• Agent Strong had promised her $80,000 a year.
• This would save her the trouble of updating her résumé.
•Last but not least, it was flattering that the EOD wantedher, not Phil, not her best friend Justin who owned a successful business, not the women at parent pickup who looked like they had their lives together. She, Gabby Greene, had something to offer.
Cons:
• Possible death.
“Could I tell my ex that I work for the CIA?” That would be a big pro.
“No.” Agent Strong tapped one of her shiny, black loafers.
“Not even like in a secretarial capacity?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
Was it worth working for the EOD if she couldn’t lord it over people who’d been looking down on her and not taking her seriously?
Valentina ignored the entire exchange and passed Gabby a file. A quick glance showed pictures of everyone at eStocks and Russian mobsters. It was like a school yearbook of bad guys.
“Memorize everything.”
Gabby nodded. Names and faces were not a problem.
“And a basic knowledge of RICO would be a good idea. Don’t you think, Agent Strong?”
“Who’s Rico, the office perv?” You always needed a heads-up on that guy.
“Not a person. RICO is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the laws we will use to take down Orlov.”
Now that they mentioned it, she’d heard of that on TV.
Gabby said, “Not to poke holes in your plan, but how will my boss not notice that I’m an entirely different person. Sure, Darcy and I might look alike, but we’re not twins.” It was an absurd plan when you thought of it.
Agent Strong smiled. “We are very good at disguises at the EOD. Hollywood would be lucky to have our makeup artists.”
There was so much more to it. Height, weight, presence, voice, posture, mannerisms. The way she could identify one of her kids from a block away just by the way they moved. There was no way she moved like Darcy. Darcy was probably a panther. Gabby was a lapdog.
Alice gave Gabby a woman-to-woman look. “Kramer is a man. He’s notorious for never seeing the women who work under him.”
“I’m sure that’s true, but even so…”
“We are going to give you a simple script. Darcy has been out of the office for three days. By the time you return in her place, it will have been a full week. Tell a few key people that you are on a heavy dose of steroids. The slight difference in your appearance can be explained by steroidal weight gain and swelling.”
Gabby swallowed her reaction to that. Her self-esteem was yo-yoing between “I am the chosen one!” and “Fat Darcy.” They were right, though. A few pounds changed a person’s face.
Agent Strong was quiet for a moment. She tapped her stylus on the table again and acknowledged Valentina. “Agent Monroe, you raised a valid concern. Ms. Greene is untrained.”
Gabby nodded enthusiastically. Better to have this information out in the open. Valentina looked more than happy to move from runner-up to queen of this particular undercover op, and Gabby valued her life more than the crown and the bouquet.
Agent Strong wasn’t having it. “This is something we can fix. With a few days of training, we can give you the basic skills to negotiate a simple mission like this. There will be no hand-to-hand combat or sharpshooting, no advanced computer hacking.”
Did that mean she would be expected to do basic hacking? She couldn’t get into her own computer half the time. All of the household passwords were written in big, bold print on a whiteboard on the kitchen wall. MrBubblesFarts was the household Wi-Fi password. The Apple ID was MrBubblesFartz! She was not a hacker.
“Kramer is expecting her back next Wednesday. This only gives us three days for a crash course in spying.”
“What will that include?” Gabby assumed tactical driving, shooting, explosives, Russian language.
