Brad Thor - The Athena Project

“Yes, sir.”

“Whoever you send,” continued Cooney, “they’ve got to be smart and they’ve got to move fast. And if things go wrong, I don’t want any of it tracing back to us. That means no knuckle draggers. This cannot look military or have any U.S. military fingerprints on it at all.”

“Yes, sir,” Walsh stated. “You don’t need to worry. I already have the perfect team in mind.”

Nino Bianchi spread out his hands as he took in the two gorgeous women standing in front of him. “Now this is why people love coming to my parties,” he stated. “I always have the most beautiful guests.”

“You also have a beautiful home,” offered Cooper.

“Don’t change the subject,” said Casey. “Let him keep telling us how beautiful we are.”

Bianchi laughed. “You have a lovely accent. Virginia?”

Casey laughed politely and replied, “Lower.”

“The Carolinas?”

She smiled and rolled her eyes at him. “We’re going to be here all night at this rate. Texas.”

“Of course,” said Bianchi. “Texas. And yours?” he asked, turning to Cooper.

“Atlanta.”

“Two southern belles. How fortunate am I?”

“You speak English very well, Signore Bianchi,” said Casey, trying to keep her mind on her assignment. Looking at him, all she could think about was the busload of Americans he had helped to blow up. If the choice had been hers to make, she would have pulled out her pistol and shot him right there in the middle of the party. “How did you become so fluent?”

The man gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Unlike you Americans, we Europeans speak many languages. Which reminds me. What do you call someone who speaks three languages?”

Casey looked at Cooper and then back to Bianchi. “Trilingual?”

“Exactly,” he replied. “How about two languages?”

“Bilingual?”

“Yes, yes. That’s correct. How about one language?”

“I don’t know,” said Casey.

“American,” whispered Bianchi with a conspiratorial wink as he began laughing.

If this guy only knew what was in store for him , thought Casey as she and Cooper laughed goodnaturedly at his joke.

“I’m sorry,” said Bianchi. “That’s very rude of me. But it is true. America thinks it’s the center of the world and that everything revolves around it.”

“Politics are so boring,” said Cooper, holding up her nearly empty glass. “But champagne; that’s something I can get excited about.”

Casey nodded and held up her glass as well. “Can we tempt you into having a drink with us, Signore Bianchi?”

“Absolutely not,” he said, his face suddenly stern.

Casey and Cooper looked at him.

Then he smiled and added, “Not at least until you tell me your names.”

Casey smiled back and held out her hand. “Jennifer.”

“And I’m Elena,” said Cooper, offering her hand to Bianchi once he released Casey’s.

“Beautiful names for the two most beautiful women at my party. I want you both to call me Nino,” he said, waving a waiter over. He took a glass of champagne off the tray.

Holding it up, he proposed a toast. “To beauty, to love, and to their child, ecstasy.”

They all clinked glasses and took a sip.

“ Death Takes a Holiday ?” asked Casey.

Bianchi was impressed. “Very good,” he said, tipping his glass in her direction. “How did you know that?”

“It was one of my grandmother’s favorite films. She called it the most romantic toast she had ever heard. It made my grandfather very upset. He thought the toast he gave at their wedding was the most romantic.”

Bianchi smiled. “So, what about you, Jennifer? Are you a romantic?”

He was flirting with her.

Casey replied coyly. “Romance is fine, but I think there are other things in life that are more exciting.”

He liked that answer. “And you, Elena? What do you think?”

Cooper leaned against Casey and ran her fingers slowly down her teammate’s arm. “I think Jennifer and I have a very similar definition of excitement.”

That put the ball over the goal line. Both women could tell by looking at him that Bianchi was hooked. Two attractive women apparently interested in each other as well as him was all it took. Men were too easy.

“Would you ladies like to see the rest of the house?”

All of the blood had been drained from his brain and rushed to the part of his anatomy now doing the thinking. This operation was going to be over in record time. All they had to do now was get him down to the boat.

“We’d love to,” said Casey.

Bianchi insinuated himself between them. “Why don’t we start upstairs then?”

Upstairs? That wasn’t going to work. They needed to get him downstairs. Once he got upstairs, he wasn’t going to want to leave; at least not until what he thought was going to happen, had happened.

Casey knocked back her champagne in a long swallow and then handed her empty glass to Bianchi. “Hold this,” she said as she began to walk away.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To get us a little more. I’ll be right back.”

Before Bianchi could reply, Casey was already walking toward a bar that had been set up on the other side of the room. He watched her walk away and how the close-fitting dress she wore accented her beautiful body.

Cooper gave Bianchi’s arm a squeeze. “That’ll be our third glass of champagne.”

“Is that a bad thing?” he asked.

Cooper smiled seductively. “Not for you, it’s not. Not as long as you can keep up.”

Bianchi reached down and rearranged the front of his suddenly tight-fitting trousers.

After fetching three glasses of champagne from the bar, Casey stopped halfway back and set them on a table. She pretended to adjust her dress and plucked off what appeared to be one of its decorative beads. In actuality, it was a water-soluble capsule filled with an amnesic substance called Flunitrazepam, or Rohypnol, the date rape drug.

She dropped it in Bianchi’s glass and allowed it to dissolve as she walked back over to him and Cooper.

When she reached them, she took their half-empty glasses, handed them fresh ones, and then offered a toast of her own. “May we kiss whom we please and please whom we kiss.”

“I like that one,” said Bianchi, beaming, as they all clinked glasses and he took a nice long sip of his champagne.

As his glass came down, he then added, “Why don’t I show you ladies the upstairs portion of the house.”

Casey moved in closer to him and put her hand on his chest. “Do you know what I like? What I really like?”

“Tell me,” said Bianchi, narrowing his eyes, trying to appear seductive.

“I like boats. I’ve always found them very sexy. I’ll bet you’ve got a nice boat.”

“I do,” he replied. “But I have an even nicer library upstairs, with a beautiful view overlooking the canal.”

Cooper knew she might be pushing their luck. She didn’t want to make the man suspicious, but said, “I bet we can’t swim naked up there.”

“I actually have a tub big enough for all three of us,” he stated as he linked both of the women’s arms through his and led them toward the stairs. “If you’re both very, very good, maybe we’ll take the boat out later.”

There was nothing they could do except go along with him until the drug kicked in and he became malleable enough to steer back down to the boat garage. The challenge, though, would be keeping him at bay. As they began their ascent of the staircase, he reached down and grabbed both their asses.