fleeting moment it lasted before the dream faded away.

Jenny woke refreshed and took care of morning necessities before getting dressed and packing the rest of her things. It was only a few minutes later that Newsom knocked on her door, and he smiled appreciatively when he saw her.

“My goodness,” he said, “but you do look lovely this morning. Compared to you, I look like I fell out of bed and landed in a pile of my dirty laundry.”

She gave him a sarcastic grin. “Very funny,” she said. “Are we ready to go?”

Newsom nodded. “Yes. The plane is fueled and ready, and we need to get moving. It’s a little more than a twelve hour flight to San Francisco, but that’s where we’re headed.”

“Okay, I’m ready,” Jenny said. “Everything is packed, and we can get out of here as soon as you like. Are we stopping for breakfast? Or maybe we should just head straight to the plane.”

Newsom smiled, and it almost seemed for a moment as though they were friends. “We can have breakfast in the air,” he said. “After all, it’s going to be a long flight. I made sure they laid in plenty of food, since we’ll be eating all of our meals there today.”

“Fine by me,” Jenny said. “I laid here all night just thinking, and I’m ready to make the change we discussed yesterday. I think it’s time my career took another turn, and I just hope it’s for the better.”

“I truly believe it will be,” Newsom said.

Jenny wondered if he really believed her, or was simply saying what he thought she wanted to hear.

* * * * *

Neil woke to the sound of knocking on his bedroom door. “Okay, okay, I’m coming,” he yelled. He rolled out of bed and staggered over to the door in his boxers, then yanked it open.

Michael stood there, comfortably dressed in jeans and another T-shirt. “I thought you might like some breakfast,” he said. “Steak and eggs. Sound appetizing?”

“Oh, hell, yeah,” Neil said. “Give me five minutes to throw clothes on.”

“No problem, take as much time as you need. You know where the dining room is, and I’ll be waiting for you there.”

Neil closed the door, then rushed to the bathroom to take care of things. He sniffed at his underarms and gave them each a shot of whatever spray deodorant it was that was sitting on the bathroom counter, then climbed into jeans and a shirt of his own. He put his feet into his shoes and then hurried down the stairs to the dining room.

“Okay, so what are we doing today? If you’re planning to try to get information out of me, you might as well give it up now. A, I don’t know anything, and B, I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”

“Well, personally, I thought we might just begin with breakfast, if that’s all right with you.” He waved a hand, and people suddenly appeared holding a platter with several large steaks and a big pan of sunny side up eggs. They placed them on the table and hurried out of the room.

“Help yourself,” Michael said. He reached over with a fork and stabbed one of the bigger steaks, then used a spatula to scoop three of the eggs on his plate. Neil grinned and then did the same, except that he took two steaks and six eggs.

They chatted about simple things while they ate, such as what kind of video games Neil liked to play, what kind of movies he liked, and the conversation was simple and nonthreatening. He suspected that it would become more serious at some point, and that no matter how friendly he might seem, Michael was probably some sort of professional at getting whatever information he wanted. If that was the case, then it was just a matter of time before the friendliness disappeared.

When breakfast was over, Michael asked Neil if he would care for another game of chess, and he accepted. They went back to the library, and Neil wasn’t surprised to see the board already set up. He’d won the first of two games they played the night before, and the third had been a stalemate. Both of them were highly skilled at the game, and concentrating on it kept Neil from thinking about his predicament.

“You seem to be worried. Care to talk about it?” Michael asked.

“Well, I’d probably be pretty stupid if I wasn’t worried, right?” Neil asked. “I mean, I’m a prisoner, and my girlfriend is out there getting ready to turn our former employers into our worst enemies. Considering that I know what they do, I’m not really excited about being on their bad side.”

“You think they’ll come after you?”

“Wouldn’t you? If somebody who works for you suddenly comes back and tries to kill you, wouldn’t you want revenge?”

“I suppose I see your point,” Michael said. “Still, we will do everything possible to create new identities for you both, when this is over. I believe we can keep you from being discovered again.”

“Maybe you can,” Neil said, “but I’ve seen just how thorough these people can be. No one has ever been able to hide from them for long.”

“That may be true,” Michael said. “However, we are rather resourceful, ourselves. I don’t think they would be able to infiltrate our organization, and no one outside of our very top people would ever be allowed to know who or where you were. Keeping your identities secret shouldn’t be that big a problem.”

“I don’t know, you could be right. You do realize you’re about to lose that bishop, right?”

“Sometimes a player must sacrifice one of his pieces,” Michael said. He watched as Neil took the bishop and then calmly advanced a single pawn. “What looks like a loss can sometimes lead to a greater victory.”

“That’s true,” Neil said. “But then again, losing the bishop has exposed both your knight and your rook. I can take either of them now, but I think I’m going to leave them alone. Sometimes, it’s best to simply know where your enemies are and what their limitations might be, so that you can better plan your strategy.” He moved his queen’s knight to where it would block the rook if it moved.

“And this is also true. I fail to see, though, how sacrificing your knight is advancing any strategy.” He took the knight with the rook and smiled.

“It doesn’t,” Neil said, “but it did distract you.” He moved his queen, keeping a finger on top of it until he was satisfied, and then said, “Checkmate.”

Michael stared at the board. The queen was in position to attack his king directly, and Neil’s bishop was ready to attack if he made one move, or his rook was prepared in the event of the only other possible move. There was nowhere he could go, and no single piece could possibly block the queen’s attack. He looked over the nonexistent options for a few more seconds, then tipped over his king and surrendered.

“Very well played,” Michael said. “I actually did not see that coming.”

“That’s because you never played with my uncle Harley,” Neil said. “He loved that ploy, and got me with it a thousand different times.”

“He sounds like a good teacher. Is he still living?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Neil said. “When you go to work for E & E, you have to cut off all ties with family. Of course, my family probably didn’t mind all that much. I was always a pain in their asses.”

Michael was setting up the board again. “Oh? Why was that?”

“Lots of reasons. I grew too fast, for one thing. We didn’t have a lot of money, so keeping clothes on me turned out to be expensive. I hit six feet tall in the fifth grade, and then that led to more problems because I was too clumsy to play basketball. Everybody thought I would be a natural, but I couldn’t hit a basket to save my life.”

“Ah,” Michael said. “Let me guess, you became introverted. You’re very good at chess, and I enjoy watching your logic processes. I’m going to make a wager with you. I will bet you your choice of what to have for dinner tonight that you became a computer hacker. Am I right?”

Neil thought for a moment about what he should say, then nodded his head. There was no point in trying to keep it secret, because they already knew he was working for E & E. His height and clumsiness would never be valued by such an organization, so it was only logical that he would be useful in some other way.

“You nailed it,” he said. “I’m very good with computers, and can generally get into anything I want to know. Which, of course, is why you won’t let me near the Internet while I’m here, right?”

Michael chuckled. “We already knew better than that,” he said. “Mr. Newsom had come to the conclusion that you are a computer expert. I was simply looking for verification.”

“Whatever,” Neil said. “You take white this time.”

Michael turned the board and advanced a pawn by two spaces. Neil countered with a pawn on the same line.

SEVENTEEN

Noah had taken out his phone as soon as he had finished speaking with Jenny, and called headquarters.

“Brigadoon Investments, how may I direct your call?”

“Allison Peterson, please, Noah Wolf calling.”

The hold music lasted only a few seconds. “Camelot, report.”

“We have a situation,” Noah said. “Jenny has been identified, and they are using Neil against her. While they had her alone, Neil has been abducted and taken somewhere else. They’ve informed Jenny that he will be returned only after she completes the assignment they have given her, which is to kill you. After that, they want her to work for them exclusively.”

“Damn! These people are better than we gave them credit for. How in the world did they twig to this?”

“Jenny was taken to meet Alexandra Hofmeyr, who seems to have connections with the Mossad. She knew that Victoria was killed, so she got a photo of Jenny and started running it through facial recognition systems. They found a matching photo of Jenny as Cinderella from a mission in Sweden last year. The only identification they had for that photo was the name Cinderella, but it was apparently known that Cinderella works for E & E. They took Neil to use as leverage because they want the hit on you within four days, and they want proof of death. She said they’ll accept video, but it has to show that there’s no possible way you could have survived. By that, they mean they want video showing your body afterward, with non-survivable wounds.”

“Any idea where they’re holding Neil?” Allison asked.

“No. Wherever it is, he probably won’t get access to Wi-Fi, so he won’t be able to tell us anything. I’m afraid our best bet at getting him back is to help Jenny complete the mission. We’ve got to be able to give them video that will satisfy them that you are dead.”

Allison was quiet for a moment. “Wally’s people can probably come up with a way to do that,” she said, “but we’ve only got four days. I don’t know that we can create anything in that timeframe. Noah, I know she’s in love with Neil; would she actually go along with this to get him back?”

Noah didn’t even hesitate. “I’m certain she would,” he said. “She sounded frantic when I heard from her, and was basically begging me to find a solution. I’ve instructed our pilots to get us in the air as soon as possible, and we’re coming straight back to Neverland. She’ll be back in the U.S. tomorrow, and will be able to get in touch with me through the subcom units. We need to have some sort of game plan in the works by then. If she can get through this, then she can go into deep cover with them until she identifies them all. At that point, she can call the rest of us in to take them out.”

“And if we can’t come up with a game plan?” Allison asked. “I’ll tell you the truth, I’m not in any hurry to give up living. The problem is that we’re talking about Jenny Lance, and I don’t know that we can stop her if she really wanted to get to me.”

“If it comes to that,” Noah said calmly, “she’ll have to go through me.”

“Then get your ass back here,” Allison said. “I’ll alert Wally about this, and maybe he can have some suggestions by the time you arrive.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Noah said, but the line was already dead. The pilots were already starting the engines and prepping the plane for takeoff, so Noah settled back in his seat.

Sarah reached over and took his hand. “How did she take it?”

“It shook her up,” Noah said. “The big problem is that Jenny might try to complete the mission if that’s what it takes to get Neil back. I can’t let her do that.”

Sarah looked at him sadly. “I know,” he said. “I just can’t imagine the two of you going up against each other. Noah, she’s every bit as dangerous as you are.”

“I know that,” he said. “She’s been trained with every weapon that I have, and her scores were just as good as mine. My only advantage is going to be that I’ll have some of the others to work with me. She’ll be all alone, if she goes down that path. I’m hoping it won’t come to that, because I’m counting on Wally come up with a solution that will stand up to any test they want to use.”

“Come on, man,” Marco said. “Hollywood makes people get dead every day. You know how many times I’ve seen somebody get their head chopped off? It’s all in the computers.”

“Yes, but a good analysis of that kind of video footage would discover evidence of the computer-generated imagery. That would get Neil killed for certain, and probably Jenny, as well.”

“Well, chill. You know Wally, he’ll come up with something. He’s got more brains working in that building of his than all the special-effects studios in Hollywood could ever hope for.”

“And that,” Noah said, “is what I’m counting on.”

EIGHTEEN

A whole day I’ve been here, Neil thought as he sat in his room after lunch. How much longer before they decide to start trying to question me? I mean, a group like this wouldn’t pass up the chance to question even a former E & E agent, would they? He looked out the window that looked over the grounds, and noticed the guard standing a dozen feet away. There was always a guard there, no matter what time of day or night he looked out; there was always at least one guard on duty on each side of the house.

He sat in the chair that faced the TV, then used the remote to turn it on. He had tried watching the news channels at first, but there was nothing going on that told him anything about what might be happening with Jenny. He caught a bit about the “assassination” of Whitcomb in London a few days before, and managed not to grin, just in case they were watching him from hidden camera.

Boredom caught up with him, and he got up to start exploring his room. Besides the bed, dresser, chair and table, there was only a closet. Neil opened it, and then concluded that somebody hadn’t done his job very well. Surely, any room that was going to be used to house a prisoner should be carefully inspected and cleaned, right?

Somebody had failed to pay attention to the closet. Laying on the floor was an antique telephone, the old kind with the hand crank on the side and a separate earpiece on a very long cord. He sat on the floor and looked it over, and realized quickly that the screws were mostly loose. It took him only a matter of seconds to take the thing apart, and he began to think about what he could do with all of those pieces.

Removing the earpiece was easy, complete with the cord. Taking the mouthpiece apart was a little more difficult, until he managed to break off a small piece of metal to use for a screwdriver. That allowed him to get the small, antiquated microphone out of the mouthpiece, and then he started on the handcranked generator.

Twenty minutes later, he had constructed a makeshift listening device. By connecting the five foot long cord on the earpiece to the microphone, then splicing in the generator near the earpiece end, he had a simple gadget that could drop down through the open vents between his room and the room beneath, to let him listen in on whatever took place in there. The room below his was one that he was not allowed to enter, but he’d seen Michael going there more than once. It seemed to be a place where he could have some privacy, and Neil suspected that knowing what went on in there might tell him a lot.

With some careful twisting of the wires, he managed to feed the little microphone down through the vent. There were baffles in the vents that would muffle sound, preventing him from hearing anything from the room below, but patience and stubbornness got the microphone past them. Then all he had to do was crank the little generator to send power through the wires, and any sound in the room below would be carried to the earpiece.

The vent was behind his chair, out of view of the doorway. He used his juryrigged bug for a few moments at a time, but it was more than an hour before he caught the sound of the door opening and closing. He sat on the floor and cranked, listening more as a way to combat the boredom of imprisonment than out of any real hope of gaining intelligence.

Suddenly, he heard the beeping of a cell phone’s keys being depressed. He cranked slowly and quietly, and grinned as he enjoyed the mischief of spying on Michael unawares.

“It’s Michael,” he heard. “Any word from the girl yet? Well, she still has some time. Yes, I’m keeping him entertained, mostly by playing chess with him. He’s actually quite a good player, it’s a pity we won’t be keeping him around. No, as soon as she has eliminated the E & E director, you can have her meet up with you on the pretext of bringing her to pick up her boyfriend, then take her out. She will have served her purpose, and we would never be able to really trust her after forcing her to kill her own boss. No, I’ll take care of the boyfriend personally. The more he beats me at chess, the more welcome that moment is going to be.”

The call seemed to be over, and Michael left the room a few seconds later. Neil retrieved the microphone and hid his little gadget under his bed, then sat in the chair again to think about what he had heard.

Michael had been working hard to convince him that he was only an underling, there to make sure Neil was safe and comfortable until Jenny got back. What he had just heard, however, sounded more like a man accustomed to giving orders. Could it be that Michael himself was one of the top people of the PRA? The more Neil thought about it, the more convinced he became.

Of course, that meant that his own life was worth nothing to these people. They were planning to kill Jenny, and him, as soon as Jenny completed the mission they had forced her to take. It really wasn’t that big a surprise, but hearing it confirmed was still a bit of a shock. Neil hoped fervently that she had gotten in touch with Noah, and that they had come up with a plan to locate and rescue him. It was the only hope he had, though he planned to put up one hell of a fight if it came down to his only chance of survival.

The afternoon wore on, and there was a knock on the door a couple hours later. Neil turned off the TV as he got up and went to open the door. Michael stood there, his friendly grin still frozen onto his face.

“Are you ready for supper?” he asked, and Neil grinned back as he followed him down to the dining room, where he was surprised to see a more Brazilian-style meal waiting for them. There were some sort of meat pies, like turnovers with spicy beef for filling, and they smelled quite good.

“I thought you might like to try something of a more local fare,” Michael said. “These are called empanadas, and I think you’ll find them delicious.”

“I’ll eat anything that doesn’t eat me first,” Neil replied. “Is all this stuff as good as it looks?”

Michael laughed, and Neil looked at him to see if he was being the butt of the joke. “I promise you, you’ll enjoy it all. It’s good stuff.”

Neil chuckled at that, and stuffed one of the pies into his mouth. He took his time chewing it up and enjoying it, then dug into beans and rice on his plate.

“Oh, yeah, it’s good,” he said, nodding his head. “And I mean really, really good, this stuff is delicious.”

Michael nodded but said nothing. Neil figured the guy was trying to win his trust, trying to put him at ease, so that anything they might want to know would be shared more easily. Unfortunately, he had absolutely no intention of giving up any information. He wasn’t so unrealistic as to believe he could stand up to torture, but until the torture began, he wasn’t about to talk.

Neil didn’t exactly think of himself as any kind of a patriot, but he was definitely loyal to his friends. He would willingly die before betraying them, even if it meant having to kill himself to achieve it. E & E had given him a new chance at life, when his old one was about to become much, much worse than it had already been, and then Jenny had come along and given him a reason to live. Between those factors and the friendship he felt for Noah, Sarah and Marco, Neil had everything he thought he could need, and wasn’t willing to risk losing any of it.

“Well,” Michael said, “I’m certainly glad to see you’re enjoying it. At some point, someone is going to ask you if you were treated well while you were here, and I hope you’ll remember moments like this.”

Neil looked at him for a moment, his eyes narrowed slightly. “And who is coming to ask that question? Is the real interrogation about to begin?”

For just a second, Neil thought Michael was going to explode in anger, but whatever that brief expression meant, it faded instantly. “I was actually referring to your girlfriend,” Michael said. “I figure she’s going to want to know that we didn’t mistreat you. Wouldn’t you think so?”

“Yeah, I guess she will,” Neil said, relaxing again. “We can keep playing chess until then, I guess. Unless you’re getting tired of losing, that is.”

“The thing about losing,” Michael replied, leaning back in his chair, “is that every game you play and lose against an opponent gives you further insights into his strengths and weaknesses. Haven’t you found that to be the case?”

Neil narrowed his eyes and looked at him. “Pretty much,” he said. “I can still remember the day I finally beat my uncle Harley, so I see your point. Of course, your opponent is constantly learning about yours, at the same time. The more you improve your game, the more you are forcing me to improve mine.”

“That’s a good point, as well,” Michael said. “Come on, finish up your supper so we can play. I’m ready for my next lesson.”

Damn, Neil thought, he’s talking about chess, but I think he’s implying a lot more than that. Am I giving things away just by being reasonably friendly with him? We haven’t even talked about my job, or any of our missions, so I really can’t see how.

“I’m ready,” he said aloud. “Let’s see if I can surprise you a bit today.”

They moved into the library and sat at the chessboard again. Neil couldn’t help wondering what Jenny was up to, but there was one thing he was certain of. Wherever she was, and whatever she was doing, she would be trying to work with Noah to get him back. To believe anything else would be to give up, and Neil knew that Noah would never leave anyone behind.

* * * * *

The plane touched down in San Francisco at just after six o’clock in the morning, and Jenny followed Newsom through the terminal, dealing with customs as they reentered the country. The process took nearly half an hour, and then they were able to walk out through the front doors of the terminal. Newsom led her to the long-term parking lot, where they were met by another man.

“Mr. Newsom,” the man said, “I have your cars here and ready to go. Yours is the Lincoln, and I chose a Mustang for the young lady.”

“Excellent, Jimmy,” Newsom said. He accepted a set of keys and a parking pass, and another set was handed to Jenny. Newson turned to her. “You’ll find your weapons in the trunk of the car. I made special arrangements to get them back into the country for you, because I thought you might be needing them. Your phone, as well as your boyfriend’s phone, will also be there. Hold onto it for him, and you can give it back to him soon.”

“I will,” Jenny said. “I know how to reach you, so you’ll hear from me when the job is done. Until then, you might want to advise your people to stay out of my way. At the moment, I’m not feeling all that kindly disposed toward you.” She took the keys and used the remote to unlock the Mustang, tossed her bags into the back seat, then slid behind the wheel and hit the start button. The car roared to life, and she closed the door and backed out of the parking space.

She watched behind her, but saw no sign of Newsom and his Lincoln before she made it out of the parking lot. Once she was away from the airport, she got on Interstate 80, pointed the car to the northeast and set the cruise control at just over the speed limit.

At the Vallejo exit, she left the interstate and turned northeast. The idea wasn’t as much to try to throw off followers as to simply put some distance between herself and Newsom. She naturally assumed that her cell phone would now be bugged, so she had no intention of ever using it again. When she found a secluded spot on the side of the highway, she turned down a dirt road and went far enough to be out of sight before she stopped.

She got out of the car and opened the trunk, and smiled when she saw the box with her personal weapons. She took the cell phones out and removed the batteries and sim cards, then threw each piece as far out into the sandy desert around her as she could.

With all of that taken care of, she got back into the car and turned it around, then got back onto the interstate and kept going. She wanted to get out of California as quickly as possible, and that meant following this stretch of highway all the way to Salt Lake City, then swinging down to I-70 for the last leg of the trip. She’d slept all night on the plane, so she wanted to put as many miles under her as she could before she finally stopped to get a room.

At least then, she’d be able to make contact with Noah and see if he’d been able to learn anything.

* * * * *

The Gulfstream carrying Noah and his team, or what was left of it, had touched down at Kirtland around four, and they’d gone straight to HQ. Allison and Donald Jefferson were already there, and it was obvious that they hadn’t slept at all.

“I’ve been rattling cages all night,” Allison said, “talking to CIA, DHS, NSA and everybody else, but  no one has any line on where Neil might be stashed. While getting him back is the most desirable outcome, we also have to consider that he knows an awful lot about how we operate. If he’d been interrogated, there is a lot the PRA could learn about us, possibly even enough to be politically embarrassing to the current administration. We can’t risk letting him be in their clutches too long, but I’m not sure I trust them to let Jenny have him back when she convinces them I’m dead.”

“It depends on how real the offer to have her work for them might have been. If they genuinely want her, then they’ll give him back. If not, then he could actually be dead already, but I doubt that. I’m sure they expect her to demand to speak to him at some point, so they’re probably keeping him safe, but isolated.”

“Then our first order of business needs to be figuring out how she can kill me,” Allison said, “hopefully without leaving me dead in the process. Wally says he’ll have some ideas by the time you get to him in the morning, so I’m going to leave it up to you to work out details with him. You’ve had better luck with that in the past than anyone else, and I think it’s because he just about idolizes you.”

“All right,” Noah said. “I’ll head out there in a bit, about the time he opens. Hopefully they’ll have some kind of idea that has the potential of working. We thought about trying to do something with CGI, but that would be detectable if they really tore the video apart. I’m afraid it would blow up in our faces.”

“Or in Jenny’s,” Allison said. “If there’s any hope she can actually infiltrate the organization, we have to try to make that happen. My concern is that they may decide to simply kill both of them once they get what they want.”

Noah nodded slowly. “I’ve been considering that possibility, as well,” he said. “In which case, we’ll need to start all over at identifying their people.”

“Not necessarily,” Jefferson said. “The two names we got have come back with some intel. Klaus Niemeier and Alexandra Hofmeyr have both turned up in chatter over the years, but no one ever connected them to the PRA before. Now that we know of that connection, we can probably extrapolate from their contacts who else might be involved. As soon as we can find a way to get Neil out of this situation, we can start putting teams on those two and any others we can reasonably connect to the organization.”

“Okay,” Noah said. “That makes sense. What about the way they found out Allison’s name? Have we gotten anywhere on determining where the leak might be?”

“I’m afraid we’re still at a standstill on that,” Allison said. “Molly has been working on it, but there hasn’t been any results just yet. I have confidence in her, though, so she’ll come through for us.”

“I hope so,” Noah said. “I have to consider the possibility that the leak could find out I’m here, and that we’re talking about this very situation. If that gets back to Newsom and his friends, Neil is dead for sure.”

“I understand,” Allison said, “which is why no one knows anything about what brought you here except for me and Donald, and Wally. As far as anybody else has been told, you’re called in for a potential new mission. Until we have the leak identified and sealed, I’m not taking any chances.”

“That’s a smart move. I’m sure we’ve already checked out all the likely culprits, right?”

“Nobody has shown any sign of deception,” Jefferson said. “If we don’t find something pretty soon, I’m going to have to assume the leak came from someone other than our agency. There are a few out there who know who Allison is, and we can’t be certain that they’re all smart enough not to put it in writing somewhere. This could be a simple matter of someone stumbling across the wrong notepad.”

“It usually is something simple,” Noah said, “but there’s always the possibility that there is a genuine Machiavellian plot behind it. I’m sure none of us are going to forget about Monique anytime soon.”

“Don’t even mention that name,” Allison said. “I get a headache every time I hear it.”

“That’s understandable. All right, unless there’s something else, I’m going to go find some breakfast. Once we get done with that, we’ll head out to R&D and see what Wally has come up with.”

“Wait up,” Allison said. “I think the pancake shop is open, Donald and I will join you.”

The five of them went down the street to the only restaurant that would be open at five o’clock in the morning, and were able to sit and talk about mundane things while they guzzled coffee and ate pancakes with sausage. When they were finished, Allison and Jefferson headed back to the office, while Noah, Sarah and Marco took the road out to R&D.

Wally had come in early, as had most of his most trusted people. Renée was there as well, even though she was already in training to join the team; Marco had called her from the airplane, and she had volunteered to come out and help Wally try to find a solution.

“I wish you guys were here under better circumstances,” Wally said. “It’s always a pleasure to see you, but this is one of the worst nightmares we’ve ever had to look at. Is it true that Jenny is being blackmailed into killing Allison?”

“You know it is,” Noah said, “or you wouldn’t be here this early. The idea is to come up with a way for Jenny to show proof of death without Allison actually getting killed. This isn’t something we can just whip up with the computer, it has to be so realistic that there can be no doubt whatsoever.”

“Then the old trick about having her get into a car just before it explodes is not going to work,” Wally said. “The way that works, the car’s parked over a manhole and she would just drop right down through a hole in the floorboard. Car goes boom, everybody sees it, natural assumption is that the person is dead. Unfortunately, it doesn’t leave body parts laying around to be identified.”

“That wouldn’t be good enough, no,” Noah said. “There has to be video footage that is absolutely irrefutable. I’ve tried to come up with ideas and so has Marco, but this just doesn’t lend itself to any normal sleight-of-hand.”

“Sleight-of-hand is only an illusion,” Wally said. “And illusion is what we need. I put some of the bright kids on it yesterday, and told them to stay on it until they came up with an answer. Let’s go find out what they got.”

They walked down the hallway and into a lab, and the first thing Noah noticed was that the air was pretty cold. “This is our cadaver lab,” Wally said. “We keep bodies frozen here for when we need one, but the problem is that we don’t have one that matches Allison closely enough. I told Tom and Janet, here, to see what they can figure out. Tommy boy, you guys have any luck?”

Tom shrugged. “We tried a few different things, but nothing really looks like it will be successful. None of the cadavers we have on hand are going to pass for the boss lady, and there’s nothing we can do to make them pass in the short time that we’ve got. If we had a week or two, it might be doable, but not in this quick a timeframe.”

Wally nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of. Still, it was worth a try.” He motioned for Noah and the others to follow, then left the lab again. They went down three doors further, and then went into another lab.

“Joey? Joey, over here,” Wally called out.

A thin, balding man came across the lab toward them.

“Joey runs this section, which is where we develop some of the more intense impersonation devices. Prosthetic masks, special contact lenses, anything necessary to make one person look like another. I’m not quite sure how we’d use it, but I told Joey to see what he could come up with.” He turned to the balding man. “You have any luck?”

“We’re working on some ideas,” Joey said, “but nothing has really solidified, yet. I toyed with the idea of some sort of prosthetic, something that could show bulletholes, for instance, but I’m just not sure that would get the job done. From what you told us, this is far too critical to take any chances with.”

“Yes, yes,” Wally said, “that’s absolutely true. I’m afraid the prosthetic wouldn’t be able to show enough damage to convince these people.” He turned and left the lab without another word, with Noah and the rest following.

In the hallway, he turned to Noah. “Noah, I hate to admit this, but I’m about stumped. We looked at some sort of robot, with some of Joey’s work to make it look as real as possible, but there’s no way we could make it realistic enough to pass for Allison. If we had a month, maybe, but not this fast. I’m just not sure what to do.”

Noah looked at him, his eyes narrowed in concentration. “What about if it didn’t have to speak and move?” he asked suddenly.

Wally blinked, then looked into his face. “What have you got in mind?”

“I was thinking of an attack while Allison would be sleeping. Jenny goes into her bedroom and cuts her throat, for instance. All the robot would have to do is gasp and look shocked for a few seconds, then go limp. Could you make something like that work?”

Wally stared at him for a moment, and a bit of excitement came into his features, but then it faded away. “Again, if we had more time, we could do that. Unfortunately, that would mean building a robot with blood vessels and such, and that would take a lot of time to both design and construct. If we didn’t get it perfect, the resulting video wouldn’t pass, and it would all be for nothing, anyway. We might save Allison, but we’d lose Neil and Jenny.”

Noah rubbed the bridge of his nose. “We’re already most of a day into our time limit. I should be hearing from Jenny sometime today, and I need to know something I can tell her.” He looked at Sarah and Marco. “Anybody got any ideas?”

Unfortunately, no one did. They followed Wally back to his office, and sat down to have a cup of coffee while they thought about other possibilities.

“Well,” Noah said, “if we can’t give Jenny a way to complete her mission, then the alternative is to find Neil. If we can get him out of there, then we can strike at the people we have identified, and any others we can connect to them. The only problem is we have absolutely no idea where he could be.”

“There’s probably not a Wi-Fi network,” Marco said. “If they knew who Jenny was, they probably know that Neil is a computer whiz. Somehow, I doubt they’d have any Internet where he might get his hands on it.”

“That’s almost certainly true,” Noah said. “If there was some other way we could reach him on the subcom, that would be a big help. Would it be possible to broadcast a high-powered Wi-Fi signal?”

“Yes and no,” Wally said. “Yes, it could be done, but we still need to know a general geographical location to aim at. We’d need to focus it, because that type of signal loses strength pretty rapidly as it spreads out.”

“And Brazil is pretty big. Trying to find the right spot would be like throwing a dart from orbit and trying to hit a bull’s-eye on a particular tavern wall.”

“Yeah,” Wally said.

“But if we don’t do something,” Sarah said, “Jenny is going to do her best to actually carry out the hit. If that’s the only way she can save Neil, she’ll go for it. I know she likes Allison, but you know how she feels about Neil.”

Noah leaned his head into his hands, with his elbows on his knees. Sarah looked at him hard for a second, because she had never seen him in that pose before.

“Noah? You okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “I’m simply trying to figure out how to accomplish the impossible. Somehow, we’ve got to find Neil and rescue him before Jenny can get to Allison. The trouble is, if she gets through the security around here, I’m not sure anybody would be able to stop her.”

“So,” Marco said, “we put a whole team of security on the Dragon Lady. Or we lock her up for a few days, someplace safe where even Jenny couldn’t get to her.”

Wally laughed, but it was mirthless. “You’ll never get Allison to agree to hide. It’s just not her way, trust me. And I don’t know that putting security on her would do a lot of good, because Jenny is a crack sniper. She could make a shot from more than a thousand yards out, and there’s no way we can cover every angle.”

Noah looked up. “You’re right,” he said. “We are at a stalemate. We either have to find Neil and rescue him, or I have to put Jenny down.”

NINETEEN

“Noah,” Sarah asked as they drove away from the R&D section, “what are you planning to do?”

“We’re going back to the office,” Noah said. “We’ve got to find some way to locate Neil and get him back, or else the only way to stop Jenny from killing Allison is going to be by killing Jenny. I may be the only one who would be capable of it, so I’ve got to get someone else working on rescuing Neil.”

“Oh, God,” Sarah said. “I can’t believe it’s going to come down to this. Do you honestly believe Jenny will go through with it?”

“Jenny is driven by her emotions,” Noah said. “She loves Neil, and will do absolutely anything to get him back, including this. If killing Allison is what it takes, she’ll do it, and worry about the consequences later. The only hope we have of stopping her is to either find a way to fake Allison’s death convincingly, or rescue Neil. There is no way to give the PRA what they want as far as proof of death, so that leaves us with only two options.”

“Okay,” Marco said, “so what’s the game plan, then? What’s our next step?”

“We get back with the bosses and figure out which teams are available, which ones would have the best chance of locating Neil. We pull in every possible favor and marker from all of the other agencies to help us locate him, and we do whatever it takes to keep Jenny from getting to the Dragon Lady. Beyond that, I’m open to suggestions.”

“I’ve been thinking,” Marcus said. “They took Neil while Jenny was meeting with this Hofmeyr woman. That means she knows where he’s at, she’d have to. If we take her, we can make her talk.”

“I thought of that, too,” Noah said. “We’ll get assets in Rio to locate her, and probably send a team to interrogate her. I agree that it’s the most likely scenario as far as finding out where they might be holding Neil, but there’s always the possibility that she doesn’t know. She might have made certain that she didn’t, just to be ready for something exactly like this.”

“I’d happily volunteer to be the one to go find out,” Marco said. “I ain’t one to complain, but things just ain’t right without Neil around. I miss the way he whines about everything, you know?”

“Yeah,” Sarah said, “me, too. He’s the perfect annoying little brother, even if he is growing up a bit, lately.”

Noah was quiet for a moment, then glanced at Marco in the rearview mirror. “You may have just given me one hell of an idea,” he said. “Let’s get to the office.”

Sarah pressed on the accelerator and the car moved faster. They were just coming into the main part of town, but she didn’t let up until it was time to pull into the parking garage under the headquarters building. They got out quickly and headed for the elevators, then stepped out on the top floor a moment later.

Allison’s secretary, Kathy, was startled when they walked right past her and into the boss lady’s office. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, but it told her instantly just how serious the situation had to be. Allison looked up from behind her desk, and Donald Jefferson actually reached for the gun under his jacket before he realized who had entered.

“You weren’t out there very long,” Allison said. “That tells me you didn’t come up with any brilliant ideas.”

“Wally says if we had more time, we could pull it off, but there’s no way we can do it this quickly. I think it’s time to forget trying to fake it and get started on Plan B. We need to find Neil and rescue him before she gets to you. That’s the only thing I can think of that will make her stand down, short of putting a bullet through her head.”

“Which I’m reluctant to do,” Allison said. “Considering the importance of her actual mission, identifying and eliminating the top people in the PRA, there are those in other agencies who would consider my loss to be an acceptable price to pay. Perhaps I should look at it the same way.”

“No way,” Sarah said suddenly. “No offense to Mr. Jefferson, but this outfit would fall apart without you running it.”

Allison threw her hands in the air and blew out air in frustration. “Well, then what the hell can we do? Do we have any real leads on where Neil might be? I’ve contacted everybody, and I’ve got nothing.”

“Alexandra Hofmeyr,” Noah said. “Even if she doesn’t know where Neil is being held, she’d know how to contact whoever is holding him. I think it’s worth a try to get that information out of her. I want to send some people out right away to start on that.”

Allison looked at him for a moment, then turned to Jefferson. “Who do we have available?”

“At the moment,” Jefferson said, “the only two teams that are back home are Pegasus and Angel. Everybody else is out of the country on missions.”

Noah frowned. “Not Pegasus,” he said. “Ralph is still too green for something like this. I’ve never really gotten to know Angel that well. That’s Gabriel McAllister, right?”

“Right,” Allison said. “His team is also fairly new, but he’s got about a year under his belt. He’s done well on a couple of missions they had to bring back hard intelligence. He tends to find out what he wants to know.”

“Then, get him in here,” Noah said. “He needs to be in Rio by tonight, and we need to get any assets down there keeping track of Ms. Hofmeyr. The last thing we need is for her to get out of the city or out of the country before Angel gets to her.”

“I’m just curious,” Jefferson said, “but why aren’t you going, yourself? Neil is part of your team, and with everything I’ve seen in the past, you tend to try to take care of them personally.”

“Under any other circumstances, I probably would,” Noah said. “Unfortunately, if Jenny decides to go through with the hit, I may be the only one who could anticipate her moves and stop her.” He looked Jefferson in the eye. “And I’m probably the only one who could actually terminate her, assuming she doesn’t terminate me first. Jenny’s every bit as deadly as I can be, but we come at it from two different ends of the spectrum. I work with logic, and she works with emotion and her gut. It may be time to find out which one is better.”

Allison tapped the keys on her computer for a moment, then picked up her phone. “Briefing, my office, one hour,” she said, and then she hung up again.

“Donald, you get on securing Hofmeyr’s location, and use any asset available. I don’t care if it’s CIA, DEA, whoever. We clean up enough of their messes, they can do us a favor, and tell them I want the crocodiles on standby.”

“I’m on it,” Jefferson said. He got up and left the room without another word, and Allison turned back to Noah.

“Do you honestly think you can stop her?” she asked. “Jenny has a reputation for getting to her target, no matter how difficult it might be. That’s why we chose her to pose as Victoria, because they were a lot alike.”

“I can’t honestly tell you whether I can stop her or not,” Noah said. “What I can tell you is that I have a pretty good idea how she thinks, that should make it easier for me to anticipate what she does. I’m going to be looking at the entire situation through her eyes, thinking about how I would plan the hit if I were her. That way, I hope to be able to block her access to the most useful places she’d want to strike from, and funnel her into one particular place. If I can take her down without killing her, I will.”

“If anything happens to Neil,” Allison said, “putting her down would be a kindness. She’ll never be able to get past that, Noah. It was one of my concerns in letting the two of them get close. Doctor Parker warned me that she would be particularly vulnerable to any kind of extortion that involved using him against her, but I didn’t really expect it to happen.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I can be a total idiot.”

“It doesn’t matter whether the situation should exist,” Noah said, “because it already does. Now we have to deal with it as reality, and I’ll do whatever I have to do. The real problem is going to be down there in Brazil; if Angel is successful in locating Neil, then we have the question of whether they will be able to rescue him. The PRA has an awful lot of connections, and it’s quite possible that they will need a lot more than just their own team to pull him out.”

Allison nodded. “I’m ahead of you,” she said. “CIA has a strike squad down there. That’s what I meant when I told Donald to get the crocodiles to be standing by. That’s the code word they use for that squad. They are a dozen of the best, recruited from special forces in every branch. They can handle anything they come up against, trust me.”

“Okay, that will help,” Noah said. “I think you should get the plane ready, Angel needs to leave as soon as we finish reading them in.”

Allison picked up her phone again and quickly gave orders to get the Gulfstream ready for another flight. It was already refueled, but a new flight crew would have to be called in. She hung up the phone and turned to Noah. “It’ll be ready in thirty minutes, with a flight plan for Rio.”

They moved to the conference room and Allison called Molly in. Within minutes, she was able to find a couple of photographs of Alexandra Hofmeyr, so by the time Team Angel arrived, they were ready to give them the details of their mission.

“One of our operatives has been captured,” Allison said. “There are circumstances that require us to try to rescue him as quickly as possible, and the only lead we have is this woman. Her name is Alexandra Hofmeyr, a Brazilian citizen who lives in Rio de Janeiro. She had been identified as a board member of the PRA, and is the only person we know of who might have any knowledge of his whereabouts. Your mission is to do whatever is necessary to get that information from her, because even if she doesn’t possess it herself, she will know how to contact the people holding him. Once you have his location, you will be supported by the CIA strike team stationed in Rio when you go to extract him. He must be brought out alive, no matter what the cost.”

Angel’s leader, Gabriel, nodded his head. “I understand,” he said. “It sounds like this is a rush job. How soon do we leave?”

“The plane is waiting for you now,” Allison said. “Get your travel bags and head for the airport. Don’t worry about special identities on this mission, you’ve all got back up burner identities, right? Use those, and do whatever is necessary to complete this rescue. You’ve got a little more than forty-eight hours, but the sooner you get it done, the better. Notify us immediately upon completion.”

Gabriel stood, followed by his team. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “We’ll be in the air in less than an hour.”

Team Angel left the conference room, and Allison turned to Noah. “With any luck,” she said, “they’ll be able to find Neil and rescue him in plenty of time. If they can’t, then I’m counting on you. There’s just one thing I want you to understand, Noah. If for any reason she manages to get to me, you are to stand down. Let her go back and complete her mission, and Donald will welcome her and Neil back into the fold as soon as it’s over.”

“Do you honestly think she would come back?” Noah asked. “After being forced to kill the very person who gave her a second chance at life? I don’t. I’m afraid that if we don’t find a way to salvage her before she can get to you, Jenny will become every bit of the monster the PRA wants to turn her into.”

Allison nodded. “That’s why I want you to get word to her, no matter what it takes. If she manages to get me, she is to regard it as a mission necessity. It will not be held against her if she comes back to the agency.”

“You’re wrong,” Sarah said. “Maybe Mr. Jefferson could control himself enough to forgive and forget, but I don’t think the rest of us could. I love Jenny, but if she kills you, then there’s no hope for her. I think she’d end up losing Neil, anyway, because he couldn’t deal with the guilt of knowing you died to save him. After that, Jenny would be even less human than she already is.”

“Sarah’s right,” Noah said. “The best thing I could do for Jenny, if she gets to you, is to go ahead and put her down.”

* * * * *

The day wore on, and the miles rolled by under Jenny’s wheels. At noon, she stopped in the little town of Elko, Nevada for lunch, and then realized that the restaurant she had chosen had a Wi-Fi account that was available to the customers. She took a booth that was far away from everyone else, set down her tray and then whispered, “Activate Wi-Fi.”

A couple of seconds passed, and then she heard, “Public Wi-Fi access active.”

She sat there for a moment, then steeled her resolve. “Jenny to Noah,” she whispered. “Are you there?”

“Noah to Jenny, yes,” came the reply. “Where are you?”

“Elko, Nevada,” Jenny said. “Have you figured out a solution yet?”

“We’re still working on a way to fake it,” Noah said, “but it doesn’t look good. We dispatched a team to work on rescuing Neil, and I believe we have a good plan in place. Jenny, can you buy us more time?”

“No. Hofmeyr made it clear that Neil will be killed if I fail to complete this assignment within the time limit I was given. At the moment, that means I’ve got about seventy-four hours left. Tell Allison I’m sorry about this, but if you don’t come up with an answer in time, I’m going to do what I have to do to get Neil back.”

“Believe it or not, she understands that. She wants me to tell you that, if it comes to that, then she wants you to regard it as a mission necessity and go ahead and complete your mission, then come back in.”

Jenny laughed. “Yeah, right,” she said. “Half of Neverland will be out to kill me. Look, I don’t want to do this, but Neil should never have even been where they could get their hands on him. This was my fault, nobody else’s. If I had half a brain, I would’ve known better than to try to take him with me on these meetings. I just didn’t want to sleep alone, and now he’s got his head on the chopping block because of it. I’m going to get him back, Noah, no matter what I have to do, but there’s no way I could come back to E & E afterward. I probably won’t even be able to keep Neil, but at least he’ll be alive.”

“You know I have to stop you,” Noah said. “There’s no way I can let you take Allison out, Jenny.”

“Well, I look at it this way. I think we’ve each wondered which one of us was the best at one time or another. If you can’t come up with some other way to do this, then I guess we are going to find out.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way, Jenny,” Noah said. “Remember, we all know this job could be the death of us, even Neil. You can blame yourself, but he would have thrown a fit if you didn’t take him along. You know that as well as I do. Come on in, and help us figure out how to get him back the right way.”

“Noah, you didn’t meet that woman, but I did. I don’t think there’s any way you’re going to get her to give up where he’s being held, and she’s old enough that I don’t think death scares her at all. The thing I learned about PRA is that they are some kind of crazy idealists; they think they are making the world a better place for everybody with the things they do, and that the end justifies the means. If you torture her to death, she’s only going to think it makes her a martyr for the cause.”

“Well, we’ve got to do something. We don’t want to lose Neil, but we don’t want to lose you, either. One way or another, they’re going to find him, Jenny. And then, you and I will take out PRA. Jefferson has figured out that we can identify the rest of their board members by studying the associates of Newsom, Niemeier and Hofmeyr. That makes all of them targets, the real targets you should be focusing on.”

“You get Neil back, and I’ll do whatever you want, Noah,” Jenny said. “Until then, I’m staying on mission. I’ll check in with you once in a while, but I’m not going to leave this thing on. I have to be able to concentrate, just in case I have to go through with it.”

She turned off the subcom and picked up her cheeseburger. Suddenly, it seemed extremely unappetizing, but she knew she needed to keep up her strength. She ate it completely, then finished off the French fries and the drink before tossing her trash and heading back to the car.

A small shopping center across the street caught her eye, and she made a quick detour. Rather than use her credit cards to make purchases that could be viewed by sat back in Neverland, she walked up to an ATM in the parking lot and withdrew several hundred dollars in cash. Then, she went into a store called Sell It Again, Sam, and came out thirty minutes later with three large bags full of clothing, shoes, wigs and various other accessories. Another stop let her purchase some makeup, and one more to purchase a pair of barely functional reading glasses. She could see well enough through them to be able to wear them at all times, because they barely distorted her vision at all.

It was time to think about how she was going to get close enough to Allison to do the job she was sent for. A disguise was top of the list.

TWENTY

The plane had caught a tailwind, and landed in Rio de Janeiro at just before ten PM, Denver time, though it was one in the morning in Rio. Gabriel and his team walked off the plane and into the terminal, then dealt with the nuisances of customs for the next half hour. When everything was finished satisfactorily, they made their way down to the front entrance and spotted a man holding a sign. It read “Charles Burke,” and Gabriel walked straight up to the fellow.

“I’m Charlie Burke,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting somebody to meet us.”

“Yes, well, your boss called in a favor. I’ve got a vehicle waiting for you outside, along with a few accessories they felt you might need.”

Gabriel grinned. “Then, lead the way,” he said. The team followed along, and then climbed into the big Ford van that their host had brought along.

“I’m Jason Dickens, CIA,” the guy said once they were inside. “There’s a box in the back containing a fairly nice selection of weapons. I didn’t have everything on the list, so I had to improvise on a couple of items. I’ll drive till we get back to my rendezvous point, and then you can take the van and do whatever you need to do.” He reached into a pocket and took out a business card, which he passed to Gabriel. “That’s my cell number,” he said. “When you get what you came for, you call me and I’ll arrange the special backup you might need.”

“Nice to see somebody is on the ball,” Gabriel said. “This should help us accomplish our mission a lot more quickly. Any word on our target?”

“Ms. Hofmeyr is at home, but she’s got a fair security team of her own. They’re not exactly special forces types, but they have military and police experience. If they give you a problem, let me know. I can lend you a couple of people if you need them, but we have to try not to burn our covers.”

“How many men did she have?”

“Only four,” Jason said, “but they have been known to be pretty tough. You can possibly take them by surprise through one little weakness they have, which is in the back fence on the property. There is an old car parked behind it, in a spot that isn’t covered by her security cameras. You might be able to get over the fence without being noticed, and then it’s just a matter of dropping the bodies.”

“Wish I knew where to find them,” Gabriel said. “I’ve never cared much for hunting expeditions, but sometimes you don’t get much choice.”

“Well, you can usually find two of them in the kitchen. They seem to operate in pairs, with one pair taking it easy and the other sticking close to the old lady. If you take out the two in the kitchen first, then the others don’t have any backup to call on.”

Gabriel nodded. “Yeah, that helps,” he said. “Of course, that’s assuming we get to the kitchen before they spot us.”

“Got my fingers crossed for ya,” Jason replied with a grin. “Besides, aren’t you guys supposed to be the best in the world at this?”

“Even the best can run into a snag. I hate snags, they always come along at the worst possible moment.”

“I know exactly what you mean. Anyway, your people asked for silencer-equipped pistols, but those are very hard to come by down here. However, we got lucky a few weeks ago, when a Russian team was sent here to take down a defector. We were able to intercept them, and captured three PSS silent pistols. Ever seen one?”

“A silent pistol? Never even heard of it. Is it for real?”

“Yep. I gave you all three. Each one holds six rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, but they’re very special. They have a piston in the sealed cartridge that sits over the charge, so when the gun is fired, the piston is thrust forward at extremely high velocity. The stem of the piston is what shoves the bullet out, and fast enough to make it effective at up to fifty meters. The piston seals the cartridge before the bullet ever leaves the barrel, so there’s no flash, no smoke and no sound other than the click of the hammer striking the firing pin and the recoil action. All three of them are fully loaded and ready. Besides those, I got you two Colt 1911’s and a single Uzi. Best I could do on short notice.”

Gabriel smiled. “Sounds to me like you did a pretty good job,” he said. “I can’t wait to try one of those pistols.”

“Yeah, about those,” Jason said. “When you get done, we want those back. Those are extremely hard to come by, and they come in really handy here in South America.”

“I’ll just bet they do,” Gabriel said.

Jason pulled over a few minutes later and got out of the van, reminding Gabriel to give him a call once they had located Neil. Gabriel slid behind the wheel and activated the GPS on his phone to guide him to Hofmeyr’s address, then followed its directions.

They found the place with no problem, and Gabriel drove around the neighborhood a few times, just to get the lay of the land. When he was confident he knew how to get to that back fence, he pulled over and parked and then turned back to the three men that made up his team.

Nick Wilson was his thug, which was the title given to the backup man on the teams. He was large and powerful, and while he was capable on many weapons, he had not qualified as a team leader. He had been with Gabriel since the team began a year earlier, and was incredibly loyal. He had already taken a bullet for his boss once, but luckily it was only in his ass.

John Lewis was the driver, usually, and like Sarah, he could handle just about any kind of vehicle. He was quick to adapt to foreign traffic patterns, and could usually find the shortest possible route almost as fast as a GPS system can.

Bill Perlman was the intelligence man. He was a brilliant computer hacker who had been caught funneling fractions of pennies from millions of different bank accounts into his own, and had amassed a fortune of more than two hundred million dollars in less than three months. Unfortunately, he hadn’t figured on the IRS to notice so quickly, and then convincing the FBI to prosecute him individually for each bank that was involved in the thefts. That meant he was looking at seventeen consecutive five-year sentences, for a total of eighty-five years in prison. When Allison came to make an offer, he was more than happy to accept.

“Okay, you know what we’re here for,” Gabriel said. “We want to take down her security guards as quickly as possible, then do whatever it takes to find out where our boy is being held. We are not leaving survivors, but we need to be sure that we get the proper location. Nick, you and I will go in first. We take out the security, and then John and Bill can follow. Bill, bring your computer. We may need you to verify things that she says.”

“Yes, sir,” Bill said.

“Grab the box of weapons,” Gabriel said to Nick, “let’s see these silent pistols.”

John reached over the back seat and picked up the box, then set it on the floor between them. He opened the box and pulled out one of the small PSS pistols and handed it to Gabriel, and looked it over and then ejected the magazine. He looked at the top round in the magazine and grunted.

“The bullets are flat,” he said. “Almost like a dum-dum, but even flatter. No wonder they have such a short range.”

“He said they were effective to fifty meters,” Nick said. “I’m betting we’ll be a lot closer than that.”

“Well, the silent part is the most important. I’ll take this one, Nick, you grab another. John, you hold onto the third. Bill, when you guys come in, you can bring the Uzi just in case we need it.”

“Yeah,” Nick said with a grin, “Bill might be able to hit something with that.”

Gabriel and Nick climbed out of the van and started down the alleyway that ran behind the fence. They found the old car parked up against it and climbed up to look over the fence, but saw no sign of anyone paying attention. Gabriel went over first, with Nick right behind him, and they crouched together on the ground behind a bush as they looked over the rest of the grounds.

“It looks clear to the back of the house,” Gabriel said. “I’ll move first, and you wait till I’m against the house before you step out. Watch to see if there’s any reaction, then wait three more seconds and come running.”

Nick nodded his understanding, and Gabriel took off at a crouching run. He made it to the back of the house without raising an alarm, then crouched against it under a window. He could see the back door clearly, and kept his eyes on it as he waited for Nick to catch up to him.

Seconds later, his backup man was beside him. Gabriel motioned silently for Nick to check the back door, and Nick signaled back a second later that it was locked. He laid the pistol on the step beside his knee as he took a set of lock picks out of his pocket, and the door was open less than five seconds later.

Gabriel stood up on the step long enough to look through the glass on the door, and saw no one inside. He tapped Nick on the shoulder, and the man twisted the knob and pushed the door quickly open, and then closed it again after the two of them stepped inside.

The hinges had been properly oiled, and the door made almost no sound. Nick held the knob tightly as he pushed the door shut, then slowly released it to let it latch. The two of them turned toward the interior of the house, and took a few steps along a narrow hallway.

Ten feet further in, they stopped. Voices could be heard talking softly, a pair of men speaking Portuguese. These were undoubtedly the first two guards in the kitchen, and the sound was coming from the doorway just a few feet ahead.

Gabriel pointed to himself and then waved his finger forward, indicating that he would enter the room first. He stepped past Nick and froze beside the doorway for a moment, then spun around through it and squeezed the trigger twice.

The PSS made almost no sound, other than a clicking noise as the slide racked back and forth. The sound of the empty cartridges striking the floor was slightly louder, but there was no help for it. Both of the guards at the table were down, and the flat nosed bullets had obliterated most of their faces. The whole thing happened so quickly that neither of them had any time to react, and Gabriel scooped up his fallen brass, then rose and listened for any sign that he had attracted attention from elsewhere inside the house.

Five seconds later, he motioned for Nick to join him and they moved through the kitchen. A quick glance around the doorway from the kitchen into the dining room showed that the room was clear, and they slipped into it.

There were two doors leading from the dining room, and each of them took one. One led into a hallway that went toward the front of the house, while the other seemed to go into some sort of sitting room. There was no one in view either way, and the sitting room had no other exits. They moved into the hallway and quietly made their way forward.

A door on the right led into a living room, and Gabriel stepped in quickly. A man sitting in a chair glanced up at him, and then suddenly scrambled for the pistol at his belt, but it was too late. The PSS clicked once and he slumped in the chair, his eyes and nose no longer a part of his face.

There was no one else in the room, and no sign that anyone had heard the action of the gun. Nick moved up beside Gabriel. “Do we really have to give these back?” he whispered softly.

“Probably, but I bet I can find some.” Gabriel picked up the ejected cartridge, and they moved back into the hallway and checked the other rooms on the ground floor, but found no one. “Must be upstairs,” Gabriel whispered. “Stay close.”

Gabriel started up the stairs, keeping his feet close to the edge by the wall. He made it almost to the top step and could see that there was no one in the upstairs hallway, but then the next to the last stair creaked loudly. He froze where he was, and Nick took a position just behind him. They each aimed their weapons in opposite directions up and down the hallway, as a voice called out in Portuguese.

Neither of them responded, and a moment later the fourth guard stepped out of a room and looked toward the stairway. He had been expecting one of his compatriots, and the pistol he was carrying was still in its holster.

Nick spotted him first and fired, striking him in the chest. Gabriel spun and fired as well, his bullet taking the man through the throat and putting an end to his life. His body fell backward and hit the door frame, then fell inside the room he had come out of.

“Okay, let’s move,” Gabriel said, no longer keeping his voice down. They checked the room the guard had come from first, and found Alexandra Hofmeyr sitting up in her bed, staring at the body of the guard that had fallen back through the doorway. It appeared that she had just awakened, probably when the guard called out to them.

She looked up at Gabriel and Nick, and seemed to come instantly awake. “Americans?” she asked. “But, of course you are. I should have been expecting you, but I thought we had taken sufficient precautions.”

“We are Americans,” Gabriel said. “And you have one of our people. I need to know where he is being held.”

“And you honestly expect me to tell you? Do I look like I’m frightened of you? I have lived a long time, Mr. assassin, and the prospect of death is not one that I fear. You may try to torture me, but you should know that I do not even know the answer to the question you want to ask. That was a precaution, just in case we needed to use it. I am now glad that I chose to put it into place.” She looked down at the dead guard again. “You may go ahead and kill me now, because you will, anyway.”

Gabriel moved closer to her and scanned the area around her for a weapon, but saw none. He patted her down quickly and satisfied himself that she didn’t have one concealed on her person, then turned back to Nick.

“Bring the boys in,” he said. “Ms. Hofmeyr wants to do things the hard way. Once you tell them to come on in, I want you to start looking for something we can use for leverage. I figure at her age, she’s got to have grandchildren.”

Alexandra’s eyes widened, but she said nothing. Gabriel turned to her with a smile.

“Did you not understand just how serious I am? I intend to get the information I want, and I personally don’t believe torture is all that effective at getting accurate information. People being tortured, they tend to say whatever they think you want to hear. I actually believe that you don’t know the answer, so I’m going on the assumption that you do know someone who does know where he is. I’m just planning to give you some incentive to call that person and find out for me.”

“You would not stoop so low as to harm my grandchildren,” Alexander said. “The Americans are known for some atrocities, but that would be…”

“Like I said, I’m pretty serious about getting the information I want. If you don’t want to cooperate with me voluntarily, I’ll send a couple of people to round up some of those grandchildren and bring them right here. How long do you think you can hold out when you see them on their knees with my pistol at their heads? Will you make me actually kill one of them, before you understand that I’m not going to give you a choice?”

The old woman swallowed hard, her eyes never leaving his own. She said nothing, and they stayed right there for a couple of minutes until Bill and John joined them. Nick returned a moment later, holding what appeared to be a photo album.

“Look at this,” he said. He flipped the book open and showed Gabriel several pictures of Alexandra surrounded by younger adults and several children. “That looks like somebody playing grandma to me, doesn’t it to you?”

“Why, it sure does. Bill, see what you can find out about the people in those photos. I would just about bet some of those pictures can be found online, and that should lead to who they are.”

“I’m on it,” Bill said. He set up his computer on the table in the room, then held a small scanner out and ran it over one of the photos. The computer broke it down into digital codes that indicated pixels and colors, and it was less than two minutes later when Bill looked up. “Got it,” he said. “Found a match to this photo on Facebook. The account belongs to the second woman from the left, who looks to me to be this lady’s daughter. Give me five minutes and I’ll have an address.”

“And get me a phone number,” Gabriel said. “When you get it, let me know.”

“Only take a minute,” Bill said.

Sure enough, he had a phone number on the screen only a moment later. The address was also displayed, and the GPS coordinates showed that it was less than twenty minutes away.

“Bill, don’t you speak Portuguese?” Gabriel asked.

“I don’t,” Bill said, “but my computer does. I’ve got an AI translation program that does a real good job. I can speak English into the microphone, but the person on the other end of the line will hear what I say in Portuguese.”

“Good job,” Gabriel said. “Call that number and say that you are Inspector Santos with the Rio police, and that you need her to come to her mother’s house immediately. Tell her that her mother is very ill and asking to see her grandchildren, so she should bring them along.”

Bill nodded, then tapped a few keys on the computer. He copied the phone number into a program that popped up, then adjusted the microphone on his headset.

“Is this Mrs. Barbosa?” Bill asked a moment later. “My name is Inspector Santos, with the police department. I am here at your mother’s home, she is gravely ill. Doctors are coming, but she is asking to see her grandchildren and wished me to give you a call. Are you able to come right away?”

“Angelina,” Alexandra shouted, “it is a trap!”

“Yell all you want,” Gabriel said. “His microphone won’t pick up anything more than an inch away from it. She can’t hear you.”

“Very good, and thank you. Please hurry.” Bill cut off the connection and looked at Gabriel. “She and the kids will be here within five minutes, she says.”

Gabriel turned to Nick and John. “You guys go down and play welcoming party,” he said. “Make sure nobody does any shouting. When they get here, bring them right up here to the bedroom, I think it’s the best place to handle this.”

“Madre de Dios,” Alexandra said, “please do not do this. They are only children.”

“You can stop it,” Gabriel said. “I figure you have four minutes to get me that location before it’s too late. Once they come through that door, there is always the chance that none of them will leave here alive.”

“My telephone,” she said. “If I give you the number to the man who has him, you can find him, yes?”

Gabriel looked at Bill. “Can we?”

“No problem at all,” Bill said. “Even if his GPS is shut off, I can get into it and turn it on remotely.”

Gabriel picked up the phone off the nightstand and handed it to her. He pointed his gun at her head. “You call anybody else, and I guarantee your entire family will die. You understand me?”

Alexandria shot him an irritated look. “I am no fool,” she said. She quickly dialed the number and put the phone on speaker so that Gabriel could hear. A moment later, a man’s voice answered.

“This is Michael,” he said.

“Michael, this is Alexandra,” she said. “Is our guest doing well?”

Michael chuckled. “Other than beating me at chess, he’s doing just fine. I find myself wishing we could be friends when this is over, but that seems rather unlikely. It’s really too bad, because I enjoy playing with him.”

“That’s very good,” she said. “I expect to be hearing from his young lady soon, and we will need to let her speak to him for a moment. Be certain nothing happens to him, and I will let you know when she calls.”

“I certainly will,” Michael said. “Have a good night, Alexandra.”

“To you as well,” she said. She cut off the call and handed the phone to Gabriel. “Will it be necessary to kill him? He is my brother’s son, and I hate to be the reason for his death.”

Gabriel smiled at her. “I give you my word,” he said, “I won’t kill him unless it’s absolutely necessary. Now, call your daughter and tell her to stay away, that it was a joke and you will talk to her tomorrow. Say that it was one of your guards playing a prank, and that you have fired him.” He held the phone out to her.

Alexandra looked at the phone for a moment, then took it and dialed quickly. It took her almost a minute to convince her daughter that everything was all right, but then she promised to see her in the morning and said she was going to bed. She ended the call and handed the phone back to Gabriel.

“As long as they don’t show up tonight, they’ll be safe. Unfortunately, I cannot give you the same courtesy.” He tossed the phone to Bill, then pointed the pistol at Alexandra’s head and pulled the trigger. He watched her lifeless body fall back on the bed, then picked up the brass from the floor. “Let’s move,” he said. “I want to be gone in sixty seconds.”

They hurried down the stairs together and were out of the house and across the backyard in half a minute. Nick helped Bill and John get over the fence, and then he and Gabriel scaled it on their own. They were in the van with John behind the wheel and already driving away only eighty seconds after he had executed Alexandra.

TWENTY-ONE

Michael had left the library when his phone rang, and returned a few minutes later. Neil was still sitting at the table, looking at the chessboard.

“Well,” Michael said. “Sounds like things are going pretty well. That was the boss, and they just wanted to check and make sure you’re doing okay. I said you were fine, except for beating me at chess all the time.”

“Checking up on me in the middle of the night?” Neil asked. “Besides, I’m not winning all the time. You won a game earlier, just after dinner.”

“That was nine games back,” Michael groused. “You know, you could at least let me win now and then, just to keep my ego from getting too deflated.”

“I don’t care about your ego,” Neil said. “I care about winning.”

Michael grinned. “I just told my boss, I hope this whole thing turns out well. I like you, Neil, and I wish we could be friends.”

Neil looked at him, carefully keeping his face neutral. “Yeah, well, we’ll see how that works out for you. I don’t usually get too chummy with people who hold me prisoner.”

Michael held up a finger. “Okay, in my defense,” he said, “I was only assigned to be your host and make sure you don’t get hurt. I had nothing to do with abducting you, remember that.”

“I’ll try,” Neil said, grinning despite himself. “I’ll admit, under other circumstances you might not be that bad.”

* * * * *

Jenny had merged onto I-70 nearly an hour before, and decided to stop at Grand Junction to grab some coffee and use the restroom. She pulled in at a large gas station, glanced at her fuel gauge and decided to fill up before she left.

The place was like a truck stop, and a large sign announced free Wi-Fi. She took care of her business in the restroom, then grabbed a large coffee and sat down in one of the booths. A moment later, she had the subcom log on to the Wi-Fi network.

“Jenny to Noah,” she whispered.

“Noah to Jenny, I’m here.”

“Any answers yet?” Jenny asked. She was sitting with her eyes closed, silently praying for some good news.

“Team Angel has a lead on where Neil is being held, but it’s going to take a little time before they can get to him. Jenny, they’re going to get him back. They got a CIA strike team backing them up, so it’s time to call this off and come on in.”

“I’m sorry, Noah,” she said softly. “I can’t do that until you can tell me that he’s safe. I know you don’t really understand, but he is only in danger because of me. I cannot leave him there without doing everything possible to keep him safe. If that means I have to turn traitor, then so be it.”

“Jenny, this is Sarah,” a new whisper cut in. “Please, Jenny, listen to Noah. If you come in now, we can let this whole thing blow over. Angel will get Neil back, you just got to have faith.”

“Sarah, I learned a long time ago that the only one I can have faith in is me. Believe me, I really don’t want to hurt Allison, and I was really hoping that Noah could come up with a way we could fake it, but I cannot call it off until I know Neil is safe. I’d rather die trying, and I’m fully aware that Noah is going to be waiting to try to stop me. Hell, I would be if I were him, and no hard feelings if you manage it, Noah. I just have to do everything possible for Neil.”

“Noah to Jenny, I do understand. How many times have you seen me do whatever it takes to get Sarah back? If I were in the same position as you, I might do the same, I just don’t know. How far out are you?”

“I don’t think I want to tell you that,” Jenny said. “At the moment, Noah, you’re the enemy, remember? No matter how much I love you guys, I know that you have to do everything you can to stop me. I really don’t think I want to be giving you any clues about when to expect me.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I’m gonna sign off now,” she said. “Good luck, Noah. Try not to get in my way, please? I really don’t want to hurt you.”

She turned off the subcom, then walked up to the fuel desk and handed the clerk a pair of twenties. She moved her car over to the fuel island, then pumped in thirty-six dollars worth of gas, shut off the pump and drove away. She was back on the interstate a moment later, less than three hours from Denver and only five hours from Neverland.

* * * * *

“This is Jason,” came the voice through the phone.

“Charlie Butler,” Gabriel said. “Remember me?”

“Sure, Charlie,” Jason said. “How did your appointment go?”

“Went pretty good. Got what I was hoping for, and now I need to get together with those friends of yours. How soon can you help us out?”

“Let me make a couple of calls,” Jason said, “and I should be able to get them rounded up within an hour. Any idea where the party is, yet?”

“Yeah, it’s about four hours out. We need to get there as soon as possible, because we left a mess behind that could blow up in our faces. If the people at the party find out about it before we get there, they might be sticky about letting us in.”

“I can take care of the mess,” Jason said. “I’m going to text you an address, where you can meet my friends. Like I said, it’ll probably take an hour to get ready, but they might have a faster bus available. I’ll do my best for you, Charlie, so don’t forget it.”

“Trust me, I won’t,” Gabriel said. “And by the way, I really did like those party favors you brought us. I don’t suppose you have any refills for them, do you? I just about used mine up.”

“Yeah, I thought you’d like those. I’ll send along some refills, but don’t forget to get them to my buddies when you get done with them. My boss would have my butt if he knew I let them out of my sight.”

“Okay, send the address. We’ll meet your friends in an hour, and I sure do hope their bus is faster.”

“I think it will be,” Jason said. “I’ve heard stories that say it can really fly.”

Gabriel ended the call and looked at his phone. It signaled an incoming text message a moment later, and he opened it to find an address. He showed it to John, who was behind the wheel. “That’s the address where we are supposed to meet the crocodiles,” he said. “We got about an hour before they get there, but we might as well head that direction.”

John nodded and punched it into his GPS, then looked at Gabriel. “Says it’s about forty-eight minutes. I’ll drive just a bit under the speed limit, try to avoid drawing any attention.”

“You do that,” Gabriel said. He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes, grabbing a few moments of rest while he could.

They made it to the rendezvous point without incident, and it turned out to be an old construction yard. It was well off the beaten path and some distance out of the city, a great place for a clandestine operation to launch from. There was no one else there, yet, so John parked the van off to the side and they sat there to wait.

Ten minutes later, they heard the familiar whump-whump of helicopter rotors, and the big bird settled to the ground just a few yards in front of them. A half-dozen soldiers were out of it only a second after it landed, and one of them jogged over to the van. He approached the driver’s window, and John rolled it down.

“Is one of you a Mr. Burke?” he asked.

Gabriel leaned closer. “I’m Charlie Burke,” he said. “You must be Jason’s friends?”

The soldier grinned. “He likes to think so,” he said. “I’m Lieutenant Jennings. Come on with us, we got word that this is a high-priority mission, and our bird is a lot faster than this thing.” He stood back while they climbed out of the van, then walked around to Gabriel. “I’m supposed to give you this,” he said. He took a small box out of his pocket and handed it to Gabriel, who looked inside to see a dozen of the flat nosed bullets for the PSS.

Gabriel grinned as they followed the lieutenant to the helicopter, then took a seat and strapped himself in before he took the pistol out and reloaded it. The extra bullets went into his pocket, and the pistol went back into his waistband.

“You got GPS coordinates for us?” Jennings asked loudly, to be heard over the sound of the rotors idling overhead.

It was Bill who answered. “I do,” he said. He took a piece of paper from a pocket and handed it to the lieutenant, who passed it to the pilot. The pilot glanced at it, and nodded vigorously to indicate that he knew where he was going. Jennings slapped him on top of the helmet, and the helicopter lifted off the ground and tilted slightly as it began moving.

“It’ll be about forty minutes,” Jennings said to Gabriel. “We’ll put down about three miles from that point, then ride in the rest of the way.”

“Ride in?” Gabriel asked. “You got a car slung under the belly of this thing?”

Jennings grinned. “No, but we got something almost as good. You’ll have to wait and see.”

Gabriel looked at him for a moment, then leaned his head back. Might as well try to get a few more minutes of rest while he could, he figured.

* * * * *

“She’s here by now,” Noah said. “She has to be.”

Allison sighed. They were sitting in her office on the top floor of the headquarters building, and she glanced at the clock on the wall. It was getting close to two in the morning, and she hadn’t slept in more than forty hours. “Do you honestly think you can stop her? We trained her, remember? One of the things that makes her so effective is that she always manages to find a way past any obstacles.”

“Allison,” Donald Jefferson said, “there are a dozen security guards in the building, Marco is in the hallway outside, and Noah is right here with you. I don’t think there’s really much chance that she’ll be able to get in here and kill you.”

“Not if I can help it,” Noah said.

“She’s doing what she has to do,” Allison said. “When we let her and Neil start a relationship, we never thought about the possibility that he could be used against her this way, at least not to send her right back here after me. Who could have predicted something like this? It doesn’t matter, though, because she’s going to do whatever she feels she has to do to get him back. If that means killing me, then…”

“Then she’s turned into a rabid dog,” Jefferson said vehemently, “and will have to be put down like one. Noah, if she gets past the rest of them, you put a bullet through her head!”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Noah said, “but that’s exactly why I’m here. And if it comes to it, I will.”

Allison slammed a hand down on her desk. “Stop it! I’ve told you over and over, if I have to be killed as a mission imperative, then so be it. Noah, as long as it is only me she targets, you will stand down. Do you understand me?”

Noah looked at her, and after a moment, he nodded. “Understood,” he said. “I will take no action as long as you are the only target.”

“But…” Jefferson began, but Allison cut him off.

“Donald! No one knows how to follow orders, do you?”

Jefferson stared at her for a long moment, then lowered his eyes. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I do.”

“Then, you will be preparing yourself to take over, just in case this turns out unpleasant for me. If you need to leave the room, feel free to do so.”

His eyes still locked on hers, Jefferson slowly shook his head. “No, ma’am,” he said. “I would prefer to remain here.”

In his head, Noah heard Sarah let out a sigh. He had insisted she stay at the house during this, but the only way she would agree was if he promised to keep his subcom on so that she could hear everything that was happening.

* * * * *

Jenny had rolled into Kirtland twenty minutes earlier, and parked the Mustang behind Charlie’s restaurant. She took the bags of clothing she had purchased behind the dumpster and got dressed, putting on the loose, baggy clothing and pulling the old gray wig over her head. She had applied makeup earlier, adding dark circles under her eyes and hollows to her cheeks that made her look quite a bit older. The glasses only added to the effect, and she started to walk toward the headquarters building.

Then she stopped. Charlie’s offered free Wi-Fi to its customers, and she realized that it was probably on twenty-four hours a day. She thought about it for a moment, then activated the subcom and logged on to the Wi-Fi network.

“Jenny to Noah,” she whispered. “Tell me something good.”

“Noah to Jenny. Team Angel is working on locating Neil now, and should have an answer soon. You still have time, Jenny, come on in and work with us on this.”

“Sorry, Noah,” she said. “I can’t, not just yet. If I don’t deliver proof that Allison is dead, then I’m signing Neil’s death warrant. He wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for me, so I have to do whatever it takes to get him out of it.”

“Jenny, don’t do this. You know I can’t let you go through with it.”

“Wow, Noah, it almost sounds like you honestly care. I know, I know, you just don’t want to see the kind of problems this is going to cause, but I have to do whatever it takes to get him back. I don’t want to hurt anybody else, Noah, so please, don’t get in my way.”

She cut off the subcom before he could respond and started walking down the alleyway behind the restaurant. She cut east another block, then went down the alley between the buildings over there. In the baggy clothes, she looked like one of the homeless people that seemed to appear in every town, and even Kirtland had its share. She didn’t figure anyone who noticed would pay much attention, at least as long as she was this far away from the HQ.

When she was directly east of the office building, she climbed onto a dumpster and managed to snag a fire escape. She pulled herself up onto it, and then moved up the stairs until she reached the roof. She walked to the edge that was closest to the headquarters building and looked over. There was a street and another building between where she stood and the headquarters, so it was time for all those hours of running parkour to finally pay off. The building across the street was two stories shorter than the one she stood on, so she went back to the other side of the roof and took off running. When she launched herself off the edge, she had enough momentum to make it across the street and land just on the edge of the lower roof.

The impact knocked the wind out of her, and she lay there for a couple of moments to catch her breath. When she was confident nobody had noticed or heard what she had done, she got to her feet and then grimaced. The pistol on her hip had left what she was sure was going to be a good sized bruise, but she didn’t have time to worry about it at the moment. The sooner she got this over with, the better the chance that she might one day be with Neil again, and that was all that mattered to her.

The building she was on was separated from the HQ building by a wide alley, but the headquarters building was ten stories tall. Noah would be expecting her to come through the parking garage or just bull her way through the front doors, but she wasn’t going to do anything he might expect.

For some reason, the city had stretched a cable from a pole on the roof of this building across to the one that housed Brigadoon Investments. It had something to do with safety for city workers, but Jenny didn’t care what its purpose was. All that mattered to her was that it was likely to be able to hold her weight.

She took off the outer baggy clothes, then shinnied up the pole and got her hands on the cable, then swung her legs up over it. She spidered her way across upside down, hanging more than fifty feet over the alley below, moving slowly and steadily. The clothes she had worn underneath were dark gray, much better than black if one was trying to blend into the nighttime shadows, but if anybody happened to look out the window it was always possible the movement would register in their peripheral vision. She wanted to get across as quickly as she could, but she didn’t want to move so quickly that it would draw attention.

Only a few feet to go, she thought, but then she heard a grating noise and felt the cable give a jerk. Her eyes snapped forward and she saw that the bracket the cable was attached to was actually pulling its bolts out of the brick. Three of them were already loose, and only one still seemed to be secure. She started moving more quickly, but the added vibration made two of the loose bolts fall completely out, and then the last one suddenly pulled free of the brick.

Fifty feet above the ground is a lousy place to find out gravity still works. She made one last lunge just before the cable gave, and the forward momentum was just enough to let her catch the rail of the balcony on the third floor with one hand. She hung for a moment, absorbing the pain in her shoulder and wondering what kind of idiot would want one that overlooked an alley, then thanked her lucky stars that somebody had put it there. She swung up her other hand and got hold of the rail, then pulled herself up onto the balcony and sat on it to catch her breath once again.

As soon as she was seated, she drew both pistols and held them out in front of her. If anyone had heard anything, she wanted to be ready. Both of her guns were silenced, and she hoped the suppressors were good enough to keep Noah from hearing them, almost seven stories above her.

Another couple minutes, she thought. I can sit here and rest for a few more minutes, and then go and finish this.

TWENTY-TWO

The helicopter set down in a clear field, and the soldiers were out in only seconds. Gabriel and his men followed, and saw that they had opened the hatch in the back end of the helicopter and were taking out something that looked like… Well, he didn’t know what it looked like, but they seemed to be assembling some sort of bicycles or something.

“We call it the Skagway,” Jennings said, suddenly appearing beside him. “It’s an electric, self balancing unicycle. You sit on the seat and put your feet on the pegs, then just lean forward, backward, or to the side to steer it. Don’t worry, we brought enough for you guys, too.”

Gabriel looked at him, his eyebrows high. “Did you say unicycle?”

“Yep. Don’t worry, it will only take you a few seconds to figure it out. We use these because they can move at about twenty miles an hour, and they’re almost completely silent. Grab one and try it, you’ll see.”

It took Gabriel about a minute to get the hang of it, and Nick and John did just as well. Bill seemed to be panicking every time it started to move, because he kept falling off the back of it. Jennings finally told him to wait with the helicopter, because they had to get moving.

Jennings led out, and Gabriel, Nick and John fell in behind the soldiers. It took about ten minutes to get close to their destination, and then Jennings brought them all to a stop. They stashed the unicycles among the trees beside the road, and started walking the rest of the way.

It was another couple of minutes before the house came into clear view, and they could see three guards walking around the property. Jennings gave some silent commands and three of his men disappeared into the woods that ran along that side of the property. A moment later, all three of those guards suddenly dropped to the ground at the same moment.

“Okay, let’s move,” Jennings said. They broke into a quick jog and headed straight to the front of the house, but a couple of his men circled around it. There were likely to be guards on the sides they couldn’t see, as well, and they had to be taken out.

Jennings went right up the front steps to the door, then took a small device from a pocket and held it against the door for a moment. There was a cord attached to it, and he held the end of the cord to his ear. After a few seconds, he put it the device back into his pocket and motioned to one of his men, who suddenly kicked the door open.

The soldiers flooded inside rapidly, and Gabriel heard the staccato chattering of the sound-suppressed M-4’s they were carrying. A moment later, he heard the men shouting, “Clear!” They had eliminated the remaining guards inside, and were checking the rest of the house.

“Burke?” Jennings called out. “We found your boy, he’s safe. You want to get up here?”

The voice was coming from the second floor, so Gabriel, Nick and John jogged up the stairs. They found Jennings standing in the doorway and looked inside, to see Neil sitting up on the bed with his hands raised up in the air.

“I think we woke him up,” Jennings said. “I told him everything’s okay, but he’s just staring at us.”

Gabriel stepped into the room. “Neil? I’m Angel, Allison sent me and my team to find you. Everything’s okay, Neil, you can put your hands down now.”

Neal looked at him for a second, then shook his head as if to clear it. “Allison? Holy cow, you guys really came?”

Gabriel grinned at him. “Yeah, we came,” he said. “Get yourself dressed, we have to get back to the chopper. We got to get word back to Neverland that we got you back safe, and we have to hurry.”

Neil picked up his jeans from the foot of the bed and started putting them on. “Why? What’s the rush? Is Jenny okay?”

“That’s the problem,” Gabriel said. “They had used her, and told her the only way she could get you back alive was to go and kill Allison. She is on her way to Neverland right now, to do exactly that. We need to get word back that you are safe, so she can stand down.”

Neil’s eyes went wide, and he stared at Gabriel. “What time is it?” he asked.

“Time? It’s a couple minutes after five. Why?”

“That makes it two AM back in Kirtland,” Neil said. “Given the time they took me and the time it would take for them to fly her back to the States, and depending on where they dropped her off, we could already be too late. Anybody got a cell phone?”

Gabriel rolled his eyes, then handed over his phone. Neil dialed Jenny’s number and put the phone to his ear, but then he heard a recording: “All international circuits are currently busy. Please try your call again later.” He dialed again, but got the same recording, so he tried calling Noah. Still, the same recording played again. “How in the hell can every circuit be busy at this time of the morning?” he demanded.

Jennings looked at him. “Five AM? That’s probably normal. There’s probably a million and a half computers in Rio that are making contact with their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe right now, updating themselves on whatever business they’re involved in. They use the same circuits as the phone system, they may be tied up for an hour or more.”

Neil shoved his feet into his shoes, and then a sudden commotion caught everyone’s attention. A soldier appeared in the doorway, holding the arm of a man who was dressed in nothing but boxer shorts.

“Found this guy hiding in a back room up here,” the soldier said. “He claims this guy can vouch for him, that he’s not one of the bad guys. According to him, all he did was make sure your guy was safe and comfortable.”

It was Michael, and he broke into a smile when he saw Neil. Gabriel and the others were looking at him, but everybody suddenly jumped at a loud click, as Michael’s face suddenly became a bloody mass.

Gabriel spun around to Neil, and saw that he had snatched the little silent pistol from his waistband. Neil was staring at the gun, his eyes registering confusion, and Gabriel reached out and took it from him carefully.

“Yeah, it’s pretty quiet,” he said. “I take it the hospitality wasn’t all that great?”

“It was terrific,” Neil said. “but I managed to rig up a listening device, and found out that son of a bitch was the one giving the orders. If you hadn’t come after me, he was planning to kill me personally. Luckily, I found an old phone and managed to…” He stopped and looked at the phone in his hand. “Does this thing have a mobile hotspot?”

Gabriel’s eyebrows rose another notch. “I think so,” said. “Why?”

Neil was already looking through the settings on the phone, and found what he was hunting. He tapped the icon to turn on the hotspot, then set its password and told his subcom to wake up. He gave it the Wi-Fi password he had just created, and a moment later he heard, “Wi-Fi network available.”

“Neil to Jenny,” he said quickly. “Neil to Jenny, are you there?”

He listened for a moment, and then suddenly heard, “Noah to Neil, I read you. What’s your situation?”

“Team Angel arrived moments ago with reinforcements,” Neil said. He noticed Gabriel and the soldiers staring at him, but didn’t have time to explain. “Where is Jenny?”

“Somewhere close,” Noah said. “She’s trying to get to Allison, and I’m trying to stop her. If I can get word to her that you are safe, she can stand down. Stay on line, because I need her to hear it directly from you.”

“I’m standing by,” Neil said. “Hurry, Noah. We can’t let her do this, it will ruin her.”

“What the hell…” That was as far as Gabriel got, because Neil cut him off and explained quickly that he had an implant that let him communicate over distance through Wi-Fi.

* * * * *

“Neil is safe,” Noah said. “He’s talking to me through the subcom, right now, but Jenny has hers shut off and can’t hear him. Noah to Marco, did you catch that?”

“I did,” Marco said. “I’m watching for her, boss, but there is no sign of her yet.”

“Somehow, we have to get her to turn on her subcom. That’s the only thing is going to make her stand down, to hear Neil’s voice for herself.”

“Wait a minute,” Marco said. “Didn’t they say there’s a way to activate all the subcoms  at once?”

“Yes,” Noah said, “but only if they are logged on to a Wi-Fi network at the time. If she’s got it shut down, it can’t log on even if it was in one that was unrestricted.”

* * * * *

Jenny was climbing. Allison’s office was on the front side of the building, and she was certain there would be security guards scattered around inside. She knew that Allison would want the confrontation to take place in the office, so that’s where she would be; Jenny just had to get to her there.

Climbing a brick building wasn’t easy, though, unless you were Spider-Man. Jenny was going up a drainpipe from the rooftop gutters, but after the cable had come loose on her, she was nervous about trusting the cast-iron pipe and its brackets. She’d been climbing for the last fifteen minutes, and was finally about to reach the roof. A couple more good lunges upward, and she got a hand over the parapet. The other hand followed, and she was able to pull herself up and roll onto the roof.

Once again, she lay still for a moment. The climb had been taxing, and she was gasping for breath. She was just about to roll over and get to her feet when she suddenly heard a noise and looked over to her right.

Somehow, the security guard on the roof had failed to notice her arrival. She couldn’t believe she had made it so quietly, but the guard was standing near the front edge of the roof, looking down onto the street. As she watched, he took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, then leaned over and looked down into the street once again.

Jenny rose quickly and silently to her feet, grateful for the soft rubber soles on her sneakers. She drew one of her pistols and held it out in front of herself as she trotted softly across toward him, but she really didn’t want to hurt any of their own people. Just because she was being forced to become a traitor didn’t mean the rest of them should suffer.

The guard didn’t sense her presence until she was within arm’s reach of him, and he turned quickly, but too late. The butt of her pistol contacted his chin, and she was able to catch him before he toppled over the side. He would be out for at least a good twenty minutes, she figured, so she laid him out on the roof and took his gun away. She carried it over and left it behind one of the big air conditioners, then walked back to the same edge, just over Allison’s office.

It was time to put the final phase of the plan into action. She took two small digital video cameras out of her pocket and attached one to the collar of her shirt, and the other to the front waistband of her pants, then turned both of them on. If everything went well, she’d soon have the video proof that she needed, and Neil would be back with her. Afterward—well, she would deal with that later.

This next move would be the trickiest part. There was a window directly below her that was right behind Allison’s desk, the ideal place for her to enter. Unfortunately, the wall was sheer and there was nothing to climb down. She had given it thought during her long drive, however, and now she unrolled the nylon line she had purchased and wrapped around her waist. It was thin but strong, and a hundred feet long. She found a pipe sticking up out of the roof and anchored the rope to it, then pulled it taut as she went to the edge again. She looked over and gauged the distance to the window, paid out that much more line, and then launched herself over the edge.

The rope went taut again, and the whiplash effect snapped her back toward the building. She had somehow managed to do it just right, and her feet hit the glass first, shattering it and sending it flying in a thousand directions. Her body followed through the window and she landed on her feet, with one pistol still clenched in her right hand.

Allison wasn’t sitting at her desk; she was actually in one of the chairs that sat facing it, and Jenny was looking her in the eye. She aimed her pistol carefully and began to squeeze the trigger, as Noah shouted something she couldn’t hear over the roaring in her ears.

Allison was just staring at her, and there was a look of something Jenny couldn’t define on her face. Was it pity? Was it compassion? Jenny knew that look, she’d seen it before, but it had been a long, long time.

It was love. It was the same look Jenny’s mother used to give her, back when she was a little girl and had done something dumb.

Jenny was frozen. The pistol was still aimed directly at Allison’s face, but her finger simply would not move. The roaring in her ears continued, and some part of her registered the fact that Noah was standing off to her right, his own pistol pointed directly at her, but she just couldn’t move. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t squeeze the trigger, couldn’t turn her head, couldn’t move at all.

And then the paralysis broke. Her hand lowered, and she laid the pistol on the desk that was the only thing between her and her target. Tears were running down her face as she thought of Neil, and how she had let him down, but then Allison was up and walking toward her. Allison spread her arms, and Jenny, tears pouring down her face, spread her own and walked into them.

“It’s okay,” Allison said. “Shh, it’s okay. It’s all over now, it’s okay.”

Jenny clung to her, weeping, but then Noah moved into her line of vision. He had put down his own pistol, and laid a hand on her shoulder. She forced herself to focus on what he was saying, but it was hard to understand. She tried again, and then caught it.

“Jenny, turn on your subcom and get on the Wi-Fi,” he said. “Neil is safe, we got him back. He’s trying to talk to you now, get on the Wi-Fi.”

Jenny pulled her face back from Allison and stared at him, then whispered the words that would activate the subcom again. She told it to get on the Wi-Fi, but it asked for the password and she didn’t know it.

Noah recognized the confusion and said, “The password, it’s ‘fairytale,’ with no capital letters.”

“Fairytale,” Jenny said softly, and then she heard it.

“Neil to Jenny, Neil to Jenny, Neil to Jenny…”

The tears came anew. “Jenny to Neil,” she said haltingly. “Sure is good to hear your voice.”

“Jenny, I’m safe, you don’t have to…”

“It’s okay, Neil,” Noah said. “When she got here, she couldn’t do it.”

“Sarah to Jenny,” Jenny heard, and she suddenly started sobbing even louder. “I’m so glad you’re okay, I was so worried.”

“But I’m not okay,” Jenny said between sobs. “I was going to do it, I really planned to do it, anything to get Neil back—but then I got here, and I looked into Allison’s eyes, and I just couldn’t.”

“It’s okay, Jenny,” Allison said. “You were under duress, the worst possible kind. We’re not going to hold that against you. It’s okay.”

EPILOGUE

The next twenty-four hours were hectic for everyone, as Neverland began to recover from the near disaster. Molly had been able to identify most, if not all, of the major players in the PRA from analyzing the contacts of Klaus Niemeier, Alexandra Hofmeyr and Peter Newsom, and Teams Angel, Pegasus and Oz were sent to begin taking care of them.

Of course, Gabriel first had to deliver Neil to the airport at Rio, where a charter flight was hastily arranged to get him back to Neverland in a hurry. The plane landed at Kirtland Airport, and all of Team Camelot was there to meet it when it arrived.

“Jenny!” Neil shouted as he hurried down the ramp. Jenny ran to him, and they threw their arms around each other, each of them promising the other that they would never be apart again. Noah, Sarah and Marco stood back and let them have their moment, and then the five of them got into Sarah’s car and headed back to Noah’s house.

Jenny had been tied up with Doctor Parker all that day, and hadn’t been released until it was time for Neil to arrive at the airport at four o’clock that afternoon. She wanted to take him straight to his trailer and “give him a proper welcome home,” but Noah and Sarah had insisted they come into the house for a little while, first. They grudgingly agreed to, and both of them nearly jumped out of their skin when two dozen people began to cheer and applaud as they walked in.

Renée was there, and Wally, along with Allison, Donald Jefferson, Mr. Jackson and Doctor Parker, himself. Elaine Jefferson was there, and even Neil’s old girlfriend Lacey was there to welcome them back home. Just about everyone who knew them was aware of what happened, and Parker had told Allison that something like this was a necessity if Jenny was ever going to get over the guilty feelings that were eating her alive.

It turned out to be quite a party, and it was well after midnight before Neil and Jenny finally thanked everyone for coming and made their escape to the trailer. A half-hour later, there was no one left but Noah, Sarah and Allison, all sitting around the kitchen table drinking coffee.

Allison had caught a nap earlier in the day, but she was still very tired. The coffee was to help her stay awake long enough to get back home, but Sarah finally put her foot down and insisted she use the guestroom for the night. She agreed, and then asked Sarah the question that left her speechless.

“So,” Allison had said. “Which one of us do you think she’ll pick for maid of honor?”

“Maid of honor?” Sarah asked. “What?”

Allison grinned. “Neil caught me alone for a minute and asked permission to propose to her. I figure I might as well give it, because they deserve to be together as much as you and Noah do. Of course, Marco and Renée will undoubtedly be next.”

Sarah’s mouth was hanging open. “Wow,” she said. “I bet she picks you, but that’s okay with me. I’m just thinking about a bridal shower. You’ll help, right?”

“Why, of course,” Allison said. “You girls are like the daughters I always hoped I’d have by now, and we didn’t get a chance to do one for you. Let’s get Renée involved, too, since she’s going to be part of the Camelot family soon.”

“Oh, my gosh,” Sarah said. “This’ll be awesome. We better do it soon, though, or they’ll elope.” Her eyes went wide. “Hey, we can all go to the Manor in England after the wedding, so they can have a honeymoon!”

Allison smiled. “Now you’re talking,” she said. “Wait, the staff there think they’re already married, remember?”

“So we’ll tell them it’s a second honeymoon,” Sarah laughed. “I’m pretty sure Thomas and his family have figured out we aren’t really who we claim to be, and Catherine Potts says they can be trusted to never let any secrets out. We’ll manage, but at least it would be a good setting. We could even hold the wedding there, and say they were reaffirming their vows or something like that.”

Allison looked over at Noah. “Your wife is either as tired as I am, or she’s just naturally giddy. She’s taking this whole idea a lot farther than I had thought it through, and I like her ideas.”

Noah nodded. “I usually like them, myself.”

Both women cracked up laughing, and Sarah decided it was time for everyone to go to bed. She walked Allison to the guestroom, then followed Noah to their own room. They took a quick hot shower together, then climbed into bed and were asleep in minutes.

* * * * *

Sarah called Renée the next morning and included her in, and the three women met for lunch at Charlie’s to start planning. They were all excited, and all were in favor when Sarah suggested they have the shower at her house.

“We’ll just have to get rid of the men,” Renée said. “Tell them they can go fishing or something, that’ll get them out of our hair for a day. Somehow, I don’t know that I could see Marco or Noah at a bridal shower. Neil, maybe, but then he’d find a way to hog all the food for himself, so he has to go, too.”

Sarah laughed. “Noah would sit there and try to figure out what was making us tick,” she said. “That’s what he does when he encounters something new, he analyzes it to see if he can use it to help him blend in better.”

“Okay, okay,” Allison said. “So, when are we doing this? We need to let Jenny know about it, so that she doesn’t have some other plans at the time.”

“The sooner the better,” Sarah said.

“Oh, yeah,” Renée agreed. “I’m thinking this weekend, right?”

“We could do it on Saturday,” Sarah said. “How about Saturday afternoon, right after lunch? I can tell Noah to just take the guys out on the boat, they can do some fishing and bring some beer and just let their hair down.”

The three of them agreed, and they finished up their lunch and went searching for Jenny. When they didn’t find her at the trailer, Sarah took out her phone and called her.

“Hey, girl,” Jenny said as she answered.

“Hey, yourself,” Sarah said. “Where are you? I need to get with you.”

“Well, Neil decided it was time to buy me a ring,” Jenny said, “but he thinks I don’t know what he’s doing. I don’t know, sometimes, how men can be so dumb. We’re parked three doors down from the jewelry store, and he seems to have forgotten that this truck has rearview mirrors. He went completely across the street and into the drugstore, then watched to see if I was looking before he slipped out and hurried down the block and across the street again to get into the jewelry store. I mean, I know what he is up to, and it’s sweet and all that, but I just hate having to pretend I’m that dumb.”

“Yeah, sometimes we have to, just to save their egos. Listen, how soon can you get free? I’m with Allison and Renée, and we want to kidnap you for a little while.”

“Okay, I guess,” Jenny said. “He just came out of the jewelry store, and is running across the street again. Give me about twenty minutes, and I’ll have him drop me off somewhere. I’ll call you.”

“Okay, we’ll be waiting.”

Sarah hung up the phone and turned to her friends. “This is going to be a blast,” she said.

Jenny called twenty minutes later, and told them to pick her up at the coffee shop downtown. They were already close by, so it only took them a couple of minutes to get there. When she came out and got into the car, she stared at the three of them, because they were staring at her with smiles on their faces.

“So?” Sarah asked. “Did he pop the question yet?”

Jenny grinned. “Not yet,” she said, “but I think he’s about to. I’m sure that’s what he was doing in the jewelry store, and he’s been acting nervous since last night.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty sure he’s going to, as well,” Allison said. “That’s why we’re already planning your bridal shower. He better hurry up, though, because we’re doing it this Saturday.”

“Saturday? Gee, okay,” Jenny said. “Oh, wait a minute, he’s calling.” She put her phone to her ear. “Hey, babe,” she said. She listened for a moment, then looked up at the other three. “Um, Neil wants to know if we can get all of you and your guys to let us take you out to dinner tonight?”

All three of the women started cheering silently, and they all said yes. Neil told Jenny to tell them they should all meet at the Sagebrush Saloon at seven, and that he’d tell her why later.

“Oh my gosh,” Sarah said, “he’s going to do it tonight! That’s the only reason he’d want all of us there, I’m telling you, he’s going to ask her tonight.”

“Okay, then,” Allison said. “It’s Operation We Don’t Know Anything, right? We all pretend to be surprised when he drops to one knee, ’cause the last thing we want to do is ruin this for him.”

* * * * *

Noah and Marco were perfectly okay with going out to dinner, especially since Neil was going to be buying for the first time ever. Sarah and Renée both barely managed to keep quiet about what they expected, so everyone was acting normal when they arrived at the Sagebrush.

The hostess had given them the biggest round table, with plenty of room for all of them. Marco and Renée, Noah and Sarah, Neil and Jenny, and then Allison arrived and everyone was delighted when she brought Molly along.

“Closest I could manage to a date on such short notice,” she said. “I hope it’s all right.”

“Of course it is,” Neil said. He and Molly had become good friends, and often played video games against each other.

They ordered dinner and drinks, and they all just made small talk until the drinks arrived. As soon as they did, however, Neil suddenly got to his feet.

“Okay, I know you all figured I was up to something,” he said with a grin, “so I figured it’s time to end the suspense. All of you know that Jenny and I have become very close over the last—well, I guess it’s going on a year now, right? Anyway, I’ve come to a conclusion and I wanted all of you, our closest friends, to be here for this moment.”

Everyone was smiling, and the smiles only got bigger when Neil Blessing turned to the lovely young woman beside him and got down on one knee. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small box that he opened, and Jenny’s eyes went wide and her mouth flew open when she saw the three beautiful diamonds that adorned the ring he held out to her.

“Jenny Lance,” he said solemnly, “I have come to realize that I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone. You have made such a difference in my life, and while we can never know how much time we have to be together, I know that I want to spend every moment of it as deeply connected to you as it is possible to be. Jenny, will you be my wife?”

Jenny Lance, professional assassin, suddenly had tears streaming down both cheeks. She looked at Neil and began nodding, unable to speak, but finally she managed to say, “Yes! Oh, yes!”

The table erupted in applause, and seconds later the rest of the restaurant joined in.

Neil put the ring on her finger and kissed her, and then got back up into his chair. Jenny was busy showing the ring to everyone, and Noah, who was sitting beside Neil, leaned over to him.

“Good job, kid,” he said. “I hope you have a long and happy marriage.”

“Yeah,” Neil said, smiling. “Me, too.”

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BOOK TWELVE PREVIEW...

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Table of Contents

ONE

THREE

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY-TWO

Epilogue