Hawk eased out of the water and stripped out of his wetsuit. Alex opened her laptop, focused on her task.
“Being married makes these missions a little more fun,” Hawk whispered.
She wagged her index finger at him and rolled her eyes.
Always such a stickler.
Hawk dressed in the clothes he’d brought with him in a bag. This time they had to make sure not a single trace of evidence, especially digital evidence, was left behind to signal that the list had been compromised.
Once Hawk finished dressing, he looked at Alex. She nodded and pointed at the door, signaling that she had rebooted the alarm system. A mainframe update would take down the security monitors for two minutes. She then hacked into the cameras and set up loops so Hawk could roam around the house without being seen.
He shoved the comlink in his ear and then eased inside.
“Do you have the flash drive?” she asked.
“Yep,” Hawk whispered.
“Be careful. There are still two armed guards in the house.”
“Roger that.”
Hawk crept upstairs and made his way into Orlovsky’s study. The desktop was devoid of anything, most notably a computer.
“There’s nothing here,” Hawk said.
“No computer?”
“Negative.”
“Check the drawer.”
Hawk gave it a tug, and it didn’t budge. “It’s locked. How much time do I have?”
“Ninety seconds. Better hurry up and pick the lock.”
Hawk fiddled with the lock, and after a few seconds it gave way. He opened up drawer after drawer and found nothing.
“Sixty seconds,” Alex warned.
“There’s no computer here.”
“Can’t be. Our intelligence report said he always takes it with him.”
Hawk knelt and rifled through a bunch of files. “Wait a minute. I think I’ve found something. I found a folder with a spreadsheet of a bunch of contacts. This has to be it.”
“Take a picture of it, and get out of there. You’ve only got ten seconds before you’ll be caught in dead man’s land.”
Hawk whipped his phone out and snapped photo after photo of the eight-page document before shoving it back into the desk.
“You need to be leaving like twenty seconds ago,” she said.
“I have to lock the drawer.”
“Hawk! Get out of there now. You’ve got trouble headed your way.”
“Grab my gear, and I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Just trust me.”
Hawk grabbed a mail opener and jimmied the drawer locked. He had started an internal clock in his head and had about five seconds left before the cameras would restart and catch him in the room. But that was the least of his worries as he heard footsteps approaching down the hallway.
Hawk dashed across the room and climbed through the window that opened onto a small balcony extended over the water. He closed the door behind him and stood on the ledge. Wrapping his feet around the railing, he crouched to jump. The sound of the door latch clicking open in the study spurred him to take his leap.
He hit the dingy water with a loud splash. As he rolled over onto his back, he could see the opaque scene above—a man leaning out over the balcony glancing down at the water. After a few seconds, he closed the windows and returned inside.
But Hawk wasn’t taking any chances. Harkening back to his Navy SEAL training, he held his breath and stayed beneath the surface as he swam. When he emerged, he was around the corner, staring directly at a gondola.
“I thought you were busted,” Alex said, reaching her hand down to him.
Hawk gingerly climbed aboard, cautious not to rock the boat too much and tip them both.
“Did you get it?” she asked.
He smiled and held up his phone. “Gotta love innovative technology like waterproof phones.”
“Great,” Alex said. “Now let’s get going.”
Hawk slipped a hat on and started rowing down the canal, while Alex, still decked out in her wetsuit, lay down beneath her blanket. As the oar cut through the water, he belted out the famous barcarola, “Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour.”
“I never knew this side of you,” Alex said. “I only wish I could see it.”
Hawk tried not to laugh as he continued singing. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he looked back to see the guards at Orlovsky’s place calmly patrolling along the rooftop.
One of the guards looked in his direction, but it was merely a passing glance. Hawk steered the gondola around the corner and out of the guard’s line of sight. He tied the boat off at a small dock on the other side of a bridge that connected two central plazas.
When Alex emerged from beneath the blanket, she was no longer wearing a wetsuit, instead sporting a touristy tank top and shorts.
“Impressive,” Hawk said to her as they both quickly stuffed their gear into an oversized beach basket and casually joined the flow of tourists.
“Not as impressive as your operatic singing. But like it or not, I have to cross something off the honeymoon bucket list.”
“What’s that? Swimming in the Venetian canals?” he asked, holding a mischievous grin.
“Uh, no,” she said as she shot him a sideways glance. “I was going to say getting serenaded while riding in a gondola. Of course, I didn’t imagine me hiding under a blanket while wearing a wetsuit and you being the one doing the singing, but off the bucket list it is.”
Hawk stopped and took her by the hand. “You know I’m going to make this up to you, right?”
“Was that ever a question?” she said as she tugged on his arm. “Now let’s get this info back
