Page 53 of Lock ’N’ Load

Then she looked up at him and gave him a smile, one of the few he’d gotten from her. I’ll take that. “Can you identify who these people are?”

“Karakurt is the code name for Alexy Nikolaevich Lukashin. Officially, Lukashin is a cultural attaché to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington, D.C. Unofficially, we—the CIA—know him to be the rezidentura, a legal resident spy.”

“The others?” He pointed to the screen.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Everyone uses an alias, but I’ve been following Lukashin for so long, I know his code name. The other names I don’t recognize.”

“Lukashin referred to someone, although not by name.” He reread what Trista had typed. “He’s not who he says he is, and if it comes out, it will ruin everything. Do you know what he’s talking about?”

“No idea.” Again, she shook her head.

“Can you find Lukashin? Without letting it be known where you are?”

“Not without Dark Curtain.”

“The hide-and-seek program you developed.”

She uttered a feminine snort. “You were paying attention.”

“It’s my job. So let’s try to figure this out with what we’ve got.” He sat on the edge of the desk, angling the laptop so he could still see the screen. “Whoever White is, he seems to have authority over Lukashin, essentially ordering him to take care of the reporter, Thomas George.”

“Banks, however,” Trista interjected, “seems to answer to Lukashin.”

“Agreed.” He began massaging his chin, the side she hadn’t kicked. “Iqaluit…don’t know where it is, but I feel as if I’ve heard of it recently in the news. Is that an Inuit name?”

“That, I can answer.” Her eyes sparkled as she opened a search engine and quickly pulled up a map of northern Canada and the surrounding Arctic Circle. “I was researching Iqaluit right before the fire. It’s a tiny town by most standards, but the largest northern city in Canada. And,” she added, zooming in, “it has an airport.”

“Aside from the airport, there’s not much up there.” From what he could see on the map, the entire city was surrounded by absolutely nothing.

“Can I turn these on?” She pointed to the other two monitors on his desk. “I want to show you the articles I found on Iqaluit.”

When he nodded, she pushed the power buttons, and again, her fingers clicked on the keyboard with speed and expert precision. In seconds, a different article displayed on each of the three monitors. Resting a hand on the back of her chair, he leaned in and began reading. When she sat back, her thick, silky hair brushed against his fingers, making it tough as hell to concentrate.

Somehow he managed, and five minutes later, he’d read all three articles. “So there’s a military power play at work here between the Russians and the Canadians. And the Canadians are scared the Russians will take over the shipping routes and control vast areas of untapped resources in the Arctic Circle. Iqaluit is where the Canadian government will meet to figure out how to thwart them.”

“I’m impressed.” Again, she smiled at him, and again, he liked it. Too much.

He slanted her a sarcastic look. “I did go to college.”

“I never meant to imply you hadn’t.” She turned to face him full on, crossing her arms, plumping her breasts. “But not every college graduate can pick up on the subtle nuances of an international article with worldwide implications so quickly, let alone cut to the heart of the matter with such pinpoint accuracy.” She scrunched her face, something he’d seen her do when she was pondering truly deep stuff. “What did you study in college?”

“Political science and law.” With a few criminal justice classes on the side that he’d intentionally failed to mention to his father.

“Where did you get your degree?” she asked.

“Harvard.”

“No shit.” She clapped her hand over her mouth.

He snorted at her spontaneous curse word. She was already getting the hang of it. “Try to contain your shock. Cops can read.”

“I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

“Clearly.” He scowled.

“How is it you wound up in law enforcement instead of practicing law?”

“Fate, I guess.” And a life-altering event he wasn’t prepared to share. “Sometimes life has a way of pointing us in the direction we were always meant to go, even if it wasn’t where we thought we’d wind up.”