Viking Read Online Free Page B

viking to
cooperate.
    Orosco was the first viking Mike had ever seen whose background included a graduate
degree in anything, and he appeared to be in superb physical condition. Idly he
wondered what sort of experiences would turn a coach and college professor into a
violent criminal, and then into someone desperate enough for viking service.
    What was Orosco like?
    As if to answer that thought, the comlink readout began to flash on his desktop.
Mike straightened up and pulled a vike headset from a drawer.
    Showtime!

4
    Special Agent Biana Oristano tapped her manicured nails on the desktop and frowned
into the screen.
    “How should I know what the delay is? These things never come off the way they’re
planned. You know that.” She brushed at a stray lock of hair that hung over her eyes
and leaned back slowly. “Besides, why worry? If the mission is a deep-six, it actually
makes our job easier. That much less to investigate.” Her smile was prim.
    “Very funny.” The expression on the weathered face of her boss showed not a trace of
humor. “Uncle Sam’s already sunk a bundle into this little surveillance trick. We’re
gonna go way over budget. So unless you want to get yourself canned, we’ve gotta show
some results.”
    Was he actually as worried as he sounded? Oristano shrugged inwardly. Had no guts at
all. How he’d ever risen so high in the bureau hierarchy was a complete mystery.
    “Look, Darnel, we’ve been over this a hundred times. You know as well as I do that
in our line of work you’re a fool to count on anything. Sometimes you get lucky,
sometimes you don’t.”
    “Yeah, well, we’re not paid to be philosophical. It’d be a whole lot better if we
had something substantive to report.”
    “Agreed. But what do you expect me to do? We could bust into their headquarters with
guns blazing, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything. If we’re ever going to find out
what’s going on with this mission, we have to sit back and see what our gamble brings
us.”
    Her china doll features curved into a half smile. “Look, why do I even need to say
this? You’ve done plenty of operations bigger than this before. You know the game.
Worst case, we lose our man before anything interesting happens, and we start over on
the next mission. At least we’ve got some minor dirt. More likely you’ll be patting
yourself on the back and shaking hands with the President in a couple weeks. Another
high-profile bust. So relax a little.”
    She winked.
    He muttered under his breath and glared at her for a second. “Just keep me posted,”
he grunted, and abruptly broke the connection.
    Oristano exhaled slowly, her smile gradually melting into disgust. Why’d the
arrogant old coot have to pick this operation to get nervous? That was all she
needed.
    Using a fingernail and the reflection of her desktop, she repaired a bit of lipstick
that had strayed from the perfect outline of her lips and glanced at the clock. Six
twenty. Bruce would be idling in the Mercedes outside, fuming like the simpleton he
was.
    Well, he could wait a little longer.
    From a small leather satchel beneath her desk she retrieved a ghost phone—a piece of
bureau equipment that piggybacked onto nearby broadcasts and allowed snooping and
untraceable transmission—and dialed a number.
    “Go ahead.” The masculine voice on the other end was clipped, cool, and quite
clearly unhappy to be disturbed.
    “How’s tricks? Got anything new and juicy and underhanded to report?”
    “I thought you were supposed to know that sort of thing and hold it over my head to
bleed me dry.”
    “I don’t claim to know everything—just enough to make your life a bit more
complicated and expensive. But I’m always one to trade the latest gossip. Why don’t you
give me the official story and I’ll correct you when you bend the truth? I wouldn’t
want you to think I’m irrelevant now that the mission is underway.”
    The phone