Page 22 of Centurion

“I love you, Gabby. You deserve this.”

“I love you, too. Go back to work.”

“Meh, I might grab a quickie with my hubs. All this talk about melting might have revved my motor.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Well, then, go do that. I’ll call later.”

“No, you won’t, but I’ll call you. Love ya, bye!” The line went dead.

She tossed her katana again before sliding it back into its holster. A shower, a nap, and then some hot, melting kisses. Nothing like a solid strategy to set the day straight.

CHAPTER 8

Con watched Ronnie walk down the hall. He’d gotten too close. What in the hell did that mean? He waited until he heard the door somewhere at the end of that hall close before he made his way to where she told him the study was located.

“Wow,” he whispered as he walked into the room simply because the vast space seemed to earn reverence. Arched coves circled the room, all laden with books. Con glanced at the names. One entire arch was dedicated to the translated work of Plato. The next arch contained books on law from William Blackstone to the Codex of Justinian, authored by the Imperial Commission in 529 AD. He drifted by each alcove and marveled at the exquisite taste of the library. The commission of such a collection would have cost many millions of dollars because most of them appeared to be originals.

He turned to look at the expanse of the study fully. It was unbelievably vast. He couldn’t read all the books in the room before he died as an old, old man. But, oh, dude, would he love to try. He made it to the huge desk that sat in the middle of the round room. The solid wood was hand engraved with scrolling and detailing that would take years to complete. He pulled backthe chair, looking for an electrical outlet. There was none to be found. He put his computer case down on the polished wood and opened the drawer on the right. It revealed a panel with not only outlets but American voltage outlets, too. In addition, there were chargers, USB ports, lightning ports, docking stations for SD cards, and every imaginable port-to-port charger available. He opened the left drawer and found a slim printer and a secure telephone system. Con hooked up his computer and connected to Guardian’s system. He tapped his earpiece and reported in.

“I’m back, Ethan.”

“Ethan is offline. You got me. And why aren’t you getting some sleep? By my count, you’ve been up for over thirty-two hours.” Brando’s voice was a nice surprise.

“Meh, I’ll power down in a bit. Needed to check in. Do we have anything on Abrasha’s movements?”

“The British Authorities met the aircraft at the landing site you said it would land at. He wasn’t aboard.”

“What do you mean he wasn’t aboard?” Con leaned forward and called up the photos Ethan had pulled off the surveillance cameras. “Did they make a stop we aren’t aware of?”

“Nope,” Brando said. “I think the bastard is hiding in the aircraft, but supposedly, they did a search of the plane.”

“Is it guarded?” Con asked.

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Because if he’s laying low until everyone leaves, he can slip off that plane, and no one would be the wiser. What about the names of the people with him?”

“I have a copy of the passports the British government swiped. They were all taken into custody for entering the country without going through customs and border control protocols. Still, my guess is they’ll be out and disperse into nothing sooner rather than later.”

“Are the passports fake?”

“If they are, they’re as good as ours. Computer files attached to the passports show travel and entry into numerous countries throughout the last six or seven years.” Brando was now up on his video, and Con watched him shake his head. “I know the powers-that-be are working on getting a chance to talk to these guys.”

“All right. What about an asset in Australia?”

“Berserker is there. Guess that’s home for him. He’s traveling to Sydney from Melbourne. He’ll check in when he has information. How did you get stuck working another on-location mission? Is this a thing now? I’m not sure I’m a fan. Give me my little node and the ability to work from home any day.”

“It kind of dropped in my lap when I was at the gala for Mom.” He laughed and remembered Ronnie literally dropping onto his lap.

“You don’t sound too upset, yet you were bitching like a big dawg when the grumpy one made you go to Paris,” Brando reminded him.

“Well, first off, I don’t like being ordered around by him who shall not be named.”

“He’s not Voldemort.” Brando laughed. “You two really need to forgive and forget. You got even when you changed his ring tone to that little shark song.”

“Yeah, I did. That’ll teach him to insult me.” Joseph called him a hack and a couple other things. No one insulted his computer skills. No. One.

“Then you should call it even.”

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