stared at him in surprise. “But—”
“If you had kept in touch, you would have been aware of what I have spent months planning.” Diosdado didn’t raise his voice when he was angry. He lowered it. Right now, it was very, very quiet.
Vargas opened his mouth to speak, to protest, but he wisely shut it tightly instead.
“The Cloud of Death intended to take Cortere hostage,” Diosdado said. “Intends,” he corrected himself. “We still intend to take him.” He began to pace—a halting, shuffling process as he dragged his bad leg behind him. “Of course, now that you have intervened, the prince’s security has been strengthened. FInCOM is involved, and my contacts tell me that the U.S. Navy is even playing some part in Cortere’s protection.”
Vargas stared at him.
“So what,” Diosdado continued, turning to face Salustiano Vargas, “do you suggest we do to bring this high level of security and protection back to where it was before you fouled things up?”
Vargas swallowed, knowing what the other man was going to tell him, and knowing that he wasn’t going to like what he heard.
“They are all waiting for another assassination attempt,” Diosdado said. “Until they get another assassination attempt, security will be too tight. Do you know what you are going to do, my old friend Salustiano?”
Vargas knew. He knew, and he didn’t like it. “Diosdado,” he said. “Please. We’re friends. I saved your life—”
“You will go back,” Diosdado said very, very softly, “and you will make another attempt on the prince’s life. You will fail, and you will be apprehended. Dead or alive—your choice.”
Vargas sat in silence as Diosdado limped, shuffling, from the room.
“Tell me what it is about Navy SEALs that makes Kevin Laughton so upset, Your Highness,” Veronica said as she and Joe were delivered safely back to Prince Tedric’s hotel suite. “Why doesn’t he want your Alpha Squad around?”
“He knows his guys would give him problems if my guys were brought in to do their job,” Joe said. “It’s a slap in the face. It implies I don’t think FInCOM can get the job done.”
“But obviously, you don’t think they can.”
Joe shook his head and sat down heavily in one of the plush easy chairs in the royal living room. “I think they’re probably top-notch at mid-level protection,” he said. “But my life’s on the line here, and the bad guys aren’t street punks or crazy people with guns. They’re professionals. Diosdado runs a top-notch military organization. He’s a formidable opponent. He could get through this kind of security without blinking. But he couldn’t get through the Alpha Squad. I know my SEALs are the best of the best. SEAL Team Ten is elite, and the Alpha Squad is made up of the best men in Team Ten. I want them here, even if I have to step on some toes or offend some FInCOM agents. The end result is I stay alive. Are you following me?”
Veronica nodded, sitting down on the sofa and resting her briefcase on a long wooden coffee table.
The sofa felt so comfortable, so soft. It would be so easy to let her head fall back and her eyes close…
“Maybe we should take a break,” Joe said. “You can barely keep your eyes open.”
“No, there’s so much more you need to learn,” Veronica said. She made herself sit up straight. If he could stay awake, she could, too. “The history of Ustanzia. The names of Ustanzian officials.” She pulled a file from her briefcase and opened it. “I have fifty-seven pictures of people you will come into contact with, Your Highness. I need you to memorize these faces and names, and—Lord, if there were only another way to do this.”
“Earphone,” Joe said, flipping through the file.
“Excuse me?”
He looked up at her. “I wear a concealed earphone,” he said. “And you have a mic. We set up a video camera so that you can see and hear everything I’m doing while you’re some safe distance away—maybe even out in a surveillance truck. When someone comes up to shake my hand, you feed me his name and title and any other pertinent info I might need.” He flipped through the photos and handed them back to Veronica. “Pick out the top ten and I’ll look ’em over. The others I don’t need to know.”
Veronica fixed him with a look, suddenly feeling extremely awake. What did he mean, the others he didn’t need to know? “All fifty-seven of these people are diplomats Tedric knows quite well. You could run into any one of these people at any time during the course of this tour,” she said. “The original file had over three hundred faces and names.”
Joe shook his head. “I don’t have time to memorize faces and names,” he said. “With the high-tech equipment we have access to—”
“You don’t have time?” Veronica repeated, eyebrows lifted. “We’re all running out of time, Lieutenant. It’s my task to prepare you. Let me decide what there is and isn’t time for.”
Joe leaned forward. “Look, Ronnie, no offense, but I’m used to preparing for an operation at my own speed,” he said. “I appreciate everything you’re trying to do, but in all honesty, the way that Ted walks and talks is the least of my concerns. I’ve got this security thing to straighten out and—”
“That’s Kevin Laughton’s job,” she interrupted. “Not yours.”
“But it’s my ass that’s on the line,” he said flatly. “FInCOM’s going to change their security plans, or this operation is not going to happen.”
Veronica tapped her fingernails on the legal pad she was holding. “And if you don’t look and act enough like Prince Tedric,” she said tartly, “this operation is not going to happen, either.”
“Get me a tape,” Joe countered. “Get me a videotape and an audiotape of the guy, and I promise you, I swear to you, I will look and act and sound exactly like Ted.”
Veronica’s teeth were clenched tightly together in annoyance. “Details,” she said tightly. “How will you learn the details? Assuming, of course, that you are able to miraculously transform yourself into European royalty simply by viewing a videotape?”
“Write ’em down,” Joe said without hesitation. “I retain written information better, anyway.” The telephone rang and he paused briefly, listening while West answered it. “Lieutenant, it’s for you,” the FInCOM agent said.
Joe reached for the extension. “Yo. Catalanotto here.”
Yo. The man answered the phone with “Yo” and Veronica was supposed to believe he’d be able to pass himself off as the prince, with little or no instruction from her?
“Mac,” Joe said into the telephone. It was Admiral Forrest on the other end. “Great. Thanks for calling me back. What’s the word on getting Alpha Squad out here?”
How did a lieutenant get away with calling an admiral by his first name, anyway? Veronica had heard that Forrest had been a SEAL himself at one time in his long navy career. And from what little she knew about SEALs so far, she suspected they were unconventional in more than just their warfare tactics.
Joe’s jaw was tight and the muscles in the side of his face were working as he listened to Forrest speak. He swore sharply, not bothering to try to disguise his bad language. As Veronica watched, he rubbed his forehead—the first sign he’d given all day that he was weary.
“FInCOM has raised hell before,” he said. “That hasn’t stopped us in the past.” There was a pause and he added hotly, “Their security is lax, sir. Damn, you know that as well as I do.” Another pause. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do that.”
Joe glanced up and into Veronica’s watching eyes. She looked away, suddenly self-conscious