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"Sorry," Caine apologized through gritted teeth.
"Not your fault," she said through a slow, measured exhalation.
They entered a short, straight stretch of road, refreshingly dark under the glowering brows of a steep upslope overhang. Spoor of the prior year's abandoned c...
The car skittered on some of the gravel; Opal bounced against the door again, briefly went pale. Caine winced in sympathetic pain: "We could go back."
She shook her head, checked the map. "Naw, we don't have much further to go." The car's engine began wailing unsteadily as the incline became even steeper, th...
Caine nodded, looked at the gauges. "It's overheating. Too much engine strain." He reached over, snapped a switch. The air conditioning sighed and died. The e...
Opal smiled her assent, sought the window controls, pushed the button with two downward pointing arrows-just a moment after Caine noticed that there was anoth...
The window, responding to the "fast-retract" control, snapped down as they came out of the shadow of the overhang. An abrupt rush of air scalloped into the ca...
In the rearview mirror, Caine saw it flutter down into the shadows behind them.
He also noticed, now three hundred meters below, with four kilometers of treacherous switchback roadway between them, two vehicles exiting the main highway on...
MENTOR
The radio paged twice, quickly. Then a single signal, a long pause, and another single signal. Hounds had arrived-and there were two of them. Bloody hell; Nolan...
Downing started the car. Not that he needed to: there was no cause for alarm, and he had no role other than to await the results-and to clean up any mess left...
But twenty-five years in covert operations had taught him one lesson above all others:
When a perfect plan meets imperfect, unpredictable reality, things go wrong. And sometimes, the greatest damage can be done by the smallest unforeseen detail-...
ODYSSEUS
Opal turned back toward Caine with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about the map. But we'd better go back and get it."
He matched her smile. "You're proving to be nothing but trouble."
Her eyes did not waver, but her smile changed slightly. "That is my mission in life."
He heard the muted insinuation in her tone, felt his body begin to respond-and doused himself with a cold shower of reason: Okay, Caine, let's not accompany h...
"For now." Her voice was still playful, still subtly provocative. Caine decided that he was starting to like Greece a great deal.
As he swung the car through a tight 180-degree turn, he saw two approaching plumes of dust on the roadway below: the approaching sightseers. He hit the accele...
They plunged back into the sharply delimited shadow of the overhang.
MENTOR
The radio paged once, twice-and then the fateful third time. Bollocks: something's awry. Murphy's Law strikes again.
Downing waited for his collarcom to chirrup-but instead, the handset toned another three times.
He snatched up the radio as he shifted out of neutral. "This is not a secure line. Reroute to command channel alpha-"
"Game Warden, this is Huntsman. We do not have time-repeat, do not have time-to wait for secure com clearance and switching."
Crikey, the op is going pear-shaped. "Understood. Sitrep, Huntsman."
"Fox doubled back into our blindspot-"
"Your what?"
"Our blindspot: a forty-meter stretch of road where we have no line of sight."
Just fucking brilliant. "Huntsman, advance Dogcatcher One to the nearest fire enabled position immediately."
"Game Warden, that is a negative. Our OpOrd requires we stay under aerial cover at all-"
"Huntsman, I wrote your operation orders. I say three times; move Dogcatcher One to a fire-enabled overlook on the blind spot now. Fox must be protected at al...
"Out."
Downing rolled out of the convenience store's parking lot, and northward into the heat shimmers of the two-lane macadam. As he accelerated-steadily, but not a...
ODYSSEUS
"Do you see the map?"
Opal squinted forward into the dust that was still hanging in the air from their uphill passage of half a minute ago. "No, I-"
The car lurched slightly to the right and Caine realized that, in scanning for the map himself, he had taken his eyes off the road. He snapped his attention f...
He swung the wheel hard to the left-and immediately regretted it: the digital controls were too sensitive for performance driving. He felt the rear tires shud...
He tried to countersteer, but the tires didn't bite; driving on the slick macadam was like driving on a sheet of water. They skitter-screeched forward at an a...
He slammed into, then bounced back from, the dashboard. The shattering of glass and squeals of twisted metal were loud in his ears. The car continued to move,...
"You okay?" Caine dabbed a finger at his forehead; his knuckle came away shining dark red.
Opal nodded, hand tucked down against her right side. "Jesus, you really are a bad driver."
"Sorry. Can I help-?"
"No, I'm fine. And I wasn't serious about your driving. Lighten up: this road is a death trap."
"Can you move?"
"I said I was fine-but this door's mashed in and pinched against the flatbed. I'll have to get out the driver's side."