ES, Whit, I understand the situation quite clearly, perhaps better than you.”

Professor Mallory sat at his desk in his study at Harrowsfield, attempting to light his pipe at the same time he was clenching the phone against his cheek with his left arm.

“I took the action that I deemed most prudent.” Mallory paused as a string of words came over the line from the obviously upset Irishman.

Mallory finally got the pipe going and took a moment to suck greedily on the stem. He flicked the match out and dropped it on his desk, where it continued to smolder.

“I can’t see where it’s robbed you of any necessary manpower, but if you require reinforcements I can have them to you tomorrow. Yes, yes, well I can do the math too. You have four men for the outside and then the three of you on the inside. If you think that’s insufficient?” He paused and listened some more. “Yes, I have talked to Regina, and no, she doesn’t know about it. What really would be the point? Have the final details been worked out? I see. Projection equipment?” He listened some more. “Yes, I suppose that would come in rather handy. All right. Yes, just let me know.”

Mallory put the phone down and puffed on his pipe. He looked up to see Liza standing by the doorway.

“Problems?” she asked.

Mallory cleared his throat. “Nothing unmanageable. Whit is a bit put out, but he’ll get over it.”

Liza frowned. “We’re too close to D-day, aren’t we, to have anyone put out over anything?”

“It’ll be fine, Liza, don’t worry.”

“And you’re telling me you’re not concerned?”

“I’m always concerned until my people are back here safely. But they have everything under control and the plan is a sound one. In fact, Regina came up with a new wrinkle that I think will work out quite nicely.”

“There is one flaw in your plan,” pointed out Liza.

“No plan is perfect, and we had to put this one together rather on the fly.”

“But they aren’t even aware of the potential pitfall. You know I disagreed with you on that.”

“Without that we wouldn’t have gotten our shot at Kuchin.”

“Yes, but that might be the difference between ‘your people’ coming home safely or not.”

“I am quite aware of the risks,” Mallory said a bit indignantly.

“You are, but they aren’t, not fully.”

“There is inherent risk in everything we do.”

“Sometimes I wonder.”

“Wonder what?”

“We sit here in our cozy old English country house and plan these things and then send them out to execute our plans.”

“They participate in creating those plans.”

“Good night, Professor.”

She left Mallory to angrily puff on his pipe, until he knocked out the wedge of tobacco, stuffed the pipe in his jacket pocket, and sat there moodily in his old leather chair.

Whit sat gazing at the phone. Sometimes he just didn’t get Mallory. No, that was wrong. He almost never understood the man. The professor had handed Whit another task at a critical time in their mission and the Irishman didn’t appreciate it one bit. Babysitting Bill Young was not something he’d signed on for. He pocketed his phone and marched down the hallway.

“Give me the key, Niles,” he said to the man stationed there, and he handed Whit the key.

Niles Jansen knocked on the door and called out, “Away!” Then he pulled his gun and pointed it at the door as Whit inserted the key. The door clicked open and Whit stood just inside the doorway.

Shaw stood against the far wall, staring back at him.

“Ready to let me go?”

“Sit,” ordered Whit.

Shaw looked at the gun pointed at him and slowly walked to the chair and sat down. Whit moved forward a few inches.

“You know, you look familiar,” said Shaw.

“I look like a lot of guys.”

“So what can I do for you?”

“You can tell me what you’re really doing in France.”

“I’m on holiday. Why are you here?”

Whit leaned against the wall. “Lobbyist from D.C. who can scale walls and disarm people? You really think we’re buying that?”

Shaw didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I’m a retired lobbyist. And I was supposed to be returning to the States to be with my son. You obviously had a different idea.”

“You look too young to be retired.”

“I made my money and I wanted out. Is that a crime? Is that the reason you bashed me in the head and are holding me prisoner here?”

“Like you were told before, chill and you’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but what about Janie Collins?”

“Who?”

Shaw crossed his arms and studied the other man. “What are you planning?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But you’re working together.”

Whit shook his head slowly. “Again, don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do. I told Janie I was a retired lobbyist. I scaled her wall and disarmed her. No one else knew about that.”

“Those things are easy enough to find out.”

“No they’re not. And why would you want to find them out?”

“So you’re not going to tell me why you’re here?”

“You first.”

“Then you can just rot in here.” Whit turned to leave.

Shaw hesitated and said, “Take care with Waller, he’s not who you think he is.”

Whit slowly turned back around. “What the hell do you know about it?”

“More than you, apparently. By the way, I just remembered where I saw you. Kayaking. You were tailing us. You’re after Waller, aren’t you?”

“Don’t know what you’re smoking.”

“He’s a dangerous guy.”

“Really?”

Shaw knew he shouldn’t do it, but his concern for Janie overrode his professional instincts for secrecy.

“Waller runs a global prostitution ring. He takes women from Asia and Africa and sells them into slavery in the West.”

When this revelation only raised mild interest in Whit’s features, he added, “He was also trying to sell uranium to some Islamic fundamentalists before he apparently killed them all after a disagreement.”

“Terrorists?” exclaimed Whit.

“They probably screwed him somehow and he made them pay for it. He’s a bad guy from top to bottom. And he has an eye for Janie, although I guess now I know that’s not her real name. Whatever you guys have planned, you better account for Waller figuring some of it out beforehand. And you better start worrying that Janie doesn’t disappear before you even get to your ground zero.”

“And why are you telling me this?”

“I think you know why. If he gets Janie it’s all over.”

Whit slammed the door behind him and locked it. Shaw heard the two men outside talking fast. Then he heard footsteps as the men moved off.

He sat down in the chair. His initial instincts had been right and wrong. Janie Collins was not who she claimed to be. But she was not here to interfere with Shaw’s mission; she hadn’t even known about it, apparently. They’d gotten suspicious about Shaw, but didn’t know why he was here. They had been working at cross-purposes. So now the questions were clear. Why were they after Waller? And how were they planning to do it?

Shaw looked around at the four walls. He needed to get out of here more than ever. He had a sinking feeling that whatever plan they had, it would not be good enough. And chances were very good that Waller would kill them instead.