Page 69 of Nanny for the Mercenaries

“You guys!” Jordy suddenly cut in. He showed us his phone screen. “Daniel Ricardo is in Bakuright now. What are the odds?”

“Of course he is in Baku,” Archer said dryly. “That is why our cover story works so well.”

Jordy put his phone down. “Oh.”

“Tell us the fucking plan already,” I said.

Archer sighed heavily. “I’ll take him up for a tour of the city. And then I will crash the helicopter.”

Jordy gasped. “But… but you’ll die.”

“I won’t die, because I will jump before it crashes,” he answered. “With a parachute, if that wasn’t immediately obvious.”

I grunted. “Fuckin’ sweet.”

“What about me?” Jordy asked. “I’ve never jumped out of anything before. Nothing in the air, at least. I jumped out of my buddy’s car once on a dare.”

“Of course you did,” I said. Jordy flashed me a grin.

“There’s a ridge to the west of the city. That’s where I will fly them before initiating the crash. That will keep anyone from seeing me parachute away at the last minute.” Archer turned to look at Jordy. “A parachute is a device that allows you to fall without dying.”

“I know what a parachute is.”

“You’re acting clueless more and more lately, so I wanted to make sure.”

“I’m not clueless! I caught the terrorist in Oslo, remember?”

“And since then?”

Jordy went silent.

“You’ve been distracted,” Archer lectured. “In the past, you never would have allowed a rookie holding a MANPAD to recoil into you like that. The same goes for the accidental weapon discharge two days prior to that. You’re lucky nobody was hurt.”

“You’re the one texting Trish all day, every day,” he shot back.

I leaned back in my chair.This is getting good.

“I never mentioned Trish,” Archer replied. “I merely stated that you have been distracted. Which is an undeniable fact.”

“How about you worry about yourself,” Jordy muttered.

“So you tilt the chopper on a crash course, then jump out at the last minute,” I said. “There’s one problem with your plan.”

Archer gave me a bored look. “And what, pray tell, is that?”

“Chopper crashes.” I tilted my hand down to mimic the destructive act. “Fire department arrives. Or whoever the fuck Azerbaijan uses for that kind of thing. And they find Kadyrovic, and his bodyguards… and nobody else.”

“Hey, yeah!” Jordy exclaimed. “They’ll wonder where the pilot’s body went! That will raise a bunch of red flags, and they won’t buy that it was an accident.”

“This is a scenario I have anticipated, and have accounted for,” Archer said simply.

Jordy and I shared a look.

“Say more things,” I said.

“There will be a fourth body, presumably that of the pilot, on board,” the blond Brit replied.

I chuckled. “Damn. That’s cold.Icecold.”

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