Page 62 of Wired Target

“I just called the hospital for an update.Good news: they say he’s holding on.”

“Thank you.”Sophie embraced Lei.“That will keep me going until I get there and can verify his status myself.”

“Well, it’s been real, and it hasn’t been fun,” Lei quipped.“I’ve got to go to the downtown station; they want me to make a statement there, then promised me a ride back to the airport afterward.”

“Then it’s goodbye for now.”Sophie’s brows drew together.“We really didn’t get to visit.”

“Yeah.I’d hang out longer, but I want to be with Torufu when he busts those egg sellers at their meet on Maui, and it’s coming up soon.”

“Of course.Thanks for everything.”

The women embraced.Lei waved as she jogged away toward the open entry, her slim figure and bouncing curls giving an impression of youth and energy that belied her thirty-something age.

Sophie was lucky Lei had forgiven her for withholding information about the drone attack.After all this was over, Sophie’d tell her about capturing Pim Wat, too.Hopefully, Lei would understand the bind Sophie had been in.“It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission,” their mutual friend Marcella’s voice said in Sophie’s mind.

Sophie opened the side door of the garage and got into the SUV.After the last intense hour she’d spent dealing with the accident and the attack that had ended up with her mother in the basement, the familiar surroundings of her car felt like a sanctuary.

Something was nagging at her—something unfinished.What had she forgotten?

Sophie grasped the wheel and concentrated on the nagging sense of something important missing.The persistent feeling had been going on for days ...what was it?

Pierre.Pierre Raveaux.He was missing.

Her calm rock in a storm was gone, and she didn’t know where.

Maybe he’d called from an unknown number, and she hadn’t yet listened to the message?

Sophie fumbled the phone out of her pocket and punched the voicemail app, listening.

Pierre was in Greece.An explosion at Pim Wat’s house.In the hospital, arrested as a terrorist ...and his men were dead.

“That poxy whore!”Her hand tightened involuntarily on the phone, her heart thundering as the message ended.“Poor Pierre!”

What could she do for him so far away?

There was only one person in the world who could help, and she had to call the nasty son of a snakeanyway.

As soon as Sophie had driven out through the open gate, past the smoking wreck of the accident now mobbed with cops, and the crime scene which had been cleaned up to make way for traffic, Sophie called Devin McDonald at the CIA.

“Agent McDonald.I have news.Connor has taken Pim Wat captive.”The lie was necessary for Connor’s contract to be fulfilled; Armita wouldn’t mind this bending of the truth.At least, Sophie hoped not; she’d discuss it with her later.McDonald was too arrogant to interview local law enforcement about what had really happened and find out anything different.

“Well now.”The fat man’s voice was rich with sarcasm.“How did she go from dead at the hands of your father a few hours ago to taken into custody by Connor, now?”

“The woman my father fought with was a decoy.Probably one of Mendoza’s assassins.She was likely supposed to take me out, but my father intercepted her.While we were all occupied with that situation, which involved cars outside my front gate, the real Pim Wat infiltrated the house and went after the children.Connor was then able to seize and detain her.”Sophie had not figured out a way to keep the fact that Connor was already in the United States out of the conversation.“He had a lead on Pim Wat and followed her to my house, hoping to intercept her before she made a move.She is alive and safely contained.”

“Thatisgood news.”McDonald made a harrumphing noise.“When and where can I pick her up?”

“We have conditions.”Sophie focused on the road; after passing around scenic Diamond Head on the small two-lane artery, she’d entered an area of heavier traffic.She signaled and changed lanes.“I need you to send an agent to intervene on the part of one of our men, investigator Pierre Raveaux.He, too, was pursuing a lead and followed it to Corfu Island in Greece.He found Pim Wat’s hideout there.Unfortunately, she was already here in Hawaii, and had booby-trapped the house.When he and his team of two men broke in, the place exploded.The men were killed, and Raveaux is injured.He’s being held in a hospital on Corfu as a terrorist.”

“I remember Raveaux.”Sophie could visualize the way McDonald liked to lean back in his chair while thinking.“We have a Greek asset who is also a lawyer.I will send him to track down your man and get him out.”

“Excellent.Then I will order a plane to pick up Raveaux on Corfu,” Sophie said.“I have another condition.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“I would like Connor’s agreement with the crime task force finalized in writing.Once you fax it to me, I will give you a location where you can retrieve Pim Wat.”

“Consider it done.”

---