Page 118 of Bonded in Death

Chapter Sixteen

Peabody had finished the bulk of the setup. Eve walked over to help complete the board.

“He’d know the whole group’s in New York now.”

Eve nodded. “He knew they’d come. He knows they’re here now, but not where. Ivanna has electronic surveillance on her apartment, so we’ll know if he tries there. But he hasn’t so far.”

“He could waste his time trying to find them at hotels.”

“If they weren’t with us, they’d have rented a house. All together. He can waste his time trying to find that. He thinks he can lure the women out with a lunch date. He doesn’t give them any credit for brains.”

“Us, either,” Peabody said.

“Us, either. DeWinter confirmed DNA. Not Potter.”

“XL!”

“Excel at what?”

“No, XL. Excellent. And Abernathy has the prison doctor.”

“He’s not going to know dick, but he’s going to find out what it’s like on the other side of a cage.”

Feeney walked in, nodded at the board. “Moving right along. You know, those old boomers can do some serious damage.”

“Now this one can’t and won’t.” She pulled out her signaling ’link. “Berenski, text. Bitch, bitch, whine, whine, bitch. Fingerprints on housing, on timer, etc., etc., confirmed as Potter’s. And a bitch to cap it off.”

She replaced her ’link. “DNA confirmed as not Potter’s.”

“Moving right along,” Feeney repeated. Hands on hips, he studied the board. “Lab rat and Yancy are working on the face.”

“Peabody told me.”

“They may just pull it off. Not before the op, but it’ll look fine in the file. You’ll take him in the box before they haul him back to England?”

“For Rossi, yeah, for the bomb.”

“Good. Is that Roarke’s coffee in there?”

“No,” Peabody told him. “But I can make that happen. If?”

“Shit, go ahead.” Eve stepped back, scanned the board as her detectives started coming in. “Get coffee, take a seat. The commander and Dr. Mira are sitting in. We’ll wait for them.”

McNab bounced in, wearing neon-blue baggies and a shirt that held the solar system. Some of the stars gleamed and Saturn’s rings sparkled.

“Callendar got held up, but she’ll be here. I smell real coffee.” He made a beeline for the AutoChef.

When Lowenbaum came in, wearing sensible black, Eve crossed over to have a word with him before Whitney and Mira arrived.

Then she walked back to stand between the screen and the board.

“Chatter off. The target is Conrad Potter. The remains purported to be his are not, but the partial remains of another inmate. Dr. DeWinter confirmed this morning. The prints on the explosive device have been confirmed as his. Potter is seventy-eight. Caucasian male, five-ten. Atthe time of his imaginary death, one hundred and sixty-three pounds. We don’t have his current face.

“If you read the file, you know his background. He was, in London during the Urbans, a skilled operative, a double agent who betrayed his team and killed two of them. He was captured, tried, and convicted and served the last few decades in max security in Manchester, England.

“His accomplice in faking his death and his escape is now in custody. Potter is also responsible for the death, here in New York, of Giovanni Rossi, another member of The Twelve, Potter’s Underground team. He used an Urbans-era gas to kill Rossi.”

She skimmed through the details, gave a brief nutshell of the targets housed in her home, and moved on to the contact the night before.

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