“How destructive is your phase power on weapons?”Madison wanted to know.
“The MDF tested my power on a whole range of weapons.Bombs don’t go off if I touch them, and I can still use guns.”
“All right,” Liam said.“So we have two people who can diffuse the bombs.Finding the bombs in the first place is going to be the bigger problem.”
“So let’s start looking.Sean, I need you to collate the examples of Cillian’s designs I flagged in the information the UMG gave us on the Reborn IRA.Let’s try to figure out if he’s still sticking with his MO and where he might try to hide them,” Jamie ordered.
Sean nodded and got to his feet, knowing they didn’t have any time to waste when the gala was less than forty-eight hours away.It was all hands on deck, which was far better than just his own.
12
WEAPON OF CHOICE
Jamie pulled on his Rolex—platinum again, with a diamond-encrusted face and bezel this time around—watching in bemusement as Kyle gamely attempted to tie his bow tie in the full-length mirror hanging from the wall near the walk-in closet.
“I can see you laughing at me,” Kyle said around a scowl.“If I can see you, I can shoot you.”
“Having trouble?Is it too much for you?I could have sworn the attendant showed you how to tie it in the store,” Jamie said, trying for innocent and failing miserably.
“I was a little more interested in watching you than watching what he was doing.”
“It shows.”
Kyle gave up and stalked over to Jamie, thrusting his hand out with the scrap of silk in it.“I hate tying these things.You do it.”
“Haven’t you had to do this for mess dress before?”
“Once.And I made Alexei do it because he’s better at it than I am.”
Jamie laughed softly as he took the length of black silk and smoothed out the hint of wrinkles from Kyle’s efforts with his fingers.He unabashedly took Kyle in with a slow, deliberate once-over.“You clean up nice.”
Kyle snorted.“I should hope so, considering how much money you spent on this outfit.”
“I like spending money on you.”
Kyle bit his lip at that statement, shrugging a little self-consciously.To Jamie’s eyes, he was the epitome of sleek sensuality with just a hint of rough edges that would prove to every eye at the gala he didn’t come from money.Jamie didn’t care because he wouldn’t have Kyle any other way.
The narrow cut of the tuxedo jacket followed the lines of his body exactly.The pants were tailored for a slimmer fit than was strictly on trend, but Jamie rather thought Kyle might start a new one by the end of the night.The crisp white dress shirt layered beneath the trim vest wasn’t bunched in any way.The tuxedo jacket, hanging in the closet still, had a narrow cut, which would follow the lines of Kyle’s body exactly.
Jamie reached out and flipped up Kyle’s collar in order to slide the bow tie around his throat.He deftly tied the bow, carefully tugging it into form and knotting it in place before folding the shirt collar back down and smoothing out everything else.
“See?Not so hard,” Jamie said, giving Kyle a quick kiss on the lips.“Put your jacket on.We need to get going.”
“The museum isn’t that far away.I thought Katie wanted us to be fashionably late?”
“We will be, if only because London traffic on a Friday night is ridiculous.”
Kyle pulled his jacket off the hanger and slipped it on, tugging it firmly into place.He didn’t bother with the buttons since they would be getting in the car soon.
He made a face at Jamie.“I want a gun.”
“You’re not carrying a weapon.They’ll be on-site when we need them.”
The UMG had swapped out quite a number of workers setting up the gala space with their own agents in order to lay the groundwork for their plan.Weapon caches had been hidden under several food and drink tables scattered throughout the gala space.Several members of the Royal Legion and a few other UMG field teams would be acting as bartenders and museum security guards for the night, keeping an eye on the gear they’d brought in for everyone.Liam wouldn’t be one of them, since his identity was too noticeable to pass off as someone else, but Samaira was commanding all UMG metahumans inside the museum.
When the fighting started—because Jamie doubted this would end peacefully—the members of Alpha Team would put on the nanotech strips stowed in their pockets or purses.While it couldn’t hide their features to a person’s naked eye, it would blur their faces on any security feed, video, or pictures.With the UMG controlling the museum security feed, they would help minimize the risk of someone identifying the metahumans in the field.
They’d tried to plan for every contingency, but on such a short timeframe, with limited access to the location to stave off suspicion, Alpha Team was in a tight spot.Getting the in with the Pavluhkins and thePresnenskayaBratvawhile stopping the Reborn IRA from targeting the gala was going to require more than a little sleight of hand.It would necessitate them playing their roles just right before switching them out for their real identities and hoping no one noticed in the panic.
