The End Game

She was wearing her signature biker chick black and those butt-kicker boots. “I miss the little black dress, that was a visual treat, particularly with the boots.” As if he couldn’t help himself, he lightly touched his fingers to her cheek. “You’ll get your Glock back today.”

“I sure hope so. I mean, if we’d been attacked over the weekend, I’d have had to bruise my knuckles protecting you.”

“Nah, you have your ankle piece, but if you’d like I could teach you to fight without using your fists.”

She laughed, couldn’t seem to keep it in. As for Mr. James Bond, he couldn’t look more different from her this morning in a lovely gray pin-striped suit, white shirt, and Italian loafers shined to a high gloss. “I gotta say, you sure clean up well.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Nigel wanted me to tell you he’s practicing enchilada recipes, wants you to come over and be his taste tester.”

That silly grin bloomed again, plastered itself all over her face. “I can’t wait. Come on, we’ve got to go see Zachery.”

They saw the updated threat matrix glowing on the wall of the conference room as they passed by. There was always something new, which meant, for them, that life was never boring.

They passed Ben Houston, who gri

“About time for what?”

Nicholas laughed. “You, me, us.”

She stopped cold. “But how could he tell? Am I wearing a red SS on my forehead?”

“SS?”

“Not telling. Work it out in that feeble brain of yours.”

He was laughing when they walked into Zachery’s office to see Savich sitting on the black leather couch, his leg swinging, fiddling with MAX.

He looked up when they came in. He rose, shook their hands. “Hi, Mike, Nicholas. Neither of you look worse for wear after the excitement at Camp David.” He paused, then, “As for your weekend, I have to say it appears it was, ah, congenial. Sherlock sends her love and Sean is chomping at the bit for another video game knock-down, drag-out with you, Nicholas.”

Congenial? Now, that was an understatement for the ages. Mike said, “It’s great to see you, Dillon, but what are you doing at Federal Plaza? Are you here to take over the New York Office?”

Before he could answer, Zachery said, “No, he’s not. Savich knows I’d fight him to the death, very likely mine. Come on in, you two, and shut the door.”

Now, what was this all about? Nicholas closed the door, then sat next to Mike. He cocked an eyebrow at Savich. “What’s happening?”

Mike said, “Please don’t tell us Zahir Damari had a brother, a really nasty mean vengeful brother?”

Zachery said, “He does, actually, but thankfully, they’re not what you’d call a close family.” He turned to Savich. “You tell them.”

Savich set MAX aside, leaned forward. “Let me say that you two have proven yourselves to be an interesting problem for the FBI. You have a tendency to find cases that explode into something bigger. You’re both excellent investigators, you’re both out-of-the-box thinkers, actually, you’re both unlike anything we’ve seen before. To be honest, too, you clearly don’t care about flaunting the rules when you want to achieve a goal.”

Zachery said, “Mike follows the rules, yes, but Nicholas, alas, would just as soon burn them.”

Mike felt like screaming. Who cared about rules? Where was this going? Were they going to be booted out?

Zachery continued: “But the fact is, we are an organization of rules. Nicholas, it’s obvious to all of us who work with you that you are inclined to feel occasionally hampered by our constraints and procedures.”

Mike shot Nicholas a look. Another vast understatement.

Savich said, “I think we’ve come up with a way to make sure you two can follow your instincts, be wild-hairs when you feel it’s necessary, and the U.S. government won’t have to arrest you and throw out cases because you’ve overstepped legal bounds. We’re creating a special unit, authorized by Vice President Sloane directly. We know the president will sign off, too, once he’s better.”

“A special unit?” Mike said, her heart begi

Savich nodded. “You’re going to be a small mobile unit, handling some of our more esoteric cases. Your scope is international, your budget is unlimited. Well, if you decide to buy a small country, I imagine there would be questions raised. You are a black ops line item, as of this moment.”

Mike clamped her jaws to keep her mouth from dropping open. Black ops line item?

Nicholas raised an eyebrow. “We’re still FBI, correct?”

“On the surface, yes, absolutely,” Savich said. “But your unit will have exceptional powers. You will be able to move through all areas of the government as needed with no roadblocks. You will pick your team, though we have some suggestions. We think Gray Wharton, Ben Houston, Louisa Barry, and Lia Scott would be excellent teammates. You’ve proven your ability to work well with all of them in the past.”

“Adam Pearce,” Nicholas said. “I want Adam Pearce, too.”

Savich nodded. “An excellent idea. Talk about keeping you humble—rounds you out to an even eight.”

Mike said, with a half-smile, “Who runs this unit?”

“You and Nicholas are joint chiefs,” Savich said. “I trust you to keep each other in check. You’ll report directly to Mr. Zachery and you’ll continue to have your base of operation out of the New York Field Office. You will have your own section that, I understand, is being set up for you as we speak. After this meeting, you will meet with your team, get settled in.

“I might add that you will have your own transportation for any trips you need to take so we don’t have to keep borrowing other people’s planes.”

Zachery said, “We vacated a space on the twenty-second floor for you. It will fit all of you nicely, plus there’s a good-sized conference room. You can put it together however you’d like.”

Savich said, “You will have access to everything the Hoover Building, the New York Field Office, and Quantico have to offer.”

Savich glanced at Zachery. “We both feel this is the only way to keep you two out of jail. So, what do you think?”

Nicholas looked at Mike. Her eyes glittered, she looked ready to leap out of her chair and dance and hoot and holler, like she would burst with both astonishment and wild happiness. He felt his blood pumping fast and hot, and couldn’t help it—he stood up, grabbed her, and whirled her around.

He set her down and both of them turned and said in unison, “Yes!”

Nicholas shook Savich’s hand, then Zachery’s. “Thank you both. We like the sound of this new unit. We would like to do this.”

“Good,” Savich said. “Now, let’s go over how you’re going to structure this. And we need a name for you. What do you think, we could call you the Double Os?”

Mike said, “It has a ring to it, but unfortunately there’s quite a tradition of the Double Os getting killed in the line of duty.”

“More like replaced, at least in the movies,” Nicholas said. He looked thoughtful a moment, then a smile bloomed. “How about we call ourselves For Your Eyes Only.”

Mike knew this was good, it was exactly right. She stood straight and tall and said formally, “As of this moment, we’re your official covert eyes.”

•   •   •

When they broke ten minutes later, Mike hooked her arm through Nicholas’s and nearly danced him down the hall. “Let’s get a cup of coffee and talk about this.”

He stopped, an eyebrow raised. “What? You really want to talk? Well, it’s about time. Let’s go tell the lads and lasses first, though.”

Mike said, “I can’t wait to see who yells the loudest. Nicholas, can you imagine? We’ll have power over our own cases, and as a black ops line item? Do you have any idea what this means?”