7. Sky-high Rivalry
CHAPTER 7
SKY-HIGH RIVALRY
LEDGER
T his is my first time flying on a private luxury jet, and boy, could I get used to this. It uses a separate terminal with private lounges— not that I have time to sit down in one, but they are nice to walk past. Security screening is easier than finding a Starbucks in Seattle , and a private shuttle just dropped me off on the tarmac in front of the waiting plane.
I’m not even all the way up the stairs with my bag before I hear talking and laughing. As soon as I step through the door to the plane, I see that Zoe has beat me here, which makes my eyelid twitch a little.
She’s chatting up a gentleman in I’m guessing his late fifties, who is wearing a navy suit and looking rather entertained. He’s standing like he’s used to commanding attention, yet there are plenty of laugh lines around his eyes that seem at odds with his posture. Based on the green tie and pocket square with a Celtic knot design on the fabric, the pin of an Irish harp on his lapel, and his chestnut hair streaked with silver, I’m guessing he is the Irish Ambassador to the U.S . who offered to let us ride with him.
A man in his thirties is standing next to him, looking equally Irish but nowhere near as commanding of a presence. But he does look every bit as entertained as the Ambassador . Which doesn’t surprise me, since Zoe is chatting with them. As usual, she’s morphed into the perfect conversationalist for this situation. It’s a skill that is rather impressive and useful for a spy to have. I respect it— as long as she doesn’t use it on me again. That I can’t stand.
She’s dressed in dark gray slacks and a light purple blouse, and she looks amazing. When I first laid eyes on Zoe at a café in Moldova when our missions overlapped, I was so awestruck that I forgot my cover name and story. I almost forgot my actual name. Before that point in my life, I hadn’t really thought about what the “perfect woman” looked like. Seeing her was all I needed to know that she was exactly it. From her honey-colored hair to her lean muscles, right down to the way her ankles looked when she was wearing heels. Yep , I even noticed the ankles.
And that is part of what makes Zoe Steele so maddeningly dangerous. Because a part of me always whispers, but she’s just what I want . Physically , she is. She also has a job and a set of skills and interests that are so in line with mine. Nearly everything about her is, on paper, exactly what I most want in a woman.
But I’ve been around her enough to know that I can be attracted to her, yet also want nothing to do with her. Getting your heart targeted by a precision strike only to be left in the blast radius of a bomb can do that to you. Now , all I have to do is divert my mind anytime I’m accidentally attracted to her. I’m not normally around her for such a long period of time, though. I’m going to have to be very vigilant on this mission.
As I walk over to Zoe , the ambassador, and the other man, Zoe smiles welcomingly and says, “ Oh , Ledger . I’m glad you’re joining us.”
No , she isn’t.
“ The ambassador was just telling me about a sport they have in Ireland called hurling. It sounds like it’s a mix between football and soccer—and maybe hockey?” she says, glancing at the ambassador for confirmation— “but played with a ball the size of a baseball. Oh , and all the players on the field have bats.”
The ambassador gives a hearty laugh at her description. “ You’re funny. I like you.”
I’m sad I didn’t arrive earlier so I could’ve heard all about this glorious sport. “ Wow . Is that for real? And they all have bats? How many players are on the field at once?”
“ Fifteen for each team,” the younger man says.
“ That sounds like my kind of game. Hi , I’m Ledger Lancaster .” I hold out my hand to the older gentleman first, and he shakes it.
“ Nice to meet you, Ledger . I’m Odhrán Connolly , Irish Ambassador to the United States .” He doesn’t have much of an accent, but he’s still unmistakably Irish . He motions to the younger man and then the three other people on the plane. “ This is my aide, Evan O’Brien . And that’s our flight attendant, Saoirse , and our security officers, Ronan and Patrick .”
I nod to each person as he says them, committing their names to memory.
Evan asks me, “ How long are you going to be in Dublin ?” and after hearing the ambassador speak, I’m surprised at how strong his aide’s accent is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a TV show or movie with an Irish character who sounds so… Irish . It makes me wonder if TV got it wrong or if Evan is the exception.
“ Less than twelve hours.”
“ That’s minus craic,” Evan says. “ It’s my pet hate to go somewhere new and not be able to check it out. We’re mostly up to ninety here for six days, what with the wedding and a host of meetings, then we’ll be back in the States . When you’ve got some free time and it isn’t manky out, give me a ring or a text.” He holds out a business card, and I take it. “ We’ll gather some fellas and get a game of hurling together.”
There were a lot of words in there I didn’t understand. But calling the embassy to get together for a game of hurling I do understand, and a smile spreads across my face. “ I will for sure take you up on that.” And I will. Maybe I’ll even talk my brothers into joining us.
“ Congratulations on your daughter’s upcoming marriage,” Zoe says. “ That’s very exciting.”
The ambassador smiles widely. “ It is. She’s my youngest. I’ve got my kilt all ready to go.”
“ Wait ,” I say, not entirely sure whether he’s telling the truth or trying to pull something over on me. “ Are you really wearing a kilt at the wedding?”
“ I never miss a chance to show off these legs.”
As we are all laughing, I’m thinking about how glad I am that we are hitching a ride with someone easygoing and with a sense of humor instead of someone pretentious or stuffy. And I’m extra glad that I’m not currently trying to squeeze my knees into a coach space as an attendant pushes a cart down the aisle. So I give him a very genuine thank you, especially since he didn’t have to offer.
“ This will be my first time in Ireland ,” Zoe says, “and I think it will be for Ledger , too. Do you have any advice for us?”
That’s a good question— I wish I would’ve asked it. Not only because it’s a good way to get some great advice, but also because it’s one people love to answer. Evan’s face immediately lights up. “ I do. Don’t be a chancer and get your takeaway at a kip. Find yourself a deadly chipper and have some craic.”
I swear the man is speaking English , yet I have zero idea what he said, and judging by the look Zoe gives me, she doesn’t, either. In a stage whisper, she says, “ Craic ? Is that some kind of food? A deadly food? I’m guessing it’s crispy lamb tongue.”
I stage-whisper back, “ Or goat kidneys.”
The ambassador does that hearty laugh again, and Evan chuckles as well. Neither of them seem to have any clue how much Zoe and I don’t actually want to be standing next to each other, let alone being on the same plane. Or in the same state. So kudos to us for being able to fake it so well.
“ He’s saying to not take a risk and get your takeout at a dive,” the Ambassador says. “ Find yourself a fantastic restaurant and have some fun.”
Evan nods. “ Oh , but if you really want a treat, try black and white pudding.”
See ? Sometimes you get great advice when you ask for it.
We continue to chat with the group until the attendant announces that we are ready for takeoff, which is about the time that both Zoe’s and my secure phones ping with the mission briefing. The ambassador says that they need to have a thirty-minute meeting and will have it at the front of the plane, and that he knows that me and Zoe need to meet also, and that we can do it at the back of the plane.
The flight attendant shows us to our area as the plane starts slowly taxiing toward the runway. She tells us that the plane is used most often for flights overseas during the night, so the seats can transform fully into beds, and that she will be back with bedding after our meeting.
She also says that there are dividers that close off our two seats from the rest of the plane, and she closes them as she leaves. I vow to make friends with every single ambassador to the United States who flies on a private jet so I can increase my chances of traveling like this again.
The plane engines get louder as they pick up speed, and we take a seat. Before long, the plane’s wheels lift off the runway, and the noise quiets soon after. There is a small table between our two chairs, and Zoe pulls a tablet from her bag, sets it on the table, and says, “ Do you want to look at this instead of our phones?”
A mental image fills my mind of the two of us leaning in as we look at the same tablet, our faces close, heat building between us at our proximity, and I immediately divert my thoughts. I pull out a tablet from my bag and hold it up, giving it a little shake. “ Nope . I’ve got my own.”
We both connect through our secure phone lines and pull up the briefing. Zoe , in her need to always be fifty steps ahead, scrolls through the briefing, and says, “ It looks like I’ll be impersonating an international art appraiser when we get to Belgrade . Eliza Cholmondeley , code name ‘ Mona Liza .’ She’s going to be appraising the entire collection at the fortress where the sculpture is. When she flies in, the CIA will delay her in customs so we can show up in her place.”
I glance at Zoe . She’s holding the locket of the necklace she always wears between her thumb and finger. I noticed she tends to do that when she’s reading or thinking, and it draws my eyes to the little dip at the base of her neck. She’s always had a great neck.
A moment later, she says, “ Apparently , Eliza is well-known in name, but rarely in photos. She and the owner of the mansion have never met, so all I have to do is wear a wig and they think I’ll pass for her. Except I don’t speak Serbian … Oh ! Perfect . Neither does she. She’s from the UK and will be speaking English . And it looks like there’s a Serbian native who’s a CIA operative who will be meeting us on the ground. ”
She also says things like “ I bet we can pull off a secret art exchange during the Venice Biennale ,” and “ Looks like we’ll be in the historic part of Ankara .” What I’m concerned with is the mission we are going to be doing tomorrow morning . As in half a day from now. Everything else can wait.
To get Zoe back on track, I say, “ It looks like the gallery owner in Dublin who is on board with us planting a tracker is out of the country right now. And she really doesn’t want her employees to know we are planting the tracker because they are quote, ‘talkers,’ and she doesn’t want her employees to have information that the suspects will want to extract from them if they come by to steal it. She says the less they know, the better. Good choice on her part.”
“ So we’ll have to plant the tracker covertly.” Zoe quietly scrolls on her tablet for a moment while I keep reading.
“ Okay ,” I say. “ There are security cameras in the room, but the gallery owner has access to those from where she’ll be, so we don’t need to worry about disabling them. She’ll pull the footage just in case her employees suspect anything and go back to look at it.”
Zoe nods. “ The gallery opens at nine, with the first group tour at nine-fifteen. What do you say we join the tour? Then we can just be stragglers and get the tracker planted.”
I check the address of the gallery to see how long it’ll take to get there from the airport and what our transportation options are. “ Okay , we can take a taxi or— Oh , they even have Ubers . Or we can take the shuttle that will get us pretty close. There’s one that leaves every fifteen minutes. It looks like whichever we choose, we’ll need to plan forty-five minutes or so to get from the airport to the gallery. Nine -fifteen should work and still give us plenty of time to get breakfast from the Blarney Bean Café that overlooks the gallery.”
Zoe rolls her eyes.
“ Hey ,” I say and pat my stomach. “ This body needs fuel regularly. Speaking of which, do you think the flight attendant is bringing us dinner? Snacks ?” Maybe I should’ve picked up food on my way to the airport.
“ Okay , I’m buying gallery tickets.” Her fingers fly across her tablet for a bit, then she pauses. “ So , what’s our cover?”
I say, “ Not spouses,” at the same time Zoe says “ Not a married couple.” Good .
“ Siblings ?” I suggest. “ One of us can be visiting from out of town.”
Zoe nods. “ That works. Siblings annoy each other, right?” She works her way through the form, mumbling things as she enters them. “ Two tickets… Person one’s name: Shauna Glazier .”
“ Shauna ? Shauna ?”
Zoe looks up at me, eyes narrowed. “ That’s my cover name. What’s wrong with Shauna ?”
“ Nothing . Shauna’s great. But generally, operatives choose something closer to their actual name. Like , I don’t know, Zora or Zuri or… Oh , Chloe rhymes with Zoe . Do you know what? ‘ Zero Chill ’ rhymes with Zoe Steele . Shauna does not.”
Zoe narrows her eyes at me like she’s telling me I don’t get to have an opinion about her cover name. And she’s right— I don’t. “ I’m Zoe all the time,” she says. “ Sometimes , I just want to be Shauna .”
“ Fair enough.”
She starts typing. “ I’m putting you in as Linus Lightweight .”
“ Now see? An insult only works if it hits home.” I flex my biceps. “‘ Lightweight ’ doesn’t really do it for me. It’s the equivalent of me saying that I don’t like your purple hair. You don’t have purple hair, so it doesn’t work as an insult.”
“ You’re right. You’re now ‘ Lenny Laggard .’ Because when it comes to which of us wins, you are always lagging behind.”
“ Ouch . That hurt.”
She licks her fingertip and then draws an invisible tally mark in the air. “ I’ll take that as another win for me.”
There’s a knock on the divider between our small area and the rest of the plane, and I quickly turn off the screen of my tablet before Saoirse slides the divider open, her arms laden with bedding. “ Are you ready for me to set things up for you?”
I nod and put my tablet in my bag. “ Yeah , I think we’re all finished up here.”
As the flight attendant is unfolding the chairs into beds and putting on bedding, Zoe says, “ You know, this winning streak is just really fueling me. I think I’m going to keep it going by falling asleep first.”
I shake my head. “ I’m a twin and I have three older brothers, so I learned to fall asleep in even the most chaotic of situations. You’re not going to continue that streak— I’ve been training for this since birth.”
“ You’re a twin?” There’s something in the way Zoe asks it that I can’t quite put my finger on.
“ Yep .” Somehow , I’ve never mentioned that to her.
“ Identical ?”
“ Miles wishes. No . Not even close.” I turn to Saoirse . “ Which of us do you think will fall asleep first?”
She stops spreading the blanket over Zoe’s bed and studies both of us, a finger tapping her lip. Looking at Zoe , she asks, “ Siblings ?” When Zoe shakes her head, Saoirse says, “ I have three kids. When the oldest was an only child, he fell asleep for naps the fastest, hands down. My youngest, though? He was the one who could fall asleep anywhere. So this early in the day, while on an airplane?” She holds her hand out flat and tips it in both directions. “ It could go either way.”
She places a pillow on each bed, then says, “ Okay , I think you’re all set,” as she’s lowering the window covers. “ The dimmer’s on that wall, and there’s a bathroom right there and it’s big enough to change in if you’d like. Do you need anything before I go?”
“ Snacks ?” I ask.
“ Something he can eat in bed,” Zoe says. “ Preferably something that makes a lot of crumbs. ”
Saoirse leaves to get snacks, and I motion to the bathroom. “ Are you going to change? Ladies first.”
“ Ledger , we are on a plane with people we don’t know, and I’m sharing a room with you . No , I am not going to change.” She pulls a small bag from her duffel. “ I am going to brush my teeth, though.”
Ten minutes later, the lights are out, and Zoe and I are both in our beds. Compared to normal beds, they aren’t the most comfortable things ever. Compared to the seats on a regular airplane, they’re downright glorious. The space is dark enough to be the middle of the night, even though I know the sun won’t set for a while.
I do what I normally do when I need to fall asleep. I clear my mind, breathe slowly, and focus on lowering my heart rate. Before long, I’m turning over in the narrow bed, trying to get comfortable. Adjusting my pillow. Staring up at the dark ceiling. Letting my mind wander to a million different things.
If I had known last night that I would have to go to sleep before seven p.m., I would’ve woken up earlier today. Yes , I can fall asleep anytime, anyplace, but generally, that happens after having been in the field enough to be exhausted. Last night, after our footvolley-pickleball game, I got into bed before midnight and I woke up on my own ten minutes before my seven a.m. alarm went off. So I’m a little too well-rested.
It doesn’t help to know that Zoe Steele is just three feet away. Close enough that I can hear her breathing. Almost see her silhouette as she lays on her side. The rise and fall of her chest. Feel her nearness. It doesn’t make for optimal sleeping conditions.
After a bit, Zoe asks in a quiet voice, “ Are you awake?”
“ No .”
“ Same here. I’m fast asleep.”
My normal reaction, and the reaction I’d have if it was anyone else in this space with me would be to say, “ I have a deck of cards, do you want to play a game of Gin Rummy or Golf ?” Or maybe see if anyone else in the other compartments is awake and wants to play Hearts or Poker or Euchre .
But , put your hand on a hot stove and get burnt once, you know not to put your hand on the stove again. So I stay quiet. The competition is still on, and I’m going to fall asleep first.