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Cassandra: No, I’ll do it. You handle the storm and our transport. You told me there was only so much you could do from here and that means we have to go to the island and face Grandfather down.
She paused, and Nicholas heard the vicious excitement in her voice.
Cassandra: We’ll make the old fool move the storm to hit Washington. If he doesn’t, we’ll kill him and do it ourselves.
They heard a manic laugh.
Cassandra: It’ll be fun. Imagine the destruction we will bring to D.C., their precious FBI headquarters, and the White House. They thought Beijing was hard hit? That was nothing compared to what we will do. We need to move fast. You know they’ll be back, and probably before tomorrow morning.
Ajax: If they come, Harry and his men will kill them. They’re not like those idiots in Venice.
Cassandra: I wish I could believe that, but I doubt it, because . . .
Nicholas said, “Sorry, Mike, no more, they’re out of range.” He threw some euros on the table and they headed back toward the car.
They drove away, past the square and the palazzo, back down the mountain road.
Mike said, “Nicholas, she’s going to kill Kitsune. We need to go in and get her.”
“We will.”
“I hope your plan is good. You heard them—they’re going to position a storm to wipe out Washington, too.” Mike felt equal parts fear and anger. “But first they’re going to have to go to this ‘island’ where their grandfather is. Is he the mastermind? He’s the one who controls the storms? Evidently so. He’s turned against them?”
“Possibly. Whatever. Now they hate him and they’re going to kill him.”
“Nicholas, where are you going? Oh, I see, we’re going into the palazzo the same way Kitsune did.”
“We have her tracker. We’ll find her. Now, it took less than half an hour for her to get into place before you heard the fight and saw her captured.”
“Right. So all we have to do is get in there, grab her and Grant, and get out before they realize we’re even there. We can do it.”
He cupped her face in his hand, kissed her fast and hard. “You’re my grand girl, you know that? Now we need to hide the car, it’s too open here, and we don’t want anyone coming down the mountain to see it.”
While Nicholas drove, Mike pulled her vest and tactical gear from her go-bag, started getting into them. “You and Adam deserve a medal for the way the Faraday bag worked. We’re going to have to remember that little trick. It’s very convenient.”
She watched him as he turned a hairpin corner. The last of the sun shined briefly on his face. He needed a shave. She laid her palm on his thigh, felt the muscles tighten. “You’re pretty grand yourself. Wait, Nicholas, you just passed a small dirt road, looks like it leads into an olive grove. It might work for the car.”
He backed up and turned onto a dirt path rather than a road. “Yes, perfect. Good eye.” The car rumbled over the small track until he was sure they were in far enough not to be seen from the road. Unless, of course, someone was looking for them. He looked over his shoulder and nodded, satisfied.
The sun was setting as they climbed out. Nicholas put on his tactical gear and hit his comms.
“Adam, are you ready? You have eyes on us?”
“It takes more than five minutes to redirect a satellite,” Adam said. “Hang on, we almost have it.”
“Kitsune’s in imminent danger. We have to go in now. Do it as fast as you can.”
Adam’s excited voice came across the comms. “We’ve got Kitsune’s tracker live, I’m sending the coordinates to your phone. She hasn’t moved since we turned it on. She’s definitely still in there. You should be able to use the phone to locate her.”
There was a moment’s silence, then Adam said, “We’ll be online in one minute, watching from the sky.”
“Good. Shout when you’re ready for us to move in.”
They set off at a jog, through the brush of the olive grove, angling up the hill, back toward the tunnel.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Cassandra left Ajax at the computer screen, talking to himself as he tried to figure out how to move the storm’s trajectory. She went to Lilith’s rooms and grabbed her laptop. She already had her cell phone. She’d get rid of them, then she and Ajax had a long flight ahead of them. They’d depose the old king. Her mother would approve, she would, Cassandra knew it to her soul. She knew Grandfather wouldn’t be willing to do what was necessary. He was old; he was fearful. She and Ajax would right the ship.
