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It’ll bounce around the world five times and eventually lead them right to a computer at the Vatican.”
    “But I had to leave the wireless device connected.”
    “That’s not a problem,” he assured her. “I have my system set up to break the connection thirty seconds after the last file transfers.”
    “Aren’t you the smarty pants.”
    “Check out the German using American idioms.”
    There was a long pause on the other end, and Jake wasn’t sure if Alexandra was simply concentrating on her driving or contemplating something important.
    “Is everything all right?” he asked her.
    She let out a heavy sigh and said, “I don’t know, Jake. I’m leaving the service.”
    “We talked about this,” he said. “I thought you planned on staying through the end of the year.”
    “I know what I said. But I can’t do this anymore. My country has lost its way. They’re selling major weapons systems to the Chinese.”
    Jake laughed. “Funny you should say that. I’m in Taiwan right now.”
    “Seriously? What time is it there? I’m sorry. I thought you were still in Costa Rica.”
    “No problem. It’s just after midnight here.” He tried to calculate the time in Germany, or the day for that matter, but he was coming up with a blank. “What day and time is it there?”
    “Friday. Just after seventeen hundred. What are you doing in Taiwan?”
    “It’s a long story,” he said. “My old employer got me involved with something.”
    Hesitation on the other end. Finally, she said, “You’re searching for Remington. We got an alert on him weeks ago. We have bets back at the office as to where he will eventually turn up. Do you have any inside information to make me some money?”
    He explained the situation with the banker and his death earlier that evening. “I’m still trying to go over the data. Almost everything is in Chinese, though.”
    “I can’t help you there,” she said. “What about that old girlfriend of yours.”
    Jake knew she meant Chang Su. The two of them had met a couple of times in Austria. “I guess I could ask for her help.”
    “You don’t have a local contact?” she asked.
    “No. I don’t know who to trust. Remington still has friends in the Agency all over the world. The local office doesn’t even know I’m in country.” At least he didn’t think so.
    Engine noise from the other end of the line increased suddenly.
    “Is everything all right?” Jake asked.
    “Yeah. I just had to kick up my speed a little bit.”
    “You have to be careful,” Jake said. “That German defense contractor has a lot of pull in your country. If they find out you stole information from them, they will come after you.”
    “I know, Jake.” She was silent for a moment. “I just didn’t want them coming after you also.”
    “I can handle myself.”
    “And I can’t?”
    “That’s not what I meant. I’m just a lot harder to reach right now.”
    “I know,” she said. “I’m just messing with you.”
    He almost forgot about her great sense of humor. Jake really missed his old friend. “What will you do now?”
    “I don’t know. Do you have any plans on taking on a partner?”
    He laughed. “My plans were to retire and go fishing. You see how that’s worked out for me. The bastards keep pulling me back into the game.”
    “I hope you charged them this time.”
    “Damn right. It’s all off books, of course. The money is filtered through a U.S. consultant group to one of my offshore accounts.”
    “Brilliant. But you know they’ll hang you out to dry if anything happens to you. Especially with Kurt Jenkins gone. And Toni.”
    Jake had tried his best to block out the murder of his old friend and onetime lover, Toni Contardo. But it was hard to do so, especially with the revelation at her memorial service that the two of them had had a child together over twenty years ago.
    “I’m sorry, Jake. I didn’t mean to bring her up.”
    “You were friends also, Alexandra.”
    “I