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“I’ll have Noah talk to Ghazil. We’ll buy this chopper so we’re not arrested for grand theft.”
“Uh…” She laughed. “I don’t know we can, Daddy. It’s a prototype. They won’t sell. They’d be out of their minds to.”
“In that case, I’ll have John call them. He can make them a very lucrative offer.” He shook his head.
“What?” she asked.
“Some daddies have little girls who want to dress their own stuffed animals, spending hours and hours playing with them. Others color or play with toys. Mine wants state-of-the-art war machines that she can use to attack heavily armed fortresses. I guarantee, if I can get this for you, you’ll have it completely pulled apart and reassembled within the first two months.”
She flew in silence for a bit, chewing on her bottom lip. “Do… do you wish I was more like other little girls?”
Thom laughed. “No, baby. Daddy loves you just the way you are, even when you’ve been a naughty girl and need your bottom spanked.”
“But I rescued you.”
“Arguing with Daddy will earn you another spanking. Is that what you want?”
“No, Sir. I just thought…”
“You just thought you’d mind me when you felt like it and could ignore the rules when you wanted to. Did the contract you signed have any such provisions?”
“No, Sir.”
“So, you broke several rules and deserved to be spanked. I need you to know that you can always count on me to provide you with the care, concern, and loving discipline you need. Isn’t that what you told Daddy you wanted and needed?”
“Yes, Sir,” she said morosely.
“Do you think that I don’t love you or care enough about you to provide what you need? Or, maybe you don’t think I’m capable.”
“No, Thom. That’s not it at all. It’s just, well… I did just save you.”
“By immediately disobeying what I told you regarding rule eleven,” he told her. “Believe me, that is very prominent in my mind right now. It’s also very prominent in my mind that had you stayed put and done what I told you to do, relaying that message to Mandy, then I’d have been saved by the guys at our firm—you know, the ones who get paid to put their lives on the line—and you, Finn, and Zara wouldn’t all be expecting bright red bottoms.”
“Would you stop reminding me, please?” she moaned, rubbing her head under the lip of her helmet. That she felt guilty at least about this part was obvious. “They shouldn’t get in trouble…”
“Of course they should. Either of them could have stopped you, but they didn’t. Finn, I suspect because of her sense of guilt. Croft’s going to need to get that spanked out of her. It isn’t healthy to hold that kind of emotion in. As for Zara, I’m sure she was cognizant of the danger, but the idea of outfoxing Noah had way too much appeal. You and I, little girl, are going to take at least a day or two to get things straightened out between us.”
“Don’t you think, just maybe, we ought to make sure this info gets to where it needs to go?”
“As soon as we land, you are going to hand that off to me. I’ll transmit the information to Mac over our secure satellite and he will deliver it to General Markoff in Belgium.”
“Was Mac on his way to Belgium?”
“No. Normally, as our chief IT guy, I’d have gotten it to Markoff, but I’m going to be tied up for a few days getting a certain little girl of my acquaintance to understand a few things. Noah would have been the next logical choice, but again, he has to take care of Zara. You do see where this is going, don’t you?”
“If I’d followed protocol, you’d be safe, our boss wouldn’t be on his way to Belgium, and Finn, Zara, and I wouldn’t be facing disciplinary spankings. It’s just weird, Thom. Before we got together, not one of you would have batted an eye.”
“That’s not true, baby. Think about it, none of us have ever wanted you put in the crosshairs. As much as we could, we kept your escapades strictly to flying. Dangerous flying at times, but not assaulting the compounds of international arms dealers. But today, you just took it upon yourself to do this solo. When was the last time anyone on this team—this being so important, let me stress it twice,team—went off on a tangent by himself? Add to that, we’re the only ones that work together.”
They flew the rest of the way to the safe house in Monaco in a companionable silence. Avery piloted the chopper, while Thom made arrangements to get the information to Mac and ultimately to Markoff.
Following the GPS coordinates to the safe house, she was impressed when she flew in over the harbor. The firm had completed the work needed. While the fishing cottage looked like many others dotted along the coastline, the difference was that there was a short landing strip, as well as a helipad (the concealing doors of which didn’t even open up to reveal thehidden helipad until Thom entered a computer code) and a dock. The landing strip and helipad were well camouflaged, but the dock looked as though it, and the attached boathouse, had been there for decades. No one flying randomly overhead would ever have guess that this was, in fact, a top echelon safe house.
Once they had landed, Thom activated the hangar and the landing pad sank back into the earth, letting the doors close automatically overhead. The brief darkness that followed was quickly interrupted by the flicker of the hangar lights as they winked on. With the chopper powered down, they got out.
“This,” Avery said, clearly delighted, “is a little Bondian even for you.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I thought you’d get a kick out of it. There’s a tunnel that leads back to the cottage, one that leads out to the docks, one to the barn that houses the plane and another that leads down the road to an old shack where we’ve got an SUV and a motorcycle stashed.”
