Prologue

The doorto his office opened, and he glanced up from his task.

One look at her face as she crossed his lush carpet told him he wasn't going to like whatever was heading right at him.

She came to a halt in front of his large solid oak desk, her cheeks flushed. "Sir, I?—"

He held up a hand. "Let me guess. They failed."

"Yes, sir."

He scowled. "All they had to do was take out one man. Tell Peters to cut them loose." Incompetency made his blood boil. He paid for results, and he expected them.

"They're already dead. They were killed in the attack."

It took a lot to derail him. This amounted to nothing more than a bump in the road, and a small bump at that. He shrugged. "Well, that's a thousand dollars I won't have to pay out. And it also saves me the task of killing them later."

But it still left him with a problem.

And only one solution.

He gave a deep sigh. "I guess I should have known better than to try to handle this myself. One should always rely on professionals." He paused. "Call him. Tell him his assignment is on hold and this one takes top priority." He hated doing this, but the present situation called for the best man he had.

She nodded. "What are his instructions?"

He got up from his desk and walked over to the window. He stared at the outside world.

This is getting serious.

"I need him to track down these fucking nerds and get rid of them." He glanced at her over his shoulder. "Let him know there's a bonus if he can link that fucking ginger genius in this and make sure he's taken care of too."

"That might prove more difficult. CrossBow has just been under attack. Surely they'll be on their guard now?"

He snorted. "Possibly, but they don't know who the target was. They certainly won't connect it to Dr. Josh Malone." He smiled. "And they won't figure that out until it's too late."