“Good memory!” Katrina was carrying a short wooden dowel with dozens of event badges and lanyards hanging from it. She pulled off a badge and gave it to Brice.
“Thank you, milady. And four more for my people.”
She hesitated, but Brice didn’t miss a beat. “All access, please.” He winked at her. “It’s going to be a long day.”
Katrina pulled off four more badges and gave them to Kendra, Lynch, Jessie, and Stevie. She squeezed Brice’s arm as she backed away. “I’ll be in touch about the schedule. We’ll have some fun things for you to do this afternoon. Maybe you’ll do a bit with Tom Hanks?”
“Hey, I love Tom. Let me know!”
She disappeared down a corridor.
Kendra only waited a few seconds to make sure the woman was gone before turning and hugging Brice. “That was amazing!” she whispered.
Lynch shook his hand. “That was every bit as entertaining as your movies. Thank you.”
Brice turned and was now shaking Stevie’s hand. “Jessie has told me some amazing things about you, young lady. I’d love to sit down and talk to you sometime.”
Stevie smiled and blushed. “Uh, sure. Whenever.”
Jessie leaned close to him. “Thank you. I really didn’t think you’d come.”
Brice kissed her forehead. “I didn’t know if I could until early this morning. I was supposed to be shooting today, but the production agreed to move the schedule around for me. Theyswapped it out for a night shoot tonight. I fly back to Rome late this afternoon.”
Jessie turned to the others. “I sent him a text at oneA.M., and here he is, all the way from Italy. We owe him.”
Kendra smiled. “We’re very grateful. I don’t think he’d do that for just anyone, Jessie.”
Brice rubbed his hands together. “Okay, so why am I here? What’s on the agenda?”
“We’re looking for a robot,” Kendra said.
He just stared at her for a moment. “Is this a bit? Are we on the Jumbotron in there right now?”
“This isn’t a bit,” Stevie said as she stepped toward Brice. “This is the most important thing I’ll ever do in my life, and someone has turned it into something terrible. We need to find it and stop it. There are antiterrorist units searching all over this place, but I think I have a good shot at finding him before they do.”
“I think so, too,” Kendra said. “That’s why we’re here.”
Brice looked at Jessie, and she nodded her confirmation. He turned back to Stevie. “Well, I went to a sci-fi movie premiere at the Chinese Theatre a while back that had some pretty amazing robots walking the red carpet.”
“I saw that,” Stevie said. “Mine’s much better.”
Brice smiled. “Okay, then what do you need us to do?”
Stevie unzipped her knapsack and reached inside. “I’ll tell you . . .”
Five minutes later, Kendra and Lynch walked through the stadium’s main concourse, past the food vendors and booths selling event T-shirts and hats.
Lynch looked down at the satellite signal meter Stevie had given him. “So let me get this straight. This won’t necessarily take us to Archie, but it might lead the way to Vlad Korkil.”
Kendra nodded. “Yes, Stevie says if he contacts a certain communications satellite that Archie uses, this signal meter will go off. We then might be able to use this to home in on Korkil’s location.”
Lynch was busy familiarizing himself with the meter’s displays. “Interesting that Stevie picked me to find Korkil instead of her robot.”
Kendra shrugged. “She’s a genius. She knew you were the one who would most effectively deal with Korkil if you found him. You just give off that vibe.”
He was still dealing with the meter. “Vibe?”
“You know, the one with a spot in your high school yearbook for ‘most likely to kill a man.’ ”
