This time, Max Keagan will lose it all.
* * *
The operative known as Robin stood on a rocky outcropping and scanned the Pacific skyline. Soon Max would be in Guam. A fitting place to finish it since the South Pacific island earned so much history for both of them.
The rest of the world might buy that sappy cover story about freeing a couple of dolphins, but Robin knew better. Sure they would be set free. Eventually. But first the trained government dolphins would perform one last mission with CIA Officer Maxwell Keagan.
Together they would locate the tap the Cantou government had placed on a U.S. military underwater communications cable.
A mission Keagan could not be allowed to accomplish. Too much valuable information filtered through that line.
The phone vibrated in Robin's hand with an incoming call. Encrypted cell phones made this too easy. "Yeah?"
"We expected an update yesterday."
"I'm on it. Keagan takes off before sunrise." Waves crashed against the rocky cliff. Salty spray stung the skin, the eyes, rasping against every sense and demanding remembrance of another time.
"Do you need more support?"
"Negative." Definitely not. No one else would get a shot at Max. Personal debts demanded payment face-to-face. "Give me time to monitor his underwater search pattern."
"Good point. With any luck he'll be miles off. As long as he and his dolphins aren't close to the transmitter, there's no need to risk riling the Agency by eliminating him."
Robin stifled the urge to argue. Not a chance would Keagan walk away. Max would die this time, even if it meant feeding him enough information to put him and his god awful flamboyant wet suits on top of that line tap.
If only it were as simple as just popping him. But without the payoff, there would be no plush retirement.
No. Better to make Keagan's death palatable to the other side. "I'll check back when I have more."
Robin disconnected. Anticipation stung with as much power as the exploding surf.
Only a few weeks at the most until the easy life in Switzerland, thanks to money saved from years of bartering secrets to other countries. Ensuring the security on that tap of the U.S. military's oceanic communications cable out of Guam would rake in the final jackpot.
Not to mention an added bonus in the sweetest payoff of all—finally delivering lethal revenge to Maxwell Keagan.
And heaven help anyone who stood in the way.
Chapter 2
Would you please get out of my way?" Darcy elbowed aside Crusty's arm before he could swipe her sunflower seeds from the C-17's control panel. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to fly an airplane."
"Show some respect for your elders." Crusty's chuckling voice echoed through the headset from his seat behind her.
"Yeah, yeah." She pitched the bag over her shoulder while keeping her other hand steady on the stick.
The night sky swam before her windscreen. Stars dotted the panorama as if dropped there, like in one of her nephew's pop-up books. Bronco sprawled in the aircraft commander's seat beside her, reading a book and periodically checking her controls.>Touch-and-go. Her heart rate fired like jet pistons chugging to life. Why did a routine flight term suddenly sound sexy courtesy of Dr. Keagan?
Duh! Because his bad-boy, fine self was sitting no less than eighteen inches away, his eyes gliding over her flight suit with a heat she'd never, never had sizzle her way before from any guy. After all, men did not look at their best bud that way, even if said bud was a woman.
Darcy savored the heat all the way to her toes.
Twenty-five years of virginity, of overprotective relatives, of being everybody's pal and never the object of those sleepy-lidded stares, weighed her down like a seventy-pound survival pack ready to be shed after a marathon trek. She was tired of being slotted into safer roles.
Why wait until after this mission to go for what she wanted? Here was a big, hunky risk ready for the taking.
And she could have that risk without breaking her personal rule. No military men. No men like her father, government protectors by training, trade and blood.
Before she lost her nerve, Darcy extended her fist toward Max. Her fingers unfurled to reveal a now-steady palm full of sunflower seeds. "Want some?"