of fronts. Some days she didn't know if she was leading operations or struggling to trail after them. This was one of the latter.
'It appears that we've stirred up a proper hornets' nest with our newest possible protege,' Samantha said.
'What happened?' Kate asked.
'She spotted the men I had watching her.'
'That proves she's as good as we thought. She's going to have to be if she agrees to come on board.'
'Evidently she has her own ax to grind. A short time ago, she approached those men. Took one of them down. Then threatened him.'
'Who did you have on this?' Kate asked.
'MI-5. I called in a favor from a friend,' Samantha answered. 'This won't track back to me.'
'What does Ms. Manaev want?'
'To meet whoever put the tail on her.'
'That sounds reasonable. Did she give you a place to meet her?'
'No. The men watching her reported that she left her parents' home.'
Kate nodded. 'She knows she can't protect them.'
'That's what I was thinking, too,' Samantha replied. 'She's setting herself up as a target.'
'Or going to MI-6 for help.'
'I don't think that has happened.'
'MI-6 could provide a bodyguard or take her parents into protective custody,' Kate said.
'You and I both know bodyguards only raise the cost of an action. They can't negate it over the long run. Taking her parents into protective custody would reveal what she does.'
'Which her parents don't know.'
'Correct.'
Kate thought about that. 'Obviously she's comfortable in her skills to protect herself.'
'And she's convinced that whoever is after her is after her alone. She's curious.'
'Curiosity killed the cat.'
'True. But now we're curious. We knew she would eventually spot the tails we put on her, but we thought she might go to MI-6. She's quite confident in acting independently. That's a quality we value, given the nature of the assignment we're going to ask her to take on,' Samantha said.
Kate leaned back in her chair. 'She's used to keeping secrets. Her parents don't know what she does. They didn't know what her brother did.'
'She's trying to keep it that way.'
'Why?' Kate trusted Samantha's judgment when it came to understanding young women.
'She wants a home,' Samantha said. 'Someplace inviolate where her work doesn't overshadow everything.'
Kate opened Ajza ManaeVs computer file and flipped through the images she had of the young woman. Most of them were around the family shop or at corporate functions where she maintained her cover. She looked happy and outgoing. Judging from the pictures, she and her brother were close to each other and to their parents.
'Keeping secrets makes for a hard life,' Kate said.
'Especially when you're keeping them from those you love,' Samantha agreed. 'Ajza told the MI-5 operative that whoever sent him has until ten tomorrow morning my time to contact her.'
'How are you supposed to contact her?' Kate asked.
'Through a chat room at an Internet porn site.'
'Lovely.'
'I thought so. But those sites are heavily protected. After all, most of their clients can't afford to be found out.'
'And traffic will be high on those sites.'
'Yes. With lots of linkers and people getting off and on — no pun intended.'
'She'll use a cyber cafe, of course,' Kate said.
'Of course. I would.'
'I can put some of our techs onto the site. They can try to ferret her out for you,' Kate said.
'Do it. I want to know how good she is.'
'I'll talk with her, then get back to you,' Samantha said.
'Do that.' Kate said goodbye and broke the connection.
Kate drummed her fingers on her desktop. 'I'm beginning to think Ajza Manaev is
21
Ajza leaned into the phone booth at the rail station. The building trapped the noise of conversations and the arriving and departing trains. She glanced at the digital clock over the entranceway to the boarding area and matched it against her watch.
Surely it wasn't too early. Trevor had had hours to work with the information she'd given him. Less than four hours remained before she was supposed to be contacted.
She dropped coins into the slot, punched in a number she'd memorized when she'd first called Trevor, and waited. He picked up on the first ring.
Ajza took solace in Trevor's familiar voice. He was a childhood friend of both her and Ilyas. For a time he'd lived in Leicester, then migrated to London with them when they all attended university. Where Ilyas had majored in history and art, and Ajza had majored in business, Trevor had gotten a degree in computer programming.
Incredibly bright and talented, with the most inquisitive nature Ajza had ever seen, Trevor could have taught the classes he'd taken. Only the constant scams and pranks he'd performed at university had kept him there. He'd become the bane of the computer department because he'd been so intelligent and enjoyed the rivalry and competition as they'd struggled to find some way to expel him.
On more than one occasion, he'd admitted his friendship with Ilyas and Ajza had barely lifted the university experience up to tolerable levels.
'You are making do, I trust?' he asked.
'Yes.'
'No lurkers or other dreadfuls about?'
Ajza scanned the passengers who filled the station. 'Not unless they're very skilled,' she replied.
Neither she nor Ilyas had told Trevor that they worked for MI-6. But he'd kept watch over them and knew they were more than they let on. Besides being very talented with computers, Trevor was a keen observer of people. He'd known exactly when Ilyas and Ajza had decided to keep secrets from him.
Sometimes she felt guilty for not telling Trevor. She knew, when it came to secrets, Trevor could keep quiet better than anyone.
'Let's hope that they're not,' Trevor said.
'I haven't much time,' Ajza apologized.
'No problem, love. I've got the information you requested.'
'Was he really MI-5?'
'Yes. I hacked into their network and confirmed the ID. I also went back through his files and matched up details with news stories. He's the real deal.'
Ajza let out a breath. That wasn't a surprise, but it was off-putting all the same.
'So what have you done to raise the ire of MI-5?'
'I don't know.'
'Love,' Trevor said more quietly and with less-boyish enthusiasm than before, 'if you're in trouble with this lot, it can be quite bad.'
