Brad Thor - The Athena Project

“So, I think we should go out and celebrate tonight. That is, unless you’d rather stay in,” Ben said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

There were multiple motivations that could be played upon when recruiting someone to spy-money, sex, ideology, excitement, and coercion were the primaries. If you could hit on one of those when recruiting someone, you were good, but if you could hit on more than one, you were golden, and the subject would do anything you wanted. Vicki Suffolk had recruited Ben Matthews based upon his distrust of his own government and had cemented his loyalty to her through sex.

She hadn’t been able to figure him out at first. Any other man would have jumped at the chance to sleep with her. Secretly, she had suspected he might be gay. But then she started to worry that perhaps he was playing her . The night the thought had popped into her mind, though, Ben had taken her to bed and he had been eating out of the palm of her hand ever since.

Vicki set her wineglass on the counter. “Actually, tonight wouldn’t be the best of nights to celebrate, if you know what I mean.”

“Why? Are you going out with somebody else?”

Vicki slapped Ben playfully across the shoulder. “Honestly.”

Ben was not an expert on female anatomy, but Vicki Suffolk had the most erratic menstrual cycle of any woman he’d ever met. “I understand,” he said. “We don’t have to have sex. We can just go out and have a good time. Or we can order in and watch a movie.”

“One of my professors has evening office hours tonight. I told you about it a couple of days ago. Remember my dissertation?”

Posing as a grad student at the University of Denver was part of her cover, and the dissertation had been her go-to excuse for everything.

“Maybe you can come by after?” he said. He sure hoped so. Vicki Suffolk was one of the most sexually adventurous women he had ever been with. Until her, he had considered himself pretty straitlaced, but she had unlocked something wild in him and he couldn’t get enough of her.

Vicki laughed and kissed him as she stood up. “We’ll see what happens. I’ll text you later.”

“That’s it?” he complained. “You’re going? You haven’t even finished your wine.”

Vicki kissed him again.

“Okay, okay,” said Ben, kissing her back. “I don’t have any plans to go out, so you can text me as late as you want.”

Vicki was halfway to the door already when she said, “We’ll see, okay?”

“Right,” he said, a bit dejectedly. “Drive safely.”

“I will,” she told him as she reached the door.

“Love you,” Ben said as the door closed. He had no idea whether she had heard him.

Crossing the living room, he looked out the peephole to make sure the hallway was clear. Stepping away from the door, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number of someone he had very purposefully not told Vicki about.

“She’s gone,” he said as a voice answered on the other end. “When can we meet?”

ADRIATIC SEA

Where are you going to interrogate Bianchi?” asked Julie Ericsson after they had gathered back up on the bridge.

Riley had remained below to keep an eye on and assess the prisoner. He was strapped to a backboard and had regained consciousness. He had suffered several broken ribs and probably a concussion from being tossed out his third-floor window into the canal. He was in pain, but he’d live.

“All I know is that I’m supposed to sail to a town on the other side of the Adriatic called Neum and I’ll get further instructions there,” replied Harvath as he set the yacht on a course of south-southeast.

Megan Rhodes, Gretchen Casey, and Alex Cooper were sitting there with bottles of water and plates of food. “What do you think is going to happen to him?” asked Cooper.

“I’ve got no idea,” he responded. “But I can guarantee you our little Q &A isn’t going to be pleasant.”

“Do we know who else was involved in the Rome attack?” asked Rhodes.

Harvath shook his head. “Bianchi may have provided the C4 for the bombing, but he didn’t order the attack. Somebody else did. That’s why I want to interrogate him myself. I think whatever those terrorist attacks were, they were only the beginning. That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out.”

“You and Riley?” asked Casey. “Together?”

“Yeah. The powers that be thought I’d draw less attention if we traveled as a couple.”

“Where were you before Venice?”

“Sorrento and Sicily.”

“Sounds romantic,” said Casey.

“Not really,” he said, changing the subject. “How’s Nikki?”

Nikki Rodriguez was an Athena Team member whose life Harvath had saved on a recent assignment.

“She’s doing much better,” Casey replied. “The doctors say she’ll be back at work sooner than they originally expected.”

Harvath smiled. Nikki was a remarkable operative. “Tell her I said hello,” he started to say, but he was interrupted by the ringing of his encrypted satellite phone. “That’s going to be Hutton,” he remarked as he tossed the phone to Casey.

Knowing that sat transmissions worked best via line of sight, she stepped from the bridge and outside onto the deck.

The night air was warm and humid, the seas calm. What little chop there was, the powerful yacht cut right through.

Lieutenant Colonel Rob Hutton’s voice was so clear, it sounded as if he were standing right next to her, rather than thousands of miles away back at Fort Bragg. “How’d it go?” he asked.

“We had to improvise a little bit,” replied Casey, “but it was a success. We got him.”

“We’re already hearing that there was a lot of shooting.”

“Not our fault.”

“How’s the team?” asked Hutton. “Everyone okay?”

“Everyone’s fine.”

There was a pause. “How about you?” he asked.

Casey looked up into the sky and wondered if one of the stars she saw was the satellite beaming Rob Hutton’s voice into her ear. “I’m fine, Rob.”

“You’re sure?”

There was no way he was in the Joint Special Operations Command center talking to her like that. He had to be standing outside somewhere, alone.

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to pretend for a moment that he was right there. She pictured his blond hair and blue eyes. His shoulders. His smile. Then she pictured his wedding ring and the moment was gone.

If Hutton couldn’t be strong enough for himself and his wife, she’d have to be strong enough for all of them.

It was over a year ago that it had happened, but it still felt so fresh, so recent. It had been only a kiss, but it was the most dangerous kiss of her career. They had allowed their attraction to each other to override everything else, and they had stepped over the line.

No sooner had the kiss begun than Gretchen had broken it off. She sensed afterward that, if she hadn’t, he would have. Hutton loved his wife and Casey knew that. She also knew that he loved her, too. Regardless of what her feelings for him might have been, though, she swore she’d never let it happen again. It was one of the hardest resolutions she’d ever made.

“I’m fine,” she replied. “Bianchi’s a bit beat up, though.”

“Who did it? Rhodes? Cooper? I’ll bet it was Ericsson again, wasn’t it? Damn it, Gretchen. You need to keep your operatives on a much tighter-”

“Rob,” Casey interrupted, “relax. Nobody physically beat him up.”

There was silence for a minute before Hutton said, “Oh. I’m sorry. It’s just that I thought-”