“I’ve never heard of him,” said Anthony.
Elliot fell back on the couch, covered his face with a pillow, and screamed.
Anthony ignored him. “Bea, I have a plan. Cicero will be present for the rocket launch—you know he likes to be hands-on. If I go alone, I can infiltrate the base.”
“Alone?!?” spluttered Elliot. “You can’t be serious. You need backup, IT support, at least some kind of extraction team on the perimeter...”
Anthony ignored him. “This is the first time we’ve had a guaranteed location for Cicero—”
“Are you... oh my God. See, this is exactly why you should talk to us. We’ve had location information on Cicero at least half a dozen times—”
“As I was saying,” continued Anthony, raising his voice, “this is too good of an opportunity to miss. Cicero has wreaked havoc long enough, and it’s time to end his reign of potential destruction.”
“And I’ve been saying, we take down O’Leary at the same time, or it’s pointless,” snapped Elliot. “Cicero is nothing but a figurehead! O’Leary’s in charge, he’s the one we should target!”
Anthony raised an eyebrow. “And you think that because...?”
Elliot waved the card. “Do you have any idea who Archibald O’Leary is?”
“A person of interest? Nothing more, surely.”
“A person of—he’s the world’s most acclaimed robotics inventor!” howled Elliot, waving the card even more frantically. “He figured out how to create clean energy at a fraction of the cost, and used advanced technology to give every house in sub-Saharan Africa clean, running water for pennies a month! He’s built free, highly rated schools in most of Central Asia, and he single-handedly paid for every school-age child in North America to have both free lunches and internet access year-round.”
“Sounds like an upstanding guy,” said Anthony. “Why exactly are you so concerned about him?”
“Because he’s also the one who bailed out an international criminal whose sole goal was to turn the sky pink. Which, by the way, is a plan so colossally doomed for failure I’m still not entirely sure why you bothered to stop him at all.”
Anthony’s eyes narrowed. “I should think stopping a madman from taking over the world would be the obvious choice. Even for an analyst.”
“HOW DOES TURNING THE SKY PINK HELP ANYONE TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD? Like, maybe if you’re an undercover flamingo...”
“Elliot, we’ve discussed this,” said Bea mildly, but Anthony heard it as a rebuke all the same. Terrible, really, the way he relished it. He was a terrible man, absolutely. It was still delicious.
“I had no idea analysts were so excitable,” said Anthony, making sure it positively dripped with scorn.
Most people, when faced with Anthony Dare staring them down, would have immediately backed down, looked away, become so flustered that they forgot how standing worked, possibly how to speak whatever language their mothers or fathers had taught them. Some would remember extremely important appointments in far-off locations that had begun ten minutes ago.
Elliot, however—didn’t. He stared Anthony down, his mouth a set line, his jaw taut. There was a flush to his cheeks, of course, and his fingers twisted together as if he was rather flustered.
But he didn’t look away.
Anthony’s heart made a rather odd little jump in his chest.
Oh dear, thought Anthony, hazily recognizing the jump for what it was.
Elliot might have been excitable and annoying and very stubbornly present, but he was also rather handsome.
It changes nothing, Anthony told himself, quite firmly. Capturing Cicero is the important goal.
Elliot cleared his throat; this time, his voice was calmer and measured. “O’Leary is the key to getting Cicero and keeping him off the playing field. He’s way too smart to connect himself with Cicero publicly—especially since Cicero’s plans are so incredibly stupid. It’d be like... scientific suicide. But if we can establish an actual financial and operational connection between the two of them, we can arrest them both, ending the cycle.”
“What cycle?” demanded Anthony.
Elliot’s glare was glorious. “Every time you arrest Cicero—he’s out before the end of the week. Sometimes before you’ve even left the building.”
Anthony winced, remembering that particular mission. “That was only one time—”
“He can’t do it if we arrest them both. Not even O’Leary is that powerful,” continued Elliot.
“So you’ve been saying,” murmured Bea.
Anthony frowned, trying to remember the last time someone had argued with him about Cicero. Never, really. Anthony knew the most about Cicero, understood his thought process best. It was why he’d taken the lead on every Cicero mission for the last fifteen years. “Perhaps you’re right. But that kind of mission would take a great deal more preparation than we have time to arrange. The rocket launch is in two days. Speed is of the essence—”
“And we would have had more time if you’d given us everything from the start,” snapped Elliot. “If we can prove that O’Leary’s drones are the same ones on Cicero’s rocket—”
“Elliot, I understand completely,” Bea assured him.
“Thank you,” said Elliot, sounding relieved. “So you agree, we need to focus on O’Leary.”
“Absolutely. Top priority,” Bea continued.
Anthony tensed. “Bea, it could be years before we learn Cicero’s plans in advance again—”
“Catching Cicero and keeping him incarcerated are top priority as well,” said Bea. “That they’re both in the same part of the world is quite fortuitous.”
Which didn’t sound very good at all. Anthony tensed.
“That’s why you’re going together.”
“What?!?!” blurted out Anthony and Elliot simultaneously.
“Quite fortuitous, really,” said Bea, the epitome of calm as she sat down on the couch and reached for the teapot. “Anthony Dare, meet your new field partner, Elliot Bichler. Tea?”
Chapter Two
Elliot didn’t believe his eyes when he stepped out of the private terminal at Dulles Airport and onto the tarmac. Or his ears; the golden private jet sitting some hundred yards away was far louder than anything had the right to be. Particularly something that sleek and sophisticated, something that couldn’t possibly get them to Eastern Europe in one hop.
Just a quick trip, Elliot, you’ll be back before you know it, Bea had said as she’d ushered him out of her office. Anthony had already been digging in one of her not-so-secret cabinets as if it’d been his office and not hers. Undoubtedly looking for something more substantive than tea; didn’t all field agents drink like fish? Especially given how he’d made his opinion about Elliot joining the mission extremely clear.
This is a terrible idea, Bea, he’d said. Right in front of Elliot, too.
Of course, the fact that Elliot agreed with him was beside the point. Not that he’d admit it to Anthony. Especially since trying to convince Bea that it was a terrible idea hadn’t gone very well at all.