Cindy Dees - Medusa’s Master

Karen explained, “Misty has five minutes once she arrives to acquire whatever she’s going after. In this case, a car.”

Jeff gaped. “Five minutes? ”

Kat blinked innocently. “What’s wrong? That too slow for you?”

He spluttered. “She can’t do that in five minutes. She has to buy a drink. Settle in at the bar. Strike up a few conversations. Work her way around to suggesting that she’s looking to buy a car. Negotiate a deal. It takes hours .”

Kat couldn’t resist. She replied blandly, “Is that how a male team does it? How quaint.”

Jeff retorted, scowling. “No way can she do it in five minutes.”

Aleesha jumped on that lightning fast. “Care to make a side bet, big guy?”

He glanced over at Kat. “Will I lose?”

“Oh, yeah. Bargain for three minutes. Then you might stand a chance.”

He shook his head. “This I have to see.”

Karen gestured toward the village. “Be our guest. Just don’t get caught.”

He moved off quickly down the road and disappeared into the night.

Kat felt oddly bereft without him nearby. She was losing her marbles.

Aleesha startled her out of her disgusted musings. “Nice caboose dat boy’s sportin’.”

Kat replied, grinning. “Shall I tell Michael you said that?”

Aleesha chuckled, dropping the Jamaican accent. “Be my guest. He knows that when I quit looking I’ll be dead. He also knows he’s got my heart forever.”

Kat asked curiously, “How does it work having both a significant other and a job like this?”

Karen crowed. “Oh, ho! Our little Kat does have a crush on Maverick. I knew it!”

Kat scrunched her eyes shut in dismay as Aleesha’s motherly arm looped over her shoulder. “’T’ain’t nuttin’ to be ’shamed of, kitten. He’s a fine one, he is.”

Kat blinked in surprise. “You approve of him?”

Isabella laughed. “It’s not up to us. If you like him, then go get him. I, for one, will be glad to see you happy for a change.”

The others nodded. “I’m happy,” she declared, a tad defensively.

Karen, the team’s tall Marine, and usually one to keep her nose out of others’ business surprised her by saying, “No, you’re not. You’re like I used to be. I was happy to be a Medusa. I was happy to have this job. But I wasn’t personally happy. Because I wasn’t, I just didn’t allow myself to have a personal life. I didn’t even know how unhappy I was until Anders came along.”

Kat couldn’t deny it. Ever since Karen had hooked up with the Norwegian Special Forces officer, she’d been a different woman. These days, she practically glowed from within. Kat muttered, “I don’t need to glow, dammit.”

“Ahh. Sure ye do. Glowin’s good fer a girl,” Aleesha replied.

Kat just shook her head. At least they approved of Jeff. That would save her a few hassles, at any rate.

“Speak o’ de devil. Here comes Kat’s firefly-mon now.” Aleesha glanced at her watch and cursed under her breath.

Kat grinned. Aleesha must’ve lost the bet.

Jeff rejoined them, shaking his head and muttering, “She’ll be along in a minute with the van. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Kat patted his shoulder. “It’s all right. We Medusas take a little getting used to.”

He glanced up at her, his eyes gleaming. “Now there’s an understatement if I ever heard one.”

Her pulse jumped. Sheesh. She couldn’t even have a normal conversation with the guy without twittering like a schoolgirl. She really needed to get control of herself.

The sound of an underpowered engine putt-putting up the hill toward them yanked Kat’s mind back to the business at hand.

Jeff ordered, “Let’s move out, ladies.”

As usual, the folks at H.O.T. Watch Ops came through like champs. How they managed to procure a cottage on a secluded beach on the north side of the island at this hour, Jeff had no idea. He rode shotgun and relayed directions from Ops to Misty and her tight T-shirt as she drove them to their ramshackle lodgings.

As hidey holes went, the place wasn’t bad. It had running water in the kitchen sink, a flush toilet, and most importantly, electricity and a computer. The desktop model was several years out of date, but it had a CD-DVD drive, and that was what they needed to read the disk the Ghost had given Kat.

In short order after they arrived, the team gathered around the computer, watching it boot up at snail speed. Kat held out a cardboard CD sleeve to him. He took it, examining it closely. “What did he say when he gave this to you?”

“Not much. Apparently, it was attached to the back of a painting he stole, and he accidentally took it, too. He said I’d be in extreme danger if anyone found out I have it.”

Jeff was inclined to believe the guy. Eventually, the computer spun up the disk and got around to reading its contents. The blinking hourglass on screen was replaced by the last thing he’d ever expected to pop up…

Over his shoulder, Kat inhaled sharply.

Chinese characters.

Jeff glanced up at her. “What does it say?”

“It’s the opening menu to a generic video playback program. Click on that character there to play the video.” She pointed at the appropriate pictograph.

Unfortunately, to reach his computer screen, she had to lean over his shoulder and practically lay her cheek against his. They both inhaled simultaneously, breathing in each other’s scents instinctively. Her feminine essence mixed with the green, fresh smell of the leaves and moss she’d crawled around in tonight. The combination was heady, making his thoughts whirl in a kaleidoscope of flashing impressions.

Misty piped up. “Anybody see a fire extinguisher?”

Kat started, brushing against his back. “That’s right,” she commented. “You and Greg had to deal with that booby-trapped computer last year. Do you think this is some sort of self-destruct program?”

Misty laughed. “No. I think the sparks flying off you and the good captain are going to set something on fire pretty soon.”

Amused, he glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Kat close her eyes in mortification. He said sympathetically, “It must really suck, having all these nosy women pick apart your private life like this.”

Kat groused. “You have no idea.”

He chuckled. But his laugh was cut short when a video image suddenly popped up on the computer screen. “Whoa!” he exclaimed. No wonder the Ghost had warned Kat this tape would put her in extreme danger!

Bloody hell .

Kat leaned forward to peer at the image on the computer screen. It was grainy and shot from an odd angle, as if the camera were mounted high in the corner of the room. A surveillance camera, then. Not surprisingly, a bedroom came into focus. Even less surprisingly, the bed was occupied.

Kat murmured, “Bella, was the focus on that lens just adjusted?”

The team’s photo intelligence analyst murmured, “Yes. A live camera operator shot this footage.”

Kat’s eyebrows shot up. Which meant this little ménage à trois was probably a setup. Which meant somebody was out to blackmail this man. Which begged the questions, who was he, and who would benefit by having this guy by the short hairs?

While she pondered those riddles, the camera zoomed in on the bed and its occupants came into plain view. A middle-aged man, reasonably fit for his age, but his skin loosening and his belly going to paunch, was cavorting with two young, naked men. Who was that?

The target of this little cinematic project turned his head momentarily. The camera caught a clear image of him, and Isabella sucked in a sharp breath.