Epilogue
Twelve hours earlier:
Con finished uploadingthe documents to CCS and shut down his computer. He placed the flat and the two trackers into a portable Faraday case for the flight back to America. He didn’t want anything to compromise the original source of the material he processed and sent back to the States. He’d stopped looking at the documents and just scanned and sent. The sheer volume of information was astounding. The plane would be landing in an hour, and he had just enough time to pack up before the entire contingent would load up and leave. Dogs, cat, and all.
His phone rang, and he glanced down at the screen. He closed his eyes and counted to ten before answering. “Hi, Mom. I’m kind of busy.”
“Oh, dear, sorry to hear that.” Olivia Solomon sounded anything but sorry. “I’m calling in one of those chips, dear. There’s a ball in Monaco I need you to attend on behalf of the family.”
“I don’t know if I can get the time.”
“Do I need to call my contacts in Guardian?”
Con could see his mother’s eyebrows raise in his mind. “I’m a big boy. I can ask for time off.”
“Good. I’ll send you a copy of the invitation via email. Your older brother was going to attend, but the merger he’s working on is coming to a head.”
“Wait, when is this event?”
“Saturday night.”
“This Saturday?” Con’s shout brought Harbinger into the bedroom. He held up a finger to the assassin.
“Will that be a problem? I’ll have Darren book you a flight.”
“I’m in France.”
“Oh, well, all the better. Darren can book you a flight from there. I’ll have him call you to figure out the details. Thanks for this, darling.”
He started to say something but realized his mother had already hung up. Con turned to Harbinger. “Can I use your apartment until Friday?”
“Sure. You’re not going back to the States with us?”
“It would seem not. I need to attend a family function this weekend. Working from here would be easier. I’ll pop over to Monaco for the weekend and then head home on a commercial flight on Monday.”
Harbinger frowned at him. “Your family has functions in Monaco?”
Con snickered. “My family has functions everywhere.” He handed Harbinger the small Faraday case. “The flat and the trackers. Maybe our forensic people can determine where the trackers came from and why the phones appear to be manufactured with trackers. Man, this entire mission was nothing but crossed wires. Abrasha may or may not have killed his wife, but we do know she’s dead. But his dead wife already sent Ysabel the ring in the envelope. A fake funeral, arranged by Ysabel’s dead mom, is where a messenger delivers the envelope to Ysabel. Meanwhile, Pierre is working with Abrasha and screwing him on the side with Abrasha’s own daughter. Pierre arranges the kidnapping of Ysabel from Corsica or at least has knowledge of it. And after all that conniving, Pierre still gets gut shot by Abrasha.”
“Abrasha is a bloodthirsty mother fucker. Remember, he wasn’t the only one who wanted Pierre dead. I wanted to shoot Pierre. I couldn’t imagine Abrasha cared for Pierre’s manipulations any more than I did. We’ll get more answers, but not tonight.” Harbinger took the case. “I have to go load Spike into a carrier. It isn’t going to be easy.”
“Have Jinx do it,” Con called after him. Jinx was a savant with animals.
Con dropped his head. He didn’t want to go to Monaco. He wanted to continue the search for the assassin he’d met on that island. Oh, he was stealthy while poking around Guardian’s systems, but there was nothing about her. Nothing, which was the norm for the assassins. Nothing on that beautiful woman. “My name’s Centurion, but you can call me Ronnie.” Con could hear her voice in his thoughts. She had a smoking hot body, and he liked everything about the woman. She was intelligent, articulate, and jumped out of airplanes. The thrill of that high-altitude jump still coursed through his veins, and he couldn’t find out anything about her. He could ask, but … If she was married and had a family, he didn’t want anyone to know he had a thing for her. That would be something he’d never live down. Fury would make sure of it. Yeah, so not a damn thing to go on, and that was a challenge he wasn’t going to let go of.
He looked at his phone and pushed the number for his supervisor. “Hey, Jewell. Got a minute? I need to take this weekend off. Can that be arranged?”