Page 24 of To Catch a Sub

“When will you get here?” Andrei asked. Tonight was the handoff—Rolf had been Dom in residence this past week, and Andrei was on next week. They had a fourth Dom who was…

Well.

“Tomorrow,” Landon said. “Late afternoon.”

“I’ll move my flight.”

Andrei pushed away from the wall. “We don’t need you here to supervise.”

“I’m a senior agent on the project.” Rolf’s words weren’t meant as a taunt, but Landon had a funny feeling Andrei had taken them that way, based on the way the other man stiffened.

“You either think Landon and I are stupid or incapable. I assure you, I’m neither.”

“No, I don’t think that.”

“Then go.” Andrei gestured towards the door.

“No. This is an unexpected and unplanned use of our facility. I’ll stay.”

Landon had no interest in listening to them fight. “I’m going to go. I’ll see you—” He didn’t specific who he meant with the word “you” “—tomorrow.”

“Good night, Agent Malik.”

Andrei relaxed as he turned to the camera. “Can’t wait to meet your girl, Landon.”

Landon closed the computer with a snap.

Colette wasn’t his girl.

But she was going to be his sub.

SIX

The British Museum

Several years earlier

“Colette,” he repeated. “It’s nice to meet you.”

She used the French pronunciation of the name and he did the same. The first vowel was an “uh” sound rather than “o”, with the emphasis on the first syllable.

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” she said.

“Thank you for the list.”

“You’re welcome. There’s a digital version too. Someone higher up than me will email it to you.”

“Higher up that you?”

“I’m just an intern. Technically a documentation assistant. I’m in university for gemology. And art history.” She paused, lips pursed. “And archaeology.”

He almost said “me, too,”—and he had studied archaeology—but he’d let himself get distracted from work enough for one day. He settled with saying, “Impressive.”

“Thank you.”

“Someone else is going to email me a copy, but you’re the one who actually put together the list.”

She hesitated. “Really, I just gathered the information and collated it.”