Rhys slid in effortlessly behind a pillar, doing a much better job of looking nonchalant than these guys, while Trent and Euan went up to them, Trent already yammering on before he even reached them.
“Hey guys!” Trent said loudly. “I’ve brought your boat back! You guys forgot to take it back with you when you left Burr Island, so I thought I’d do you a favor and grab it for you!” He grinned, flashing his perfect white teeth. “It’s okay, no need to say anything now – you can thank me later.”
The agents stared at him flatly. “You’re the one who stole our boat.”
“Returnedyour boat,” Trent assured him. “You forgot it! Someone could’ve just waltzed on board and run off with it. You’re lucky me and Agent Hawkins here were around to keep it safe for you.”
Euan nodded in solemn confirmation, and Rhys had to keep from rolling his eyes. He wasn’t sure why the two of them seemed to enjoy their little odd couple routine so much – or even why they were friends at all, given they had almost nothing in common – but it seemed to work for them.
“Uh-huh,” one of the agents said, peering at them from over the top of her oversized sunglasses. “You were just acting out of the goodness of your heart.”
Trent shrugged. “Well, wewould’vetaken our helicopter home, butsomeoneran off with it. You wouldn’t happen to know who that was, do you?”
The agents, to their dubious credit, looked mildly abashed at that, and Trent went on, “So, do you wanna do some swapsies? Our helicopter for your boat? I think you’re getting the better end of the deal, to be honest.”
“I think,” said the other agent, lifting up a walkie talkie, “that we’re going to call our boss, and let him sort it out.”
Rhys realized that this stupid charade wasn’t going to last much longer – he’d have to act fast. He peered up at the sixth-floor windows from his vantage point, calling on his griffin’s eagle eye to enhance his already-sharp shifter vision, and – there.
There was no mistaking that incredibly unflattering flat-top haircut.
If that guy was there, then surely Maisie couldn’t be too far away.
Our mate,his griffin hissed.
“Nah,” Trent said sunnily. “I don’t think you need to call your boss at all. We don’t need to involve the brass, right? Let’s justsort this out, agent to agent. What happens on Burr Island stays on Burr Island, if you catch my drift.” He winked.
Rhys didn’t think he wanted to catch Trent’s drift, but he did have to admit that he was doing a pretty good job of keeping the agents occupied with his idiotic chatter.
It’s now or never.
Rhys leapt into the air before he’d even finished shifting, propelling himself upward. He was vaguely aware of the yells coming from the agents below him, but he didn’t care. He cared slightly more about whether any civilians had spotted him, but, he hoped, any reports would be waved off as tipsy holiday-goers having had one too many mojitos by the pool. In any case, it wasn’t enough to stop him.
The only thing that mattered was Maisie.
I’m here. You’re safe.
He circled past the window again – and there, sitting across from Flat-Top, was Maisie.
I’m coming for you,he vowed.And I’m going to make them pay.
Chapter 17
“… A
nd so, that’s why the Queen of Finland hired me – to bring down the Australian government.”
Maisie sat back in her chair, feeling a not entirely undeserved sensation of satisfaction as she looked at Military Man sitting across the table from her, his head in his hands.
“First of all,” he said, after several moments of very strained silence, “the nation of Finland has never been an independent sovereign monarchy. There has never been a king, letalonea queen, of Finland. Second of all, are you trying to suggest to me that you did all this to smuggle submarine parts hidden inside bags of potato chips out of the country? And third of all… none of that made even the slightestbitof sense whatsoever!”
As he finally raised his head to look her in the eye, Maisie sat back, affecting wide-eyed innocence.
“But you asked me to tell you everything I know, and that’s what I’m doing! It’s not my fault if you won’t believe me.”
Military Man let out a long, slow exhale. It was pretty clear to Maisie he was only just barely keeping his cool.
But at least I’ve wasted a whole bunch of his time,she thought. She’d managed to spin her tale out to almost an hour. Military Man had been taking notes to begin with, but as she’d gone on he’d stopped, then he’d just started staring at her as if she was a lunatic, and Maisie wasn’t completely unconvinced he hadn’t stopped her just because he’d been unwillingly curious about what she was going to say next.
