Her teasing tone shifted immediately. “So help me god, if you went looking for trouble…”
“I didn’t. I swear.” Well, not exactly. Not that kind of trouble anyway.
“Tell me.”
I paused, sick to my stomach at the idea of lying to her. Rocky was solid. Had been supportive of me from my earliest days atESP. But I couldn’t bring myself to admit to her I’d taken a job as a high-paid escort.
It also occurred to me, way too late, that there might have been some kind of clause in my employment contract that forbade such a thing.
“There’s a group here… some kind of chess tournament going on at a local villa,” I began carefully, trying to avoid actual lies. “And it includes some heavy hitters. I’m talking Esteban Alvarado, Ted Harlan, Saleem al-Qadiri, Vukasin Drakovic?—”
“Woah, woah. What are you saying? Where exactly are you?”
My heart thundered as I swallowed. “Italy. Near Maiori, on the Amalfi Coast.”
“And there seems to be a gathering of… let’s see. A notorious cartel leader, a British royal, an oil prince, a Serbian weapons dealer…”
“It sounds unbelievable,” I said, blowing out a breath. “But it’s true. I saw them.”
“And you think they’re actually there to play chess.”
I opened my mouth to say of course, that I had seen the actual game and some of the play. But then I bit back the words.
“I… I’m not sure what they’re doing,” I admitted.Truth.
“Any chance you can find out?”
“I can try. Are any of these guys on our radar for specific reasons right now? I mean, besides Alvarado.”
She asked me to wait a minute and then put me on hold. The sun had gone behind a cloud, and the slight breeze was enough to make my sweaty skin uncomfortable.
She came back on the phone, all business. “It was Drakovic’s weapons lost in the CRL derailment. Selene Mercier owns a microchip company. The same chips Russia is desperate to get their hands on. Sorensen’s pharmaceutical company makes various antidotes.” She didn’t elaborate, but I knew she meantantidotes to chemical and biological agents. “There’s no chance this is a gathering of chess aficionados, Jett.”
When she said it like that, I felt like a complete idiot.
“I, ah… overheard someone mention the Kiel Canal,” I said, cringing in expectation of getting Locke into trouble or torching my own career.
She sounded incredulous. “In what context?”
“No context. I don’t know. I just heard it while I was eating lunch. It got my attention. I don’t know how it relates to any of this.”Also true.
“Jesus.”
“The conversation was mostly stuff about the game and general niceties. There was nothing at all about their businesses or anything clandestine.”
“Well, there wouldn’t be, would there? It’s not like a gathering of bad actors is going to chat about their criminal enterprise at a restaurant.”
I closed my eyes and inhaled.It wasn’t a restaurant. It’s a private villa with armed guards, and I’m sleeping with one of the supposed bad actors.“Right.”
“Keep your eyes and ears open, Jett. In the meantime, I’m going to put together some surveillance tech and overnight it to you at your hotel.”
“I’m staying with a friend,” I said. “I don’t want him involved. Let me find another place for you to send it.”
I looked both ways and began walking on the road again in the direction of the town. As soon as I was warmed up again, I picked up the pace with a jog.
“Be careful,” she said, sounding more serious than the situation seemed to call for. No one at the villa was going to suspect me of being an intelligence agent. A whore, maybe, but not a spy.
“I’ll text you an address.”
