An Affair of Vengeance by Jamie Michele Read Free Book Online

pick.”
    “Protocol, please.”
    She ran her tongue over her teeth but fished her wireless cell phone earpiece out of her bag. She slipped it over her ear so that if someone noticed that they were both talking, it might reasonably look like they were each talking on their respective phones. They were completely alone in a sealed vehicle, so it was a silly farce, though not worth arguing over.
    “Better?”
    “Yes. And of course I’m tracking it. Your call was anything but subtle. And now I’d like to know to whom you’ve gifted such a valuable piece of equipment.”
    “I had the button, the lip gloss, and the pick to choose from. He was fiddling with a pick when I first saw him. If he finds it, he’ll only think it’s one of his. He’ll toss it without a second thought. We can pick it up once it stops moving.”
    “The signal has stagnated.”
    “So he’s gone to ground for the night. It’s late. He’s probably asleep. Where did he go?”
    “Who is he?”
    She wanted information, but Mason never gave anything away for free. “A Scottish man named McCrea who met with Serge Penard tonight in La Banque’s most private room.”
    Mason flipped a page of his newspaper, seemingly engrossed in it. “And they discussed?”
    “I didn’t hear their whole conversation. Mostly the end, after McCrea pulled a knife on Penard. Penard gave him a new contact: Ménellier. It sounds like McCrea is going to Ménellier for something big. Penard couldn’t supply it, so it’s more than the usual crates of Chinese rifles and Afghan hash.”
    Mason didn’t respond, merely kept reading his paper. Their late-night debriefings often ended in such a manner, with him abruptly ignoring her and her exiting at the stop nearest her apartment, where she’d write up her official report and wait for official orders. But this was her first real chance at chasing Kral. She couldn’t let this go so easily.
    “I need to stay on McCrea to find out what he’s buying,” she pressed. “It could be anything. The British government will need to know that one of their citizens is sourcing something large from Ménellier, probably for import. I know you need to run this through HQ, but we have to fast-track this. I’m sure McCrea will meet with Ménellier tomorrow. We need to be there when he does.”
    He glanced sidelong at her and then looked back at his paper. “It is not our job to worry about the Brits. They have their own intelligence collection agencies. If they wanted to know what this McCrea person was up to, they’d have their own sources placed to find out.”
    True. For better or for worse, the CIA wasn’t keen on sharing intel with other nations, even friendly ones like the United Kingdom. But that wasn’t really why she wanted to spy on McCrea. She’d have to play her last card to make Mason believe in the new direction she wanted to take the mission. Doing so would expose her hand, but she saw no alternative.
    The train slowed as it neared a station. Doors swept open, admitting no new passengers. She waited impatiently until the train was once again humming and rocking along the tracks. Breathing deeply, she said, “Penard indicated that Ménellier works for Lukas Kral.”
    Mason’s eyebrows flickered, just a bit. He was intrigued, then. Good.
    She kept talking. “I know that Ménellier and Kral are suspected of working together to bring illegal goods into Europe, but this could be our first chance to prove it.”
    “The administration has no desire to prove it.”
    She knew that already. “The administration may not have all the facts. If we can bring the director hard evidence of Kral’s culpability in the illegal transport of high-powered weaponry into Europe, our relationship with the British would compel him to stop treating Kral like a friend and initiate a federal investigation into his activities as they pertain to the United States.”
    “The president has more facts than you realize, and his facts lead him