The Finish Line

'Not in the slightest.' Kate's computer chimed yet again. 'Damn, when things happen, they really happen fast.' She crossed the room to the computer and stabbed a key. 'Yes?'

'Primary, this is NiteMaster. I have a fix on your target with a seventy-eight percent chance of accuracy.'

Kate sank into her chair again. 'Where?'

'You're not gonna believe this, but…' a photograph popped up of the outside of the house on Wyvil Road, and of the crowd surrounding the police vehicles '…she actually went back to the scene of the crime.' The picture zoomed in on a woman in a baseball cap, denim miniskirt and leggings, with a laptop case over her shoulder. Although she was watching the police work with the rest of the crowd, she also did her best to keep her head down and face away from the news cameras. 'When she left, she forgot to keep herself covered, and a watch camera on the next block got a good front-on shot.'

He showed the ball-cap-clad girl next to the grainy shot of the woman they had obtained from their specialist on the Midnight Team. She had cut her hair, and her clothes were completely different, but the face was the same, albeit happy in the first picture, and haunted in the second.

'That's her, all right. How are you doing following her trail?' Kate asked.

'She's good, I'll give her that. She crossed into several areas that weren't covered by surveillance programs, so there are gaps in our coverage. However, using the general timeline, as well as the average walking speed of a five-foot-eight female…'

Kate cut him off. 'NiteMaster, I don't need to know how, I need to know where she is now.'

The hacker blinked as if being brought back to reality from his virtual version. 'Oh, right. Anyway, using a spiral search correlated with the time-stamp data, I found her outside a hotel near the St. Pancras railway station this morning. She's a blonde now, by the way, and I last spotted her coming out of a coffee shop near the train station.'

'Fantastic.' Kate was already dialing. 'See if you can locate a more recent sighting, and also watch for tickets being bought within twenty minutes of that time to Paris, and the name of each purchaser — we might be able to get a name out of this. Great work.'

'Thanks, I'll let you know if I find anything more. NiteMaster out.'

Kate's call was answered on the first ring. 'Go for M-One.'

'This is Primary, we have a lead. St. Pancras Station. Must warn you that locals are involved.'

'MPS?'

'Government.'

'Mmm. Just have to watch our steps even more, then. Will report in when we are on-site. M-One out.'

'Primary out.' Kate disconnected and sat back, rotating her shoulders to relieve some of the tension that had tightened them into knots. She kept a careful watch of the time, waiting to tick off the seconds. When five minutes had elapsed, she dialed a familiar number.

'Hello, Samantha. Yes, we just got something. Our target has been sighted near St. Pancras Station…'

12

Marlene quickened her pace as she approached the St. Pancras Station, barely glancing up at the refurbished building's Italian gothic facade with its new, ornate clock tower that was currently tolling eight o'clock. She hurried past the bustling rows of brand-new retail shops, cafes, bookstores and bakeries that catered to the commuting and tourist crowd in the packed station. Thousands of travelers flowed to and from the neighboring King's Cross Station, as well as catching or getting off trains heading to Scotland, the East Midlands, Sheffield, Yorkshire and elsewhere.

And of course, there was also the Chunnel rail link, which allowed a passenger to step onto a single high-speed train in London and step off in Paris. If all went well, that was exactly what Marlene planned to do.

She got in line and nervously counted her money — a little over two hundred pounds at the moment. Once she got a ticket, she'd still have to cool her heels at the station for fifteen minutes until the train was ready for boarding. First things first, she thought, concealing her nervous impatience as the line inched forward. At last, she got to the ticket window, and even though it cost more than she would have liked, she secured her seat — the last one in her traveling class — on the eight-thirty train departing for Paris. If she'd had more cash, she would have bought several tickets to different destinations, hoping to confuse anyone monitoring the system. But getting out of the country was the most important goal at the moment, so she had to take the direct route and hope she was still ahead of her pursuers.

Now all she had to do was sit and wait inconspicuously until the train was ready for boarding. Marlene found a bench under the Barlow train shed, which she had read about in the Times having suffered from cost overruns during its restoration. All looked fine now, with new steel framework supporting clear Plexiglas panels that let in the wan English sun. Marlene tried to at least appear as if she was enjoying the morning, but she couldn't help glancing around her, trying to see everywhere at once. Stop it, you only look more suspicious, she thought as she leaned against the back of the bench, trying to blend with the commuting crowd once again.

The announcement to board the London-to-Paris train echoed from the loudspeakers, jolting Marlene into alertness. She pushed off the bench, making sure her laptop case was secure, and walked down the platform, keeping a wary eye on anyone who looked to be taking any sort of interest in her. She saw the doors only a few yards away. Just a few more steps, and she'd be safe…

Marlene felt a hand grip her arm at the same moment something needle-sharp pricked into her back.

'Just keep walking right on past those doors,' a tony British voice said in her ear. 'We're going to keep going for a few more steps, then you'll stop as if you forgot something, and we'll retrace your steps and walk right out of the terminal. Any attempt to resist me will be met with a painful deterrent.' The point of the knife jabbed her rib cage to emphasize the instructions.

Marlene tensed, then forced herself to relax and keep moving with him. 'Are you from Mercury?'

'Let's just say my employers are very interested in talking to you about an item of ours that you have in your possession. All right, we're going to stop in the next few steps.'

While he spoke, Marlene had been looking around for what she needed. Up ahead, she saw him — a uniformed Metropolitan Police officer patrolling the platform a dozen yards away. She whirled around, pushing the laptop case between herself and her captor to not only break his hold, but also to keep the case between his blade and her body. Before he could grab her again, she picked up the laptop case by its handle and shoved it into his face, knocking him off balance, while screaming.

'Help, police, he's trying to kidnap me! Help, police!'

The effect was immediate. The uniformed officer turned and began trotting toward the scuffle. At the same time an unremarkable man who had been waiting for a nearby train dashed up and tackled the man, sending his blade skittering across the floor.

'Knife, he's got a knife!' Blowing a whistle, the uniformed cop piled onto the melee, and the three men fought and cursed as they wrestled each other. Marlene looked around, fearful that the scuffle had attracted too much attention, but other than a few passersby stopping to stare while giving the struggling, swearing men a wide berth, the platform was still fairly clear. She edged toward the platform, willing the doors to open as if she could pry them apart by her desire to escape alone. For some reason the train still wasn't ready, and she glanced at the main entrance one more time, and that's when she saw them.

Two men, one a lean, blond-haired man with an alert, wary gaze and a slightly hunched posture, as if he was hiding something in his Windbreaker that Marlene certainly didn't want to know about. The other man was pure predator, scanning the crowd with measured sweeps of his gray eyes, his dark brown hair cut short to his skull, his stance alert, ready.

Their gazes met, just for an instant.

Although Marlene had never seen either man before, she knew they were there for her.