Sydney knew, of course, that the call must be from Niall O’Sullivan. She stared at it for a moment. Panacea had given her a week off after a particularly exasperating assignment looking after a whiny criminal turned informant—and yet here they were, pinging her three days in.
She stepped out of the apartment and onto the balcony overlooking the harbor. There, she leaned against the railing and stared out at the empty bus stop she’d come from earlier. At least her lungs felt a little better now, and she could breathe again without wincing.
“Nani?” she said in Japanese.
“Stop it, Syd.”
She switched to English. “And here I thought you were going to give me a real holiday, boss.”
“Like you were doing anything fun with your downtime.”
“You don’t know that. I could be lying on a beach in Cabo.”
“And are you lying on a beach in Cabo?”
For a second, Sydney considered pulling up a random video with the sounds of ocean waves. “I’m sure you know exactly where I am and what I’m doing,” she muttered, glancing up briefly at the sky, half expecting to see a tiny drone watching her. “Isn’t that our specialty?”
“For someone only two years in the field, you’re particularly mouthy.”
“Forgive me. I’m a child. What’s up?”
“A mission, of course.”
“Don’t tell me I’m going to spend another week babysitting a minor suspect.”
“Oh, believe me, it’s much worse than that.”
“Is that so?” she said. “Sounds worthy of my time.”
“But if you succeed at this mission, not only will you be promoted, but you’ll receive a healthy bonus.”
Promotion. That caught her attention. “Full undercover operative? You’re sending me overseas again? I still need a new passport after Moscow last year.”
“Don’t get too excited. I still question whether I should’ve hired you at all.”
Sydney couldn’t help smiling. She’d never heard Niall sound happy about any of Panacea’s missions—the analyst seemed to believe everything was always a terrible idea. She’d started to think of his grumpy rumble on the phone as good luck.
“You know you’re thankful every day for hiring me,” she replied sweetly.
He just grunted. It was by sheer chance that Niall had visited her high school campus while reluctantly accompanying a CIA recruiter and seen her pick her way through a set of locked gym doors to steal some of the school’s boxing equipment. When he’d confronted her, she’d tried to convince him that she couldn’t speak English well, blurting out a paragraph in Russian so smoothly that he’d almost believed it was her native language.
Your consonants,she could still remember him lecturing at her.
She’d just shaken her head innocently at him.
Don’t aspirate so much,he said.It gives you away. Very well done, though.
To her surprise, she’d felt a rush of pride at his compliment. After agreeing to not tattle on her, he’d asked her some questions, sussing out the dozen other languages she had picked up on her own, and then whether or not she’d be interested in joining a training program to work for the Panacea Group.
Is it in tourism or something?she remembered asking.
Something like that,Niall had replied.
I don’t care what it is. I’ll do it.
Excellent.
But I have one condition.
