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“I got the term,” Marc returned dryly. “It’s the game I’m lost about.”
Aidan provided a quick explanation.
“Nice,” Marc responded. “Share that with Ryan, Terri. He’ll love it.”
“Good idea.” Terri looked proud and pleased. “He, of all people, will appreciate the intricacies of the app.”
“Since the sky’s the limit, I suggest we hire both women I’ve selected,” Simone said. “One is more experienced in these types of operations, and the other speaks Albanian as well as Croatian. We have no idea the exact nature of the skills that will be required, or if we’ll need one or both of these candidates. I don’t want to take any chances by being short on resources in a crisis situation. Given that the kidnappers’ deadline is less than a week away, I’ll hire the two women for a full week.”
“Go for it,” Aidan agreed. “I need them to meet Philip and Marc in Munich ASAP.” He turned to the two men sitting alongside him. “You guys are going to have to bring Simone’s candidates up to speed and take it from there.”
“Done,” Marc replied.
“One last thing about what Philip and I need in addition to money—although we need plenty of that to grease the necessary palms,” Marc said. “We need tactical support—weapons, transportation, communications. The Albanians don’t play nice. Neither should we.”
“Good point,” Aidan responded. “Philip, can you arrange the transport and the weapons? Terri will wire the money to wherever you need it to go.”
“Not a problem,” Philip replied. “I have a weapons guy in Germany who can get us anything we want. As for transportation, I’ll get us a BMW 7 series—nothing too flashy, but it’ll handle well in a chase and move fast should we need it to.”
“Smart thinking,” Aidan said. “Marc, what are your current weapons of choice?”
“A Glock 27 nine-millimeter pistol and an H&K nine-millimeter MP5 submachine gun,” his brother replied.
“Those are easy enough to get,” Philip assured them.
“Good. Last thing up: communications,” Aidan said. “We need to talk once a day as a team. Philip, you need to pick the best time for your European team to talk, since the rest of us have more flexibility.”
Philip gave that a quick thought. “Let’s go for zero seven hundred hours Central European Time, which is zero one hundred hours Eastern Standard Time and twenty-two hundred hours Pacific Standard Time.”
“Seven a.m. in Croatia, one a.m. in Manhattan, and ten p.m. in Cali, respectively,” Aidan automatically translated aloud. “Everyone on board with that?”
There was agreement from all screens.
“On that topic, I’ve already overnighted secure iPhones to everyone,” Terri reported. “They’re preprogrammed with everyone’s cell numbers. I anticipated field operatives and included four extras for them, with only Marc’s and Philip’s numbers preprogrammed. They don’t need to know about the rest of us.”
“And that’s a wrap.” Aidan glanced at his watch. “I’ve got to make a couple of calls—one to Danijel Horvat and one to find out how my daughter’s flight went. I’m sure she kept the passengers on her flight highly entertained. After that, I’m heading over
to Hofbräuhaus to do a little recon of my own. I might get lucky. And FYI, I’ll be taking off for the States later this afternoon. So I won’t be reachable until I land. After that, I’m on call twenty-four seven, running the operation. Contact me in between our daily briefings as needed.”
His mouth set in a grim line. “Experience tells me that Pennington will be getting new demands from the kidnappers soon.”
Manhattan, New York
26 February
Monday, 4:25 a.m. local time
Ryan answered the phone on the fourth ring. “Shit, Marc, it’s four something in the morning. And I’m busy.”
“Then peel yourself off of Claire and get your head into work mode.”
Marc was referring to Claire Hedgleigh, the Forensic Instincts team’s claircognizant, as she termed herself. She hated the word psychic, although she’d resigned herself to being called that, since no one seemed to understand the difference. She and Ryan had a heated personal and work relationship, a love-hate thing that neither of them understood and had no desire to. It worked, it was hot, and it felt right.
What didn’t feel right, at least to Claire, was the casual banter Ryan had with Marc when it came to her sex life. Unlike Ryan, who had zero inhibitions, Claire was reserved and private by nature. Just the thought of Marc knowing she was naked in Ryan’s bed made her blush.
What didn’t feel right to Ryan was being interrupted when he had Claire in his bed. In fact, it really pissed him off.
“This had better be good,” he warned Marc.
