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  She twisted a look at Logan. “If I know my father, it shouldn’t take long to set this up.”

  “I’ll be ready.”

  “Give McGill a head’s up. We’ll need the NSA to decipher,” Sam said, then looked at her sharply, scowling. “If you think I’m going to let you be the target of this, you’re nuts.”

  She didn’t go off on him, didn’t get righteous when he revealed that he was worried about her. It had been a long time since anyone gave a damn, she thought, smoothing the lines of his forehead, her fingers skimming to his strong jaw. “Sam,” she said softly. “You don’t have a choice. Unless you can speak Italian, Russian, and maybe Farsi.” He scowled, since she knew better. “And if you’re in front of the camera when the geeks decipher the router to him, what then?”

  She had a point. It would take all of the team to get this son of a bitch. “I don’t like using you as bait.”

  “But you’d let that stop you when this Pharaoh is holding us all hostage?”

  Sam’s shoulders slackened. “Fine.” He didn’t like it one bit. “So what’s with the list?”

  She smiled slyly. “A little deception.”

  “Don’t get all happy,” Logan said, leaning back in the chair, swearing under his breath. “McGill says if we can’t trace the last link to the router, then the only way to pinpoint it is when it hits another target.”

  Nineteen

  Hitting a target was not an option. “I’ll let the God damn machine go before it makes more casualties, General.”

  “The joint chiefs consider it an acceptable risk.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Perhaps US and UK forces need to take over this operation.”

  “Fine, go for it, but consider that you don’t have people with connections to get into the bidding, nor someone who speaks five or six languages. Who on your end is ready to move right this moment?” Sam asked, knowing the answer.

  It would be at least four hours before they could get undercover operatives anywhere near these people and even longer to set up a deep-cover infiltration, which the CIA had been trying to do since Ryzikov stepped on Thai soil. They didn’t let in any outsiders.

  McGill finally agreed.

  Sam wasn’t satisfied. “We’re going in, McGill, so how do you justify leaving two kids behind?”

  “That diplomatic residence is official, paid for and run by the Algerian Embassy.”

  “So if this router location is his home, you’re okay with that? Jesus, McGill. What difference—” Sam clamped his lips shut. “You need to find another solution. Or I will.” He cut the connection and tried not to slam the phone down and instead tossed it into a chair. “Assholes. All those great minds and they can’t come up with something better?”

  “Military Intelligence is a contraction in terms,” Max said, and Sam gave him a sour look.

  “Sebastian, we need some surprises. If Viva has to be alone, then I want a fortress around her.” Although MI6 and the Bangkok CIA station had agreed to have officers on the road and grounds, Sam wasn’t comforted. He didn’t trust them enough to be inside the CP.

  Sebastian agreed and set aside the gear he was stocking, then turned to a silver metal case filled with his toys.

  While McGill and the joint chiefs were assembled, more as spectators than participants, the Silent Fire project commander, Gerardo, would be online through a DIA intel link. England had Special Forces in country ready to move with the US and were helping with a face match to the photo from Voslav’s film. It would help to know who they were gunning for, Sam thought.

  The Algerian government and its embassy couldn’t be informed. The joint chiefs agreed that since they didn’t know exactly who was involved in the theft of the weapon that tipping their hand would not be wise. Whatever, Sam thought, kneeling to double-check his gear. Someone in the intelligence community had betrayed them again. Whether it was the US and her allies or another country, they may never know.

  Sam watched Logan rewire his systems to meet the requirements.

  NSA analysts were sitting comfortably in Virginia ready to decrypt the router system and find the last hop across the world to the man who referred to himself as the Pharaoh. Speed and communication were essential. One of our own satellites had been retasked to be certain the lines of communication didn’t break.

  Lots of people involved now, he thought, and Viva was taking the biggest risk. She had to keep the Pharaoh on the line and right now, they weren’t even sure they’d get into the bidding. It all depended on her father and his willingness to call in one huge favor on Viva’s behalf. He didn’t want to think about how the guy was going to pay it back. Mafia had their own set of dangerous rules.

  “NSA will try to trace the last link in the router system by keeping him on line,” Logan said. “Let’s hope it works. This Pharaoh planned this very carefully.”

  “And he’s mine,” Sam said, sliding his knife into the scabbard.

  “Whoa, baby!” Sam heard from behind and turned. Shock tingled over his skin, and he understood what Viva meant by a deception. A different woman walked across the room. Dark, sultry, and hard edged. Her hair was dark brown, her makeup heavier, but the black suit and fake diamond jewelry gave off a completely different impression. Sophisticated, worldly. Don’t-fuck-with-me powerful.

  Viva adjusted the hem of her jacket. “Not one word.”

  “Guess I can’t call you Red anymore, huh?”

  “It washes out.” She laughed lightly at the quick relief in his expression.

  “You really look Italian now.”

  “Sicilian, big difference to mia famiglia.”

  A few minutes later, the phone rang and Sam answered, then he held it out to her.

  She spoke in Russian for only a moment, giving them a thumbs-up. “Dah, dah.” She smiled as she said, “No, I don’t owe you a favor, Uncle Vlad, my father does.” She hung up, smirking. “Let him try and collect. Vlad is my godfather, Russian mob. Ex-KGB, as a matter of fact. This will route through his network.”

  “Jesus,” Max said. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

  Viva winked, really smiling for the first time since she’d spoken to her father.

  “We have to keep him on line to get a location, the router systems have to be operating.” Logan was tweaking his systems.

  “That’s cutting it close,” Sam said. “Once the deal is done, then it could be disconnected.”

  “I’ll keep him on there. I’ll talk him to death.”

  Sam smiled, looking her over and his gaze landed on her neckline. “That’s a lot of flesh you’re showing, baby.” Her breasts were nearly spilling from the fitted jacket.

  “It’s a distraction. Working?” She jiggled a bit for him.

  “Oh, yeah.” He practically smacked his lips. “I want to kiss you,” he said.

  “You’ll smear my makeup.”

  He grinned and pressed his forehead to hers. She loved that he didn’t care that the team saw them. He rested his hand on her hip and tugged her closer.

  “Don’t be a hero.”

  “You, either,” she said. He was already suited up in black, wearing a load-bearing vest, a gun, and knives strapped to his thighs and calf. It was a terribly sexy look.

  “Viva, I need to get you set up for this,” Logan said.

  For her part, Logan had set up a single computer with the webcam, the backdrop behind her a clean wall with no art. Nothing to give away their location. On his screen, and back in the US, they would see what the Pharaoh saw. She brushed her mouth over Sam’s, then laughed when she had to wipe off the lipstick. She turned to Logan and inserted the tiny ear mike in one ear, then put on a headset microphone on the other. She’d be able to hear the caller, the Pharaoh, in the headset, and speak back into the lip mike curved to her painted mouth. Through the tiny earpiece, she’d hear instructions. From who, she wasn’t sure. The team wouldn’t be here for it and that scared the heck out of her. Too much depended on her alone, and she�
�d avoided that like the plague for years. Can’t quit now, she thought. Time to step up to the plate and be counted.

  She was on her own, attached only by microchips and a satellite feed.

  “Hearing voices on both sides of your head isn’t going to be easy,” Sam said. “You have to concentrate on one at a time.”

  “Before or after it gives me a migraine?”

  Sam’s lips curved. “Just be sure not to respond to us and only to the Pharaoh.”

  This guy had a ruler complex with a name like Pharaoh. “Logan, you have the translator up? Because I have to speak Russian for a bit for this to seem authentic.” Trying to fool this guy wasn’t going to be easy and the burden, unfortunately, rested on her.

  Logan nodded. “US intel is getting the same thing now.”

  “Hello, General.”

  “Miss Fiori, we can’t thank you enough for assisting.”

  “Hey, I’m thrilled to hold my father over a barrel for a good cause. Just put on your thinking caps and don’t leave me out in the cold. I’m not trained for this.”

  “We’ll do our best.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Logan, can you haze out this camera lens or filter? This guy will not recognize my voice, but the other tall guy that was with him, he might have seen my face. I don’t want him coming after me.”

  “Hell, it’s not like half the criminal world in Thailand wants you.”

  “I always wanted to be so popular,” she said in a Valley Girl voice.

  “If they knew who you were, they wouldn’t touch you,” Sam said and winked.

  She took her seat, adjusted her clothing. The last time she wore stockings was at her father’s trial. When the screen came on, Viva tensed, startled by her own appearance.

  Sam was in her line of vision as was Sebastian. Once they had the final router point, she thought, all hell would break loose. “What happens if we don’t get the original router point?”

  “Then we have to convince him to meet with you,” Sam said and her eyes widened. “You won’t have to do it.”

  “No other woman here, Sam, who are you going to get to fill in?”

  “We’ll work around it, you’re not getting near the bastard.”

  “Protective instincts aside, which make me feel all warm and toasty, we have to do what we have to do.”

  Sam came to her, cupping her face and taking her mouth with a ferociousness that left a mark on her heart. “I do, you don’t. If you have to make him want to meet with you, then we’ll intercept.”

  “And if he won’t? He’s been so clandestine so far, why would he?”

  He let her go. “To get his money.”

  “Electronic transfers would cover that.”

  “We have that step, too,” Logan said. “Fake money from a fake account. USA will handle it.”

  “He wants those.” Sam nodded toward the bowl of diamonds she stole from Ryzikov.

  “I don’t think so, I think he wanted many uncut stones to get one to fit that machine, and he has that.”

  “Then it’s one of those play-by-ear things, I guess.” Sam swiftly loaded a 9 mm Beretta and laid it on the table beside her.

  Viva looked from the gun to him. “You’re making me nervous.”

  “I wouldn’t leave you if I thought he could track you.”

  Sebastian had to fly the chopper, and since they didn’t know what kind of firepower they were up against, or where, they needed Logan. Sam wished he had a platoon and some stingers.

  “CIA sent three officers, they’re on the lower road. Sebastian wired some extras in the windows and grounds and we’ll set the sensors when we leave.”

  “Heads up, people, he’s calling you,” Logan said and nodded as the connection linked.

  Gerardo watched a simultaneous cast with McGill.

  Both men sat perfectly still, watching the green line trace the onion router connection, the first, second, then the third; a neon line raced over the world map, and turned back. It was a maze. Israel, Tibet, England, Ireland, then shooting into the Middle East, then across China province. He listened to the woman work the deal, heard the intel coming from Chambliss. They were still too far from finding the final signal.

  “Hurry the hell up,” he commanded, then leaned to tap the comm link. “Is Dragon One in the air?”

  Viva stared at the screen that offered nothing more than a figure in the shadows, sitting behind a large desk. She could barely make out the room, yet noticed the gleam on the stone floors and arches behind him.

  Then he spoke. The sound of his voice, the memory of him toying with her mind to kill Sam fueled her outrage. Who did this bastard think he was to hold us all hostage? A moment of greeting passed. His language skills were poor, and Viva wasn’t going to attempt Farsi and spoke in Russian, yet when he couldn’t understand her, she switched to English.

  “You come highly recommended.”

  “You do not,” Viva said coldly, affecting a heavy accent and hating this man with every cell in her body. “People die around you.” She could see nothing of him, only his outline. Yet Sam tapped his ring finger. This was the man in Voslav’s photo.

  “Some things cannot be avoided.”

  “Dismemberment should be.”

  The Pharaoh sat up straighter, his hands folded on a green desk blotter, and Viva knew she’d struck a sore spot. “You’re rather informed for a newcomer.”

  “We’ve been watching you, Pharaoh.”

  “Impossible.”

  Then, “Don’t piss him off,” whispered in her ear.

  Antagonizing him backed her into a corner. “There are several of my counterparts in this country. When they start turning up dead, one wonders, dah?”

  “It could be you. To get into the bidding.”

  “If it was, we would not have left a trail for others to find.”

  Beyond the camera and computer, Max, Sebastian, and Sam picked up the meanest-looking black rifles and slung them. She didn’t dare take her eyes off the screen and Logan moved into her line of vision.

  In her right ear she heard, “It’s all locked in. Keep him talking. The visual and sound control is on that laptop,” he gestured to the one in front of her. “In the lower right corner. Just click it once and it will black out if you need it, but will keep the connection locked.”

  She inclined her head, indicating she understood. Max and Sebastian were already out the door, Logan following. Sam paused, looking back, and Viva’s chest tightened. It struck her that she might never see him again.

  Her eyes burned, and the urge to rush to him nearly overpowered her. She squeezed the arms of the chair, her nails digging into the brocade fabric. He held her gaze for a moment, then he was gone.

  Jalier sat back, rubbing his mouth. Arrogant woman. He had to cull her; she was his highest bidder with unlimited funds. He stared at the screen, seeing the beauty and well-rounded shape of her. She appeared to be alone, though he doubted that. A woman with such power wouldn’t be left unguarded. His speakers gave off the murmur of discussion between the bidders and instantly, he cut them off. They heard only him for the moment. The mafia’s representative, the woman, was the only one not within his grasp.

  He admitted only to himself that he’d rather keep the connections through computers, but Noor’s behavior had decided other plans. He couldn’t get his money if they were dead. More’s the pity.

  The black chopper lifted into the night, the Sat comm link to NMCC clear in the headsets. He didn’t want Viva to hear any of this, to add to her nervousness, and had Logan cut her off from their voice traffic for the moment.

  “Dragon One to Command, we’re airborne.”

  “We’ve almost got it, five minutes, maybe.”

  “It’s just fuel, we’re ready.”

  Sam made a cutting motion across his throat. Sound went off except inside the chopper. “Commander Isarangura is on alert. He’s handpicked men he trusts to be discreet, and when we get the location, he’ll secure the area.”
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  “You didn’t trust MI6 or CIA to do it?”

  “Not when they won’t get the kids. They have an agenda and this is his country, his jurisdiction. Algerian Embassy can be kept in the dark, but not this guy.”

  The light on the dash blinked and Sebastian hit it.

  “We have the final link. I say again, we have the final link.” They gave an address. “Bangkok, west shoreline.”

  Sam slid the door back and surveyed the black coastline with night vision goggles.

  “I’ve got coordinates. Thirty-one degrees, ten minutes west,” Max said. “Shit, he’s right there.”

  Sam swung to look. Right across the harbor from them all this time. Fuck. Sebastian turned the chopper, flying over the glassy water.

  “Slow down, Coonass,” Sam said. “He’ll hear us, we can’t repel from the chopper. He’s got his own troops, assume he’s got more. We have to get him by surprise.”

  “You want to drop and swim?”

  “I have a better idea.” Sam grabbed the radio and tuned the frequency. “Commander Isarangura, this is Sam Wyatt.” He gave him his location.

  Max twisted in the seat, showing Sam the satellite imagery. “It’s an estate, massive house, and a long road leading in, cliffs to the water, and he’s got a couple acres surrounding him.”

  They could come in from the land side, but that would be a lot of running and a lot of time. The bidding was going down right now. Isarangura gave as much information on the estate as he knew offhand. It was plenty. Sam tapped a key and brought up the image of the building. There was only one way in without notice. “Commander, I need a favor.”

  “Begin, I’ve little time to waste.”

  “The bidding starts at one million in diamonds. You have been vouched for.”

  Viva nodded regally. “I want to see this weapon.” The screen blinked and what looked like a telescope appeared. Oh, God, she thought, it’s that small. Illuminated from the bottom, the big diamond glittered from inside a channel. Then she realized it was set up to operate.

  The bidding rose; seven, ten, fifteen.