Sean made a face as he stood up but didn’t seem inclined to argue with Kyle.He slipped out of the office to go do his own preparations for the day.Kyle caught Alexei’s eye over Trevor’s shoulder and rapidly hand signaled him towatch his back.
Alexei rolled his eyes but signaled back an affirmative, then flipped him off.
It was still early enough that the shops they needed to go to weren’t open, but the 24/7 customer service lines most design houses manned for their rich clients meant Katie was able to book an appointment on extremely short notice, as was Sean.They ended up name-dropping Jamie in order to be seen right away, with the design houses verifying their ties through the credit card company handling the account Jamie was using to fund this mission.The reimbursement of everything was going to be killer for the government when it was all said and done.Jamie wasn’t skimping on cost when it came to what they needed.
After the others left for their appointments and Jamie holed himself up in the office Katie had vacated, Kyle immersed himself in doing some groundwork on the gala.Liam had dropped off another solid-state drive last night, along with their approved orders, detailing out the history of the type of fundraiser someone like Jansen would frequent.They weren’t exactly on the up-and-up, but a mix of civic-minded people helped hide the men and women who led double lives as criminal entrepreneurs.Jansen’s skill in blackmail ensured that even people who didn’t want to be there showed up, lending an air of legitimacy to the whole thing.
The Fifth Annual Winter Gala was overseen by a charity that was transparent in their dealings—to a point.Administrative costs were through the roof compared to other charities that put together the same kind of fundraising drives that brought in the wealthy for a night of schmoozing in historical places.Last year, they’d held it at some lord’s country estate.At least this time, it would be held within London, but monitoring and securing the area was still going to be a logistical nightmare.
Annabelle joined him in the living room after a while, curling up at the other end of the couch with tablet in hand to start sharing in his workload.She grabbed the cashmere throw blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around herself, tucking her bare feet under the edge of it.
“What year are you lookin’ at?”she asked.
“Inaugural,” Kyle replied.
“I’ll get started on the one after.”
They didn’t have analysts on hand to distill the excessive amount of information into something digestible.That job was left to the team around everything else they were doing, despite the UMG’s distant help.Liam could only come around so often; he had his own habits he needed to uphold so as to not make anyone watching suspicious.His visits coincided with information drops, and it was up to them to figure out the answers they needed.
Kyle wasn’t all that great with research like this.Give him a gun and a target and he was solid, but trying to figure out who might show up this year based on past invite lists was tedious.The charity didn’t reveal names save for their guests of honor that were used to drive ticket sales.They had to trawl the internet for information buried in society blogs and other websites using a quickly built algorithm search Katie had coded for them to use last night.It shortened some search avenues, but the information it gathered still needed a human mind to pick it apart.
Jamie came out periodically to check on them and take any update they had before heading back into the office.Whatever he was working on, he ended up handing it off to the UMG agent disguised as a courier delivering a package later that day.
Katie and the others arrived back in midafternoon, laden down with clothes in protective covers and bags of shoes and accessories.
“>” Kyle asked his brother as they sorted through which packages belonged to each of them in the foyer.
“>” Alexei retorted.
“>”
“>”
“Annabelle, you want a sandwich?”Kyle asked.
“Roast beef.All the fixin’s,” she said, not looking up from her tablet.
“Make mine turkey, Lyosha.”
Everyone started yelling out their preferences, and Alexei made a show of throwing his hands up in mock defense.“I make all kinds.You eat what’s there.”
The team buckled down and picked comfortable spots throughout the first floor to work in.Katie set up camp at the dining room table to focus her attention on the Saunders & Associates angle, taking business calls through the rest of the afternoon and into early evening.Everyone made it a point to keep her tea topped up while they monitored the coffeepot and went through several refills.
By the time evening rolled around, Kyle’s brain was full of information, and he desperately needed a break to process it all.Donovan had started work on dinner—three whole roast chickens and pasta carbonara because it was easy and filling—when Kyle finally got up from the couch and stretched until his spine popped.He left his tablet on the coffee table and made his way to the office down the hall.
He hadn’t seen Jamie in a couple of hours.When Kyle knocked on the door and didn’t get a response, he pushed it open and slipped inside.One quick glance at the control panel by the door told him Jamie had the privacy blackout mode going, along with the soundproofing.
“It’s going to be a viper’s nest of criminals, and I can’t shoot any of them.Do you know how aggravating that is?”Kyle said.
Jamie didn’t look up from the 3D map of London he was studying and the overlay markers that popped out with specific field notations.“We all find it aggravating.We’ll make do.”
“What are you working on?Plan B or C?”
Jamie zoomed in on the view, focusing on the intersection of Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road.“Neither.I’m modifying the plan of attack that the UMG sent me today.Some members of the Royal Legion will be coming in with us.Liam can’t afford to lend even a shadow of the Crown’s support to the gala, so he’ll be on standby outside, holding down a perimeter.”
The clipped tone had Kyle narrowing his eyes.He didn’t remember Jamie coming out for sandwiches earlier, and Kyle couldn’t be sure anyone had brought one to him.“Have you eaten anything since breakfast?”
“I’ll eat later.”
