Damon tapped the communications device in his ear. “Chelsea? Are you there?”

“Hey, I hate to pull you away from all your talk, but Walt’s going to be here any minute, and he might run if he hears you talking to your bloody self,” Carter said.

Technology could be so frustrating. He forced himself to focus. Chelsea would get it back on line. She seemed very competent. And he had to hope they weren’t supremely fucked. “We have a slight change of plans.”

He needed to keep the Aussie calm.

Carter couldn’t help but draw some notice. The man was at least six foot seven. Germans weren’t small people, but everyone looked a bit tiny compared to the Aussie. Damon wasn’t used to being forced to look up at anyone. “What’s gone wrong? Damn it. He should be here any minute.”

“We’re going to need to get him to the embassy.” Both the British and the American Embassies were in the plaza behind the Brandenburg Gate. The American was closest and Taggart had informed him that Tennessee Smith was inside, awaiting the outcome. Or more than likely waiting to see if he could get his hands on the package. Apparently he wasn’t the only one.

Damon had to hope their plan went down properly. The addition of the American operative put a kink in everything, but Ian assured him that Ten was in. Tag and Tennessee had spoken during the train ride to Berlin. Jesse and Jake were ready to do what needed to be done. They’d been forced to think on their feet. Not even the women knew what he and Ian had decided to do.

Which was good, because some people might consider what they were about to do treason.

Brody Carter wouldn’t. He’d been the one to come up with the plan in the first place. Too often soldiers only followed orders and not their consciences. This was not going to be one of those times.

“The Germans are looking for Walter. And they very likely aren’t the only ones. Before our system went out, Chelsea said she found some communications between Walter and some German woman.”

Carter cursed, pulling on his ball cap as he shook his head. “Horny bugger. I told him he couldn’t contact anyone. Damn it. She worked in his department.”

“The good news is she didn’t knowingly work for The Collective. The bad news? She decided to inform on him to her government. I can’t imagine this hasn’t gotten out. We have to get Walter to the embassy. We could all find ourselves in a German holding tank talking to their intelligence, and they will get him to hand over the goods.”

What Walter Bennett had in his hands was a weapon of mass destruction. Every government in the world would want it. Every single one of them would kill to get it or keep it out of every other country’s hands.

Carter nodded. “All right. We have to find him first. I don’t know what the fuck this is.”

Damon stared out over the Holocaust Memorial, understanding a bit of Carter’s confusion. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, as its designer had named it, consisted of over 2700 concrete slabs in a grid pattern. From the outside everything looked uniform, as though the slabs were all of the same height. It was very different when Damon walked through to get to the other side. The ground was uneven, sloping in places. One moment he could easily see the tops, and the next he’d been staring up as though he’d gone underground. He’d walked a straight line to the other side but if he’d gone even once off the line, he would have found himself lost.

That massive maze stood between him and the embassy. He wondered what else would be in the way.

Jake Dean walked by, his eyes on a map of the city. “Comm’s down.”

“Yes, I got that.”

“Jesse’s going back to the hotel. Ian doesn’t like it. He can’t get Simon to answer his cell.”

A cold tendril of fear laced through him. “Penelope?”

“Not answering hers either.” Jake put his phone to his ear, looking for all the world like he was talking to someone on the other end. “You handle this. We’re going to figure out the rest. Tag’s on the other side of the…whatever it is. I’ve got to move to the embassy in case we actually get the package. I have to be in place or this could all go to hell.”

“Do you have what you need?” Jake was very important to the plan. He had to be in place.

Jake nodded. “Yes. When Jesse calls, we’ll let you know what’s happening.”

He couldn’t panic. Panic was what whoever was causing the disruption wanted him to do. Weston was deadly. If someone attacked the suite, he would likely be able to handle it. For that matter, Charlotte Taggart wasn’t exactly a shrinking violet.

And neither was his Penelope. She’d killed a man when she had to. She could do it again.

“There he is.” Carter sighed beside him. “God, it’s a miracle he hasn’t got himself murdered by now.”

Carter stepped away, moving toward the trees that lined the road, and Damon got his first look at Walter Bennett. The scientist was a lanky man, looked more like a kid really. Though he knew Bennett was in his thirties, his face was younger, more open than any man who had managed to create one of the deadliest bioweapons in the world should look.

Damon turned away, not wanting to scare the man off, but he strained to listen. He had to stay close because Taggart had no idea the target had arrived. Dean had moved out of his sight line, likely doing long turns around the memorial.

“What the hell happened? I nearly freaked when you didn’t call after Helsinki,” Bennett said.

“I ran into a bit of a mess. And you’re in further than you realize. Why the hell did you talk to Heidi?” Carter sounded brutally annoyed.

“I was lonely,” Bennett whined. “I’ve been hiding here for weeks. I missed her.”

God, Carter should have made sure the poor guy got laid because he couldn’t seem to go for very long.

“She called the Germans,” Carter shot back. “Their intelligence is looking for you. If they know where you are, it’s likely The Collective does, too.”

“Fuck. What are we going to do?”

Carter sighed. “You’re going to listen to a friend of mine. I’ve got a security team around you.”

Damon turned. Walter was starting to back up.

Carter got a hand on him. “Don’t try to run. You’re paying me to keep you alive and that’s bloody well what I’m going to do. I’m going to keep you alive even if it kills me. This man is British intelligence. He wants us to walk over to the embassy.”

Walter went pale. “I can’t. I can’t give this information up to a government.”

“But you were willing to give it to the Internet?” It was time to point out a few things to the very naïve scientist. And it was also time to get out of sight. He nodded toward the memorial. The good news about a maze was everyone tended to get lost.

Carter entered first, hauling Walter along easily.

“If everyone has it, then we all have mutually assured destruction,” Walter said, his feet tripping slightly as they started on a downward slope.

“That might work when it’s two or three superpowers who have nuclear arms,” Damon explained. “I’m going to suspect this is easier to get hands on than uranium and a hell of a lot easier to deliver a payload. If you turn it over to a reporter and it gets out, every extremist group in the world will be cooking up smallpox and unleashing it on their enemies.”

“I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way. God, that sounds horrible. I still don’t think I should give it to the British, though. I’m an American.”

Damon moved carefully toward the other side. He caught a glimpse of something metallic and turned. A man was moving past, roughly ten rows down. He was holding a Ruger.

So the Germans were here. He would bet his life that man was German intelligence. The man disappeared behind the columns as he moved away.

Damon needed to hurry this along. Carter’s eyes had widened. He seemed to have caught the threat, too.

“Nothing is going to matter if we don’t get you out of here now. The Germans likely don’t want to hurt any of us. They don’t particularly want an international incident, but they aren’t bloody stupid. They can’t allow this information to fall into our hands any more than we can let it fall into theirs. We have one shot. We get to the embassy and then I’ll find a way to destroy it. No one should have it. No one.”

He would probably lose his job, but that didn’t sound so terrible anymore. He would try to play it off as incompetence and not a brutal lie.

Of course he had to get to the embassy first. “Do you have the package?”

Walter frowned, though he seemed to be walking on his own now. “Yeah.” He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a thumb drive. “I brought it with me. I kind of want to get rid of it altogether. I wish I’d never worked on it. It was a puzzle. I’ve never been able to turn down a puzzle.”

Damon didn’t care. He just wanted this whole thing over with so he could figure out what had happened with the communications.

“Wir haben sie gefunden,” a masculine voice shouted.

Damon turned to his right, and one of the German agents was moving their way.

“Let’s go,” he said. He ran forward, turning to the right and then the left.

“We can’t get lost in here if we stay together and we bloody well need to get lost,” Carter said. “Give him the package.”

Walter’s eyes widened. “You really trust him?”

“I trust the man he’s with and he tells me to trust this bloke. I also think his girl would kick his arse if he didn’t do the right thing.” Carter put his back against one of the slabs. “We need to split up. There are two things they want. They want the package and they want what made the package. It’s still in Walt’s head.”

“Shit.” Walt’s hands shook as he passed the thumb drive over. “I wish I never did this.”

Scientists had been saying that since they realized their work could be used for mass destruction. They still did it. Damon grabbed the thumb drive. The lives of thousands, maybe millions, were on that drive, and he had to figure out a way to destroy it. He and Taggart had decided hiding it wasn’t good enough. They could hide Walter, but the physical information had to be destroyed.

“Halt!” A tall man started running toward them.

There wasn’t time to debate.

“Get to the embassy if you can or somewhere safe. He needs to disappear.” Damon moved again, running into a tourist and forcing his way by. Maybe if they split up the Germans, their odds would increase.

He needed to find Taggart, needed to know Jesse had made it to the suite and everything was fine.

He also had to hope German intelligence wanted to keep this as quiet as the rest of them or there would be a line of cops waiting for him when he hit the street and started for the embassy. He jogged, the world a gray blur on either side of him.

And then his comm came back online. “Hello, Damon.”

Baz. He would know the voice anywhere.

He stopped, touching his comm so he could talk. “What the hell are you doing on this line?”

“Oh, I thought it was probably time to talk. After all we’ve got some business to do. You’re going to bring me the package and I’m going to trade for something you like.”

His blood went cold. “What?”

“Oh, my gorgeous boy. I think you know.”

He did. Baz had Penny, and he was out of options.

 

* * * *

 

Penny closed her eyes against the bright light of day as she was pulled out of the van Baz had shoved her in.

“Do you remember what our deal is, love?” Baz asked, his voice silky and smooth. He was dressed for the occasion in slacks and a sport coat, his eyes hidden behind a pair of aviators.

She forced herself to nod. She’d come quietly because he’d been willing to not put bullets in the unconscious team members’ heads. “I do.”

“Excellent. Because I have friends who can finish the job if I call them. I actually feel a bit sick that I didn’t take the chance and off Weston. I always hated that bastard. So far above the rest of us.”

“The waiters.”

“What?” Baz shook his head and then it cleared. “Yes, of course. The waiters.” He stepped behind her. “Of course I could always just shoot you, but I think Damon wants you warm.”

She had no doubt that Baz would prefer to murder her in front of Damon.

Baz shoved her a little. “You better hope that your lover isn’t lying about having the package.”

“You better hope that the German intelligence agents aren’t waiting for you.” She stumbled but managed to keep on her feet.

“What are you talking about?”

He didn’t know? The word about Champion had always been that he could be hyper focused to the point that he missed things he shouldn’t. He tended to work alone. He might not know.

“Nothing.” She wasn’t going to hand him information. “I’m sure if Damon says he has the package that he has it.”

“He better.” He looked back into the van at the woman who was driving. “Stay here. You don’t want to cross me. I got you that job. I can take it away, and you won’t like how I get you fired.”

Candice, the turncoat traitor who hopefully would die horribly, nodded. “I get it. Just please hurry. I don’t know how long I can keep the van here.”

“You’ll keep it here as long as I need you to, bitch.” Baz shook his head. “Good help really is hard to find these days.”

“Or it could be no one wants to work with you.” It had been that way at SIS. Only Damon had been able to really stand the man, and now she understood why. Damon held himself apart because he believed everyone would leave him one way or another. Baz had offered him company, but Damon hadn’t been emotionally involved. It had been the best relationship he could manage.

“No one can keep up with me. Move.” He gripped her elbow, forcing her to walk beside him.

She couldn’t forget about that gun in his coat. And there was a possibility that she was wrong about the waiters. If they really did belong to Baz, he could still make good on his threat. She had to do everything she could to keep her people alive.

How quickly they’d become her people. A few short days and she knew she would care about them forever.

“Damon could keep up with you.” For some reason she wanted him talking. Baz seemed to love to talk. Even if he was insulting her, he wasn’t fully thinking about what was about to happen. She needed to keep him engaged. He was moving toward what looked like a forest of cement slabs. The Holocaust Memorial.

If she could get away from him in there, she might have a chance, but she had to find Damon first.

If she ran, what would happen to her friends?

“We’re meeting him in the south corner. And he certainly can’t keep up with me now. I saw to that. Poor Damon with his damaged heart. It’s rather fitting, actually. He’s always had a metaphorical one. I just made it real.” He stopped in front of a bench. “Sit here.”

She sat on the bench, Baz firmly behind her with a hand close to her throat. She was sure they looked somewhat affectionate. Just two tourists enjoying the beauty of Berlin.

“Damon, you’re not here,” Baz said into his device.

She couldn’t see him, but she knew he would be touching the device in his ear, the one he’d taken off Simon’s unconscious body. “I guess you don’t want her. Well, I wouldn’t either. She’s a bit chunky. Look, you don’t have to take the girl. I’ll pay you well. My employers are willing to write you a check. And you know I’d be more than happy to get rid of her for you. It would be my pleasure.”

Damon walked out from between the slabs, moving with none of his normal grace. His chest was working, moving up and down as he forced his lungs to take in oxygen.

“Oh, look, you ran. You know, I remember a time when you could run for hours and I wouldn’t even be able to tell. You were so fit, so young.” Baz’s voice lowered, taking on the intimate tones of a lover.

Damon didn’t look at him, his eyes steady on her. “Are you all right, love?”

Penny nodded. Just being in the same space with him, seeing that he was alive and whole, brought a calm to her she hadn’t possessed before. “Yes. I’m fine. Damon, you can’t give it to him. You know that, right?”

Damon’s face softened. “You’re telling me what I can’t do again. It’s a pattern with you.”

She could see people moving through the columns of concrete in the memorial. She caught flashes of them as they walked through. Why couldn’t anyone see that something terrible was happening under their noses?

“Do you have the package?” Baz asked.

Damon nodded.

She had to stop him. There would be far too many lives at risk if The Collective got their hands on that information again. “Damon, don’t give it to him. Get out of here.”

He could lose himself in that maze. It would be so easy. Even now she saw little splashes of color as someone ran by and then disappeared again.

“But if I leave he’ll kill you.” Damon was perfectly calm, as though they were discussing dinner plans and not the possible fate of the world.

She needed to remind him what was at stake. “And if you give him that information, thousands will die. You know what they’re planning. You have to sacrifice me. You have to. This is a choice between one woman and the world. There is no choice.”

“You’re right. There is no choice.” He held up a small thumb drive dangling from the end of a lanyard. “You are my world, love.”

Her heart cried out for him, but she shook her head. “No, Damon.”

She wanted him to survive, couldn’t stand the thought of living in a world without him, but she couldn’t trade her freedom when it meant the deaths of so many others.

Where was Ian Taggart? Where was the rest of the team?

Baz’s hand tightened on her shoulder to almost the point of pain. “Well, isn’t that touching? It actually makes me sick.”

“I don’t care what it does to you, Baz,” Damon replied. “If you want this, you’ll let her go.”

“How do I know that’s got anything at all on it? That could be a blank drive. I’m afraid I’m going to need more than your word. Where is Walter Bennett?”

Damon shook his head. “He’s long gone, and you won’t find him again.”

“That is a tragedy. I was so looking forward to spending time with him.”

“It’s not going to happen. You can take the package or you’ll have nothing to give your bosses.” Damon gripped the drive in his palm, shielding it from view. “I’ll go with you, Baz. Take me instead of her. I’m the one you want.”

She didn’t even try to stop the tears now. “No.”

“Shut up.” Baz let her feel the barrel of his gun against her back. “If you say another word, I’ll do you right here in front of him.”

Now Damon wasn’t looking at her. He was focused on the man behind her, and she could feel his will. “I know you have a way out of here. You likely have some way to drug me. I’ll submit to all of it if you let her go.”

“And what if what I really want is for you to submit to me completely?” The question came out in a menacing purr.

Penny felt her fists clench at the thought of her Damon bowing down to this man. He was proud. Sometimes his pride had been all he had to hold on to in the world. He couldn’t give himself over.

“Then I’ll call you Master,” Damon replied evenly. “If you want, Basil, I’ll be your dog. That is what you want, right?”

“You can’t imagine what I want from you.”

She saw him then. The man who had brought the tea. He’d ditched the waiter outfit and now he stalked closer. She had to strain, but she heard him call out.

“Ich habe ihn. Komm schnell. Der Brite ist in Schwierigkeiten.”

Translation. I have him. Come quickly. The Brit is in trouble.

She’d thought they brought the drugged tea, but what if they had just been scouting? Candice had drugged the tea. Baz was bluffing. He didn’t have anyone else. Her friends were safe and the German agents were about to cause some serious problems for them.

What they needed was a bit of chaos.

Penny gritted her teeth and prayed she could survive the next few moments.

 

* * * *

 

Damon tried not to think about how frightened Penelope must be. In a few moments, she would be free and once she was out of the line of fire, he would do whatever he had to do.

Though he rather hoped Taggart would choose to show up sometime soon.

He’d meant every word he said. He would do anything to save Penelope, including giving up the package, but he hoped he didn’t have to.

Another bloody gift she’d given him. Hope. He never used to have it. It was so much better to see the world through Penelope’s eyes than his own.

Baz stood behind Penelope, one hand on her shoulder and the other behind her back. He could only imagine that Baz was holding a gun on her. The second time in a week someone had threatened to kill her. “You can’t imagine what I want from you.”

Someone shouted in German behind him, and Damon watched as Penelope’s eyes flared. She knew what they’d said and it meant something to her. Her lips pursed.

She was planning something. She might be the translator, but he’d learned to read her body language. He was an expert in Penelope Cash, in the way she looked when she was happy or mad, or just about to do something incredibly stupid that would make him want to toss her over his knee and blister her bottom.

After they made it to the embassy, of course.

He had to keep Baz talking. He’d said something about Damon not knowing what he really wanted.

“You’ll have it. All you have to do is let her walk away from this.” Damon took a step forward. “Think about it, Baz. You can make your bosses very happy with you and you’ll have me on a leash, ready to do anything you want.”

The thought made him nauseous, but he would do it. He would be Baz’s slave right up until he got the chance to cut the bugger’s throat and watch him bleed out.

“Are you offering to fuck me, Damon?” There was no way to mistake how hot Baz’s eyes got.

“If you let her go, yes. Haven’t you figured it out? Do you remember when we used to talk about the things we were willing to do for our country? I said anything. I was wrong. She’s the one thing I can’t sacrifice. She’s the one thing I’ll do anything for. Every man has something he wants above everything else. I want Penelope to live.”

A bitter laugh huffed from Baz’s mouth. “You don’t know a bloody thing. You think I want a quick fuck? I wanted to be the thing you would never sacrifice. I wanted that. And if I can’t be that to you, then no one can.”

“Penelope!” Damon moved forward, screaming her name.

But she was already on the move. She threw herself to the side, her head ducking down even as Baz fired.

A splash of crimson formed on her right arm, blood blooming.

“Halt!” a new voice rang out. A tall blond man moved with the grace of a natural predator. He held a Ruger in a two-fisted grip and spoke in accented English. “You will lay down the weapon.”

German intelligence. He never thought he’d be happy to see them.

Baz stopped, his jaw clenching.

Damon reached down and helped Penelope up. “Are you all right?”

Of course she wasn’t all right. She’d been shot. But she simply nodded. “I think so. It hurts, but I think it grazed me. The bleeding isn’t bad at all.”

He looked at her side, and it was more of a burn than anything else.

Taggart walked up behind them with another German in tow. “Thank god. I thought we’d lost him. Damon, this is Agent Eberstark. I told him we’d been tracking Bennett in a joint MI6/CIA mission. I think you’ll find that the Agency has been in contact with your bosses, but we can settle everything up once we get this fucker in custody.”

Bloody bastard. There was a reason he loved Tag. The man was cool under pressure and he could lie like a pro. Damon made sure to stand in front of Penelope. He didn’t want her in the line of fire one second longer. “Bennett, you should give it up now. You’re surrounded. There’s nowhere to go.”

Baz frowned, his gun still up. “I’m not Bennett and you bloody well know it.”

The first German stared, keeping Baz in his sights. “I thought Bennett was an American.”

“He’s turned out to be a master of disguise,” Taggart said in a perfect British accent. He grinned a little and was back to sounding as American as apple pie. “British accents aren’t hard. He was trying to get to England.”

“His accomplice is in that black van over there. She’s actually British,” Penelope said. “You should arrest her.”

Eberstark smiled. “How did he catch you, Miss Cash? I thought you were in the suite. We checked it out to see how many of the team Knight here was leaving behind.”

Penelope’s hands rested on his hips. “He knew we were about to catch him so he had his partner drug the tea you brought up. He figured out that Damon and I are closer than normal partners so he thought he could use me to get away.”

Eberstark nodded. “Ah, well, I would try to save that fucker there, but I’m certainly not sleeping with him.”

Damon went still as he felt Penelope’s hand slide into his pocket. What was she doing now?

“The game is up, Bennett. We’re not going to allow you to sell your work on the black market.” Damon needed to get Penelope out of here. The bullets could start flying again at any moment.

Taggart looked over at Damon. “I’m damn glad I found you. Jake’s back at the embassy talking to Ten. He knows the plan went all to hell and he’s ready to help. I suspect we’ll spend a lot of time in debrief with our new friends.”

He might not always understand Penelope, but thank god he spoke spy fluently. Jake was waiting for him. He needed to get to the embassy, the American one this time. It was the only shot they had at carrying out the plan to destroy the drive.

“I am not Walter Bennett. They’re playing you. Damon’s got the package. He’s got it in his pocket. Check it.” Baz wasn’t letting up. Even with three guns on him, because Taggart had his out now, he wasn’t backing down.

Oh, his girl was a smart one. He reached into his pockets and pulled them out, showing everyone they were perfectly empty. “Would you like to check my jacket?”

Eberstark shook his head. “Not at all. We’ll take this one into custody and have a nice long chat. Taggart, you will come with us? We don’t want to cut our allies out of anything, as you would certainly never have cut us out.”

The last was said with a definite zing, but then everyone knew the game.

And Baz knew that it was over.

He pulled the trigger and fired straight into Eberstark’s body, felling the German agent with a single bullet to the neck.

Eberstark’s partner fired back, but Baz was on the move and now tourists were screaming and running, making the entire park a dangerous mess.

“Go!” Taggart yelled, his SIG in his hand. “Get her out of here. You know what to do.”

Damon took Penelope’s hand. She was his mission. Getting her out alive was the only thing that mattered. He ran with her, directly back to the memorial where he could lose them both. The slabs started out around his knees, but then the ground sloped down and before long the sun was obscured as they went underground. They raced along the narrow square-set path.

“The embassy is to the left,” Penelope said.

“Give me the package, love.” He held out his hand. He didn’t want her caught with it, didn’t want her to have anything at all to do with what was going to happen.

He’d just pocketed the drive when he felt a burning sensation in his arm. He turned and Baz was running across the tops of the slabs.

“If I’m going down, you’re going with me, Damon.” He took aim, but Baz’s right shoulder was thrown as a bullet slammed into him. Baz yelled as he threw himself to the ground.

“Go!” Taggart said. He leapt from one slab to the next. He had to be four or five meters off the ground. “I’ll deal with this fuck. If I can find him, damn it.”

He took Penelope’s hand and broke to the left. His heart was thudding in his chest as he ran up the sloping path. By the time they made it out of the memorial, his breath was sawing in and out.

He would make it. He couldn’t see the embassy from where he stood, but it was close. Right behind the building ahead.

Sirens wailed all around him. Another threat. The German police wouldn’t care that he had a mission. They would only know that a couple of Brits and a yank had been firing in the middle of tourist central.

If they were taken in, they would have no idea who to trust.

“Run, love. You can go faster than me.” He jogged beside her, letting go of her hand.

Penelope didn’t speed up. “No. We go together.”

He would slow her down. “Please. Go. Get Jake. He’s at the American Embassy. Do you know where it is? Please, love. I need him. I won’t be able to make it.”

“I love you, Damon.” She took off.

He had to try. Damon forced his legs to move. He still had the package. He couldn’t give it to her, couldn’t give her that responsibility. If they were going to come after someone, it had to be him. Even if it meant he died because he couldn’t live in a world that didn’t have her in it. Jake knew the plan. Jake would come and get him.

Pain flared through his system as his right shoulder took a bullet. Blood spat from his chest, and he felt his knees weaken and then crack as he hit the stone under him.

His vision blurred as he fell forward. His gun bit into the muscles of his gut. He could already feel the blood pooling.

He was right back there again with blood and death all around him. The first time he nearly died, vengeance had kept him alive.

The vision he had this time was quite different.

“I told you. If I can’t have you, no one can.” Baz kicked him hard, rolling him over.

One chance. His whole body shook but he had one last thing to do. He forced his finger to pull the trigger.

Baz stared down at him as red splashed across his belly. A dumb look came over his eyes and he started to aim again.

Another crash hit Damon’s ears and a hole was suddenly where Baz’s heart should have been.

His greatest enemy was dead and the only reason Damon cared at all was because Penelope would be safe.

He let his hand fall to the side, staring up at that brilliant sky. So blue. Like Penelope’s eyes.

“No you don’t, you bastard.” Taggart shoved his gun into the holster, and Damon groaned in pain as Taggart hauled him up. “You hold on, you son of a bitch, because I can’t take this slow. They’re coming up on us fast. Do you have the package?”

“In my pocket,” he managed. “Do you trust Ten?”

Someone was shouting behind them in German. The police had arrived, and they seemed to be after Taggart.

The man didn’t hesitate. Even with Damon’s weight, Taggart sprinted. “It’s going to be fine.”

And Damon endured. Pain wracked his system, but he held on.

Damon forced his head up. They were clear of the memorial and the large buildings that surrounded it. He could see the police running, but they were losing ground.

“Damon!” Penelope’s voice rang out.

Damon suddenly found himself in the cool of a building.

“Motherfucker’s heavy.” Taggart eased him onto what felt like a couch. “He took at least two. We need to dig them out.”

A warm hand was suddenly in his, and Penelope’s face loomed in his vision.

“Damn it. I thought y’all were going to avoid an international incident,” a man with a slow Southern accent said. “I’ll go try to find a doctor. I swear if you two hadn’t managed to bring in the package, there would likely be hell to pay.”

Damon’s brain was muddled. There were so many faces around him. “The package…”

He had the package. Something about the package.

Tennessee Smith looked straight down at him, his face deeply serious. “Your girl brought it to me. Well, she gave it to Jake who brought it to me. I gave it to the head of the Agency who came here himself, you understand? That’s how important it was. We’re grateful, of course.”

Ten stared down at him, his eyes saying everything he couldn’t because they were all being watched. Damon understood that much. Don’t give it away. Keep your mouth shut.

“Of course.”

Ten nodded. “I’ll be back with a doc, and we’ll see what we can do to smooth things over with the Germans.”

“I think you’ll find Walter Bennett is dead in the square.” They had a shot at Bennett having a life if Ten would just go along.

Ten frowned, his voice going low. “Really? That’s the way we’re going? Tag, get Miles on it and fast because they’ll be looking. I’d tell you to use Chelsea, but she’s still asleep.”

“Everyone all right?” God, he didn’t know what happened. Pain was wracking his system, but he wanted to know what happened to his team.

Penelope was crying, her tears hitting his chest. “Everyone’s fine. Stop worrying about that.” She turned to Ten. “He needs a doctor. He needs to go to hospital.”

She was so pretty when she cried. He held her hand. The last thing he felt as the darkness took him was Taggart pulling the actual package free.

He would destroy it. Damon had no doubt. He knew he should. He’d never trusted anyone. Another thing Penelope had given him. Taggart would take care of things.

Damn, but it was bloody good to have friends. The darkness took him again.