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“You’re early,” he said, his clipped English accent definitely Bond-like.
“Ten minutes,” Aidan replied. “Customs was efficient and traffic was light. We can talk while you get dressed. Unless you have company?”
Aidan’s words were more a statement than a question.
Sure enough, the door opened wider and an attractive woman, clearly just dressed, slithered out the door, head lowered. With a muffled “bye” to Philip, she hurried down the hall and disappeared.
Philip glanced briefly after her, his expression saying that he could have made good use of those ten minutes. Then, with a shrug, he swung open the door and gestured for Aidan and Marc to come in.
“Next time hang a sock on your door,” Aidan advised, tossing down his coat.
“Very amusing.” Philip’s gaze shifted to Marc. “Definitely Aidan’s brother. I see the resemblance.” He extended his hand. “Good to meet you, Marc.”
“Likewise.” Marc met Philip’s handshake. “Sorry we interrupted.”
“I stand corrected,” Philip replied. “You have better manners than
Aidan.”
“That’s because this is Marc’s first exposure—if you’ll excuse the pun—to your private life,” Aidan retorted. “Give him time.”
“He won’t be seeing my private life. He’ll be seeing me do my job.” Philip’s entire demeanor had changed. Gone was the lighthearted banter. Abruptly, he was all MI6, a total professional, bath towel or not.
“I never assumed otherwise.” Aidan was surveying the room. Philip had brought their special rig that allowed them to assemble six iPad Pros into a frame that formed a large video screen. The three of them would sit in front of this while Terri took them through the debriefing.
“Bring us up to speed from your end while I set this up and you throw on some clothes,” Aidan said to Philip. “Then we’ll connect up with the rest of the team.”
Philip pulled out a sweater and slacks, dressing rapidly as he spoke. “You know as much as I do,” he said. “I’ve got nothing solid. From my interviews with the waitstaff at Hofbräuhaus, Lauren arrived alone and enjoyed a beer and a pretzel. Some guy chatted her up at the table. They left separately, but he followed quickly after her. She paid in cash. Her credit card hasn’t been used since her disappearance. Terri had me digitally surveil the surrounding area outside the restaurant. Last I spoke to her, she was still doing analysis.”
Aidan nodded as he completed his task. “We’ll see what she’s come up with at this videoconference.”
As Marc and Philip pulled up chairs and settled themselves in them, Aidan whipped out his own iPad Pro, positioned it on the desk, and fired it up. With a few clicks of the mouse, he opened a Facetime-like app that Terri had written. The big difference was that this was fully encrypted so that prying eyes and ears were locked out.
Instantly, both Terri’s and Simone’s faces appeared on individual screens of the panoramic setup.
“I’m early,” Aidan began. “Sorry.”
“No earlier than usual,” Terri replied. “I signed on five minutes ago.”
“As did I,” Simone said.
“Good.” Aidan shot a meaningful sideways look at Philip, who ignored him.
After clearing his throat, Aidan continued. “Marc, meet Terri and Simone, the other two members of my team. Ladies, this is my brother, Marc. As you know, he’ll be staying on in Europe to work with Philip.”
Marc, Terri, and Simone exchanged greetings.
“Terri,” Aidan instructed, “please record this video chat and have Donovan transcribe it all. Place all info on a secure hard drive that everyone on the team has access to and notify us when there’s a meaningful update. We’re racing the clock and we don’t have time to write reports and summaries. We’ll have to let Donovan do this for us.”
“Already done and in progress,” Terri replied.
“Then the ball’s in your court. We’re listening.”
Nodding, Terri clicked her mouse and a new image appeared on her screen—the image of a man. “This is a cell phone picture of the guy who went up to Lauren in the restaurant.”
Marc looked startled. “How did you get this?”
The rest of the team sat back and let Terri do her thing, although they’d heard this explanation so often they were bored.
