Page 39 of Her Chosen Protector

“This is important, Leland. The bank guards will notice you’re getting the ice. Don’t think they won’t. That’ll be a red flag. They’ll approach you, start asking questions, and eventually be down here.” Her hand sliced through the air. “Conversation closed. I’m going.”

Asher snorted. “Seriously, is this how you did your job as an interpreter? I’m surprised anyone hired you. You need to learn when to take an order.”

“Not the same thing. This is a fluid life-and-death situation. We need everybody cooperating to stay alive. Now, if you have something better than me getting the ice—and fast—let ‘er rip. But the Leland idea is crap.”

All that fire. God, she was compelling. She was wrong, but damned hot.

“You’re wrong. What we want is one of the guards, that guy named Torres, to notice Leland and come on down. This would be a perfect way to get him in on what’s going on without our suspects suspecting anything.”

Eden opened her mouth to disagree. He could tell it was a knee-jerk reaction, but she shut it, instead nodded her head. “You’re right.”

Asher’s radio clicked. He picked up. “Yeah?”

“I’ve got eyes and ears,” Ezio said.

He was liking this Omega Sky guy more and more. “Give me the status.”

“Five people. Four men, and one woman. Speaking English. I recognize Carlson’s voice. One has been referred to as Heinrich. The woman is a tall blonde. One man is overweight, and the other man is Asian. That’s all I’ve got,” he said apologetically.

“Our only wildcard is Patel,” Leland said. “I’m going. I’ve got my phone. I’ll call Eden if I have any problems.”

Asher nodded in agreement.

“Good luck,” Eden encouraged as Leland strode out the door. She bent and checked Suzanne another time, even though the woman tried to wave her away.

“You’ll be doing good once we get some ice on you again.” Then she stood up and looked at Asher. “Is that thing on?” she nodded to the radio.

Ash nodded.

“The people you saw are Heinrich Becker, he’s the IMF Chairman, you know Carlson, the tall blond woman is Dr. Gerta Nilsson. Gerta may or may not be in cahoots with Becker.” She looked up at Asher. “Your computer genius is following Becker’s money to see if he has anything going on with Maduro, right?”

Ash nodded at Eden. He was less than happy, because his friend the guru was late.

“So, who else?” Ezio’s voice came through the radio.

“Kaito Nakamura is the Japanese man. He’s our international stock market expert.”

“Do you speak Japanese?” Asher asked.

“Some. But Kaito’s fluent in English.”

“Ezio, we’ve got Eden York, Leland Hines, and Suzanne Azua here in the basement. At least we did. Leland just left to get ice for the Señora’s neck wound. Let us know the second anyone leaves the office.”

“Roger that.”

Asher clicked on his radio. “Raiden. What’s the status with the elevators?”

“Give me two more minutes, and they’ll be disabled. No explosives necessary.”

“How in the hell did you manage that?” Asher demanded.

“These are an old brand with a specific hoist motor and pendant controller. Nic was able to YouTube how to cripple it. It’ll take new parts to fix.” He could hear the pride in Raiden’s voice.

Gotta love you some YouTube.

Eden heard Asher’s radio click again. It was the first guy, the one who had eyes and ears on Suzanne’s office.

“Another guy just joined the party. He’s American. He’s holding a bag of ice. He and Carlson are yelling at one another.”