The Gemini Deception Read Online Free Page A

cancer that’s spreading and needs to be stopped is the president.”
    “Ah, yes. The bitch.”
    “I want you to help me stop her so we can continue with our very profitable enterprises.”
    “How?”
    “I’m going to need your best men to orchestrate an attempt on her life.”
    “Attempt?”
    “Yes, just an attempt. You are to kidnap her and keep her in your possession until I instruct you to return her to me.”
    “How will my people get the president?” he asked. “She is very much guarded all the time in her white house.”
    “Leave that up to me. I will tell you where and when. All you have to do is make it look like a genuine attempt on her life.”
    “So the country will have no president. How does this change something for us?”
    “Again, leave that up to me.”
    “You have a plan.”
    TQ was tempted to use an expression she never had, one completely out of character. She wanted to say, Duh, you Russian idiot , but refrained. “I do.”
    “But you will not share.”
    “It’s to both our interests I don’t, if you know what I mean.”
    “Your plans stay secret and I know nothing that can implisate me.”
    “Implicate. That’s correct.”
    The Russian laughed. “Always careful. But you understand, this means big money to make it happen. My people will want big money, too. I have the best people who work for me, but they must be persuaded.”
    “I don’t waste money, Yuri, but have you ever heard any rumors involving my lack of generosity for a job well done?”
    “Good rumors. You pay good money.”
    “Then don’t waste my time with pointless comments. Time, like money, is something I hate to waste.” The conversation was draining. She sighed. “Get your people together and I’ll get back to you with what you need to know.”
    “I know just the right person,” Dratshev said, “but I hope I can find her.”
    “I want to believe your ability to help me does not hinge on one individual’s talent.”
    “No, but she is the best.”
    “Make it happen or find a new best if you have to.”
    “No problem for me.”
    “Oh, and Yuri…if I so much as hear a whisper of a rumor from you or your men concerning our plan, I will eliminate you and your wife. And I’ll make your daughter wish she’d become another trophy on that psychopath’s wall.” She knew the reference would have the desired impact. Yuri’s daughter Nina had been the only person to escape serial killer Walter Owens, better known as the Headhunter because he’d cut off the faces of his victims to make macabre masks. TQ laughed when Dratshev didn’t immediately answer. “Okay, Yuri?”
    “ Da …yes,” Dratshev promised with a tremble in his voice. “Not one whisper.”

Chapter Two
     
    Porto Carras, Greece
    Next day, December 17
     
    “Which one’s yours?” The man who spoke was of average height and build and was fairly attractive, with a neat, short haircut and piercing blue eyes. He wore the conservative dark suit that was standard fare for his profession, and Agent Shield wore the feminine equivalent—a crisp white blouse and navy suit tailored to fit her lean, five-foot seven-inch figure. Standing side by side against the wall by the curtains, they provided, as always, the perfect balance between subtlety and warning.
    Others of their ilk occupied similar positions around the perimeter of the banquet hall, watching the dignitaries. The lavish state dinner at the Porto Carras Grand Resort in northern Greece was the final event of a three-day international conference on global warming, so there was at least a pair of bodyguards for every major figure seated at the long table.
    Shield adjusted her earpiece. “Francois Legard,” she replied in a low voice, never taking her eyes off the French prime minister as the waiter poured him a glass of wine. Not bad , she thought, noticing the thickness of the gold liquid and the label. Wine was Harper Kennedy’s passion, and regardless of where she was, whom she was