The Gemini Deception Read Online Free Page B

with, or whether or not she was on a job as Shield, wine never escaped her attention.
    The only other interesting entity at the table was the incoming American president, the first female to hold that office. Elizabeth Thomas wouldn’t even be officially sworn in for another few weeks because of a court-ordered recount, but the outgoing president had invited her to represent the U.S. at the conference. To all appearances, the woman looked calm and in control, but Shield picked up on the minor nuances that transmitted her newness and nerves: she listened too attentively and fidgeted with her napkin, albeit discreetly.
    At forty-three, Elizabeth Thomas was poised to soon become the youngest U.S. president since JFK, and that meant all eyes were on her, not only because of her age but because she was such an attractive woman. Her short brown hair was a bit too stern and immaculately coiffed for Shield’s taste, but like anyone in the president-elect’s position, she probably didn’t have a choice in the matter. Beautiful, powerful women appealed to Shield because they had something to say and didn’t feel the need to decorate every sentiment with three adjectives. Plus, she found something sexy about their dominant composure, which usually carried over into bed.
    “He seems decent,” the agent beside her replied, his accent placing him somewhere from the American Midwest. Like Shield, his eyes constantly scanned the room.
    “I guess. When it comes down to it, they’re all the same.”
    “I know what you mean. My name’s Joe, by the way.” He made no move to offer his hand, as that would have drawn attention to them. They were communicating so discreetly, in fact, that others in the room were unaware they were even talking.
    Shield didn’t feel the need to share her own name. Instead, she checked the time and tapped the watch with her finger.
    “Bored?” he asked.
    “Numb.”
    “How long have you been sitting?”
    “Legard?”
    “In general.”
    “Twelve years, give or take.” In her peripheral vision, Shield caught him lifting one eyebrow.
    “Long time,” he said.
    “I guess.”
    “For the French?”
    “For whoever.”
    “But you’re with the French SS, right?” he asked.
    “I’m not with anyone.”
    “Oh. You have a bit of an accent, so—”
    “Private security.” It was bad enough that the protection jobs had become tedious and tiring. She despised occasionally having to put up with conversations like this—trivial niceties about absolutely nothing.
    To most, she sounded American, but to those who, like her, had been trained to pick up on details, she clearly had a slight accent. He was wrong to peg her as French, though. She’d been stationed in Italy for two months at the age of twenty-three while on her first assignment with the Elite Operatives Organization and had fallen in love with the country. Though it took a while to convince EOO chief Montgomery Pierce to agree to base her there, he finally gave in, and she’d spent her off time the past dozen years at her villa in the mountains of Tuscany.
    Joe mumbled all quiet discreetly into the transmitter in his sleeve. “I see. You don’t say much, do you?”
    Shield shrugged. “Not if I can help it.”
    He smirked and ignored the hint. “I’m with the American president-elect.”
    “That’s nice.” They both knew Shield was aware of whom Joe was sitting, but the never-ending need to point out the obvious seemed ever present and ever irritating at functions like this. Shield glanced at Thomas. Maybe some of her irritation had to do with the fact she envied Joe. If she was going to be taken away from the country she loved and halted from doing what she wanted most, then the least she could do was have someone interesting, or at least novel, to guard.
    Joe must have read her mind or her eyes. “Not as interesting as you might think,” he whispered conspiratorially. “Europeans have a certain taste for…intrigue that Americans