Shit! What the fuck was this?

“Ethan,” he sent silently, “abort. Things just went TU here.”

“Jack—”

Jack ruthlessly cut him off and linked to his team’s comms.

“King? Status?”

Nothing. Jack looked around for Watson and Everett. Not anywhere he could see right then. “Queen?” he tried.

Silence.

Fuck!

The closest AFP guys paused two cars away, weapons pointed at Jack.

“Hands up and don’t move,” one of them commanded.

“What’s up, fellas?” Jack slowly raised his empty hands. “We’re all on the same side, aren’t we?”

“That’s up to someone above my pay grade to say,” the cop replied. “Right now, we’ve got orders to take you in.”

“I’m sure there’s been a mistake somewhere. I’m ISO.”

“And the word from the ISO is they’ve never heard of you,” Watson said, coming around from the back of the 4WD. Her piece was out, not quite pointed at Jack.

Following the lieutenant was Harry, hands on the back of his head, earpiece missing, and apologetic look in his eyes. Behind Harry was Everett, taser at the ready.

“Then they’re lying to you,” Jack said evenly. “You know there are terrorists in—”

“No, actually, I don’t.” Watson stopped just outside Jack’s immediate reach. “I’ve only got your word on that and you’re clearly—” The clack of the lieutenant’s teeth as she cut off her words and the aborted gesture she made toward his face told Jack what she’d been going say.

“I’m clearly what?” His tone was low and cold. “Not white? A brown-skinned terrorist?”

Behind Watson, Harry winced. For her part, Watson flinched, then firmed up her convictions. Shoulders straightening, she shifted her gun to point at him.

“We’ve been in contact with the head of security in the ISO building,” she said grimly. “They’re under the impression the terrorists are out here, trying to get in.”

Anger starting to boil up, Jack repressed all derisive reactions, except for a sour grimace. “And you believe an anonymous voice over the phone rather than the people in front of you with IDs?”

“I’m not saying I believe them over you.” Watson’s tone was very reasonable, obviously trying to smooth things over. “However, ID’s can be faked and until I’m convinced, I’m going to need you to cooperate with us and surrender any weapons.”

“This is bullshit,” Harry muttered.

“Harry,” Jack said warningly. Then in a tone matching Watson’s, “You saw the footage from inside. You know they’re imposters. There’s a woman in there—”

“Wanted for a shooting incident on the Gold Coast,” a new voice said from behind Jack.

A terrible sinking feeling in his guts, Jack turned slowly. “I wondered if you’d recognised me.”

Porsche grinned at him. She was still in her fake DSO outfit and had five of her fellow imposters with her.

“Never forget a face as pretty as yours, babe.” Looking past him, she said to Watson, “This is him. He’s the one who made a scene on the Gold Coast, stole a very expensive car and drove another person into a river. They never did find the poor woman’s body. We’ve been on the lookout for him for months.”

“Lieutenant,” Jack tried, even as two of the AFP guys came forward with plastic cuffs.

Watson watched grimly as Jack was turned around and shoved against the side of the car. “I’m just following orders, Reardon. It’ll all get sorted out back at HQ.”

Harry ended up beside him, both of them thoroughly searched and relieved of everything not actually sewn together, including Harry’s docket from the coffee and six-inch Bowie knife, and Jack’s unused earpiece. They lost their personal wallets and ISO IDs. Then they were secured with plastic cuffs.

“We’ll take them from here.” Porsche signalled her people to come forward. “Thanks for all your help, Lieutenant Watson. I’ll make sure your name is front and centre on the report. You might even get a medal.”

“Wait a minute. I was told the suspects would remain with the AFP.” There was a glimmer of doubt in Watson’s eyes now. While she had been fed wrong information and acted on it, she wasn’t completely convinced.

“Sorry, Lieutenant.” Porsche commanded her people to surround Jack and Harry. “This is an ISO matter now. If we need anything more, we’ll be in touch. In the meantime, perhaps you could go reassure the good citizens that everything’s okay and to not be alarmed.”

Watson glared at the smirk in Porsche’s tone, but after a quick glance at the gathering crowd of museum patrons, turned and issued orders for the AFP team to keep the spectators at bay.

Porsche took the moment and lead her own group and their prisoners away. As they were crossing the road, Jack’s implant pinged.

“Jack, report,” McIntosh snapped.

Clearly she’d been alerted to something going haywire on site, probably Alderton either witnessing Harry being detained or losing contact.

“We’ve been made,” he sent grimly. “Porsche and her team of imposters have us. They managed to convince Watson we’re the bad guys. King and I are restrained and being taken into the ISO HQ.”

There was a couple of seconds of silence, during which he got another ping. Probably Ethan trying to find out what was going on. He ignored it for now.

“We’re calling back the second AFP team,” his director announced. “RRF still en route. ETA twenty minutes. Jack, was this intentional? Is this some mad plan to get inside the building?”

Jack internalised a snort. “Not intentional, ma’am. I wouldn’t have included King if that were the case.” He would have needed Harry coordinating on the outside. “Definitely going to make the best of it, though. Hold the RRF in reserve for now. Ace was told to abort but I doubt he’ll hold back. I’ll keep you informed as things progress.”

“Actually, you won’t. The building’s gone dark. The CCTV cameras are going offline even as we cycle through them, and they’re actively blocking mobile signals. You won’t be able to contact anyone while you’re in there.”

“Shit.” The ISO HQ was getting ever closer. Jack had maybe a minute before he lost all touch with home base. “Keep the RRF in reserve. We’ll work the situation from the inside. If we need backup, I’ll get a signal out somehow.”

“We’ll be watching, Jack. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

She was gone before he even finished the thought.

They’d reached the stairs to the entrance of the building and even though Ethan was pinging at short intervals, Jack continued to ignore it. He needed to concentrate on what was going on directly around him. Then a message flashed into the implant.

To your left.

While the faux-DSOs opened the doors and channelled them inside, Jack glanced left. On King Edward Terrace, a sleek black car cruised by.

Victoria.

Goddamn Ethan. He’d been closer than he said. Yet Jack couldn’t help but feel happy about that. And frankly, he shouldn’t have expected any different. Ethan rarely did as he was told.

Then Jack was at the doors to the building. He pretended to stumble and while he leaned against the doorframe to supposedly get his balance back, he closed his eyes and went sideways. The overlay for his implant flashed up before his inner eye and he flicked the kill switch.

“Hurry up,” one of the DSO snapped and pushed him the rest of the way.

Thankfully, he’d shut down the implant before whatever jamming the enemy was using could knock it out with a burst of pain across his temporal lobe.

Inside, nothing had changed, except that they were no longer keeping up the pretence of having someone on the reception desk. There were two more DSOs inside and they gave Jack and Harry another pat down.

“What’s going to happen now?” Jack asked Porsche.

“Well, pet, right now all the internal cameras are being disabled. As are the thermal scanners. We weren’t expecting to be discovered quite so fast, but we can adapt. Kudos, by the way, for getting here in record time.”

“My pleasure.” Jack frowned at the bad guy currently getting a bit too intimate. “What do you expect to find in there?”

The man grinned evilly. “I know how you James Bond wannabes get. Think you’re smart, hiding a knife or something where you reckon no dude would go on another dude.”

Harry snorted, but it was cut off as he too was subjected to the same search. “Dude!”

“And what happens with us?” Jack asked.

“That is under some debate, cutie,” Porsche said. “I’m all for immediate gratification but the boss man isn’t ready to rush into anything permanent. He’s commitment shy. So, for now, we’ll tuck you away somewhere nice and secure.” She blew him a kiss. “Till next we meet, sweet thing.”

Jack was roughly grabbed by his biceps and hauled away, Harry dragged along behind him.

“What was with all the endearments?” Harry asked as they were ushered past the reception desk and into a long hallway. “It was creepy.”

“It’s a distancing technique,” Jack answered. “A name humanises the target, makes it harder to kill them.”

Harry’s “Oh” was low and drawn out. “That’s a bit of downer, isn’t it?”

“Just a bit.”

Toward the far end of the corridor was a pair of bad guys standing sentinel outside of a door. When they reached it, the door was opened and Jack and Harry were shoved in. It was a safe room, one of many in the building. No windows, no electronic devices or camera coverage. Air circulation was through four tiny vents high in the walls. It was soundproof and shielded from external surveillance. Nothing got in or out that didn’t arrive or leave with whomever came and went through the only door. There was supposed to be a manual barricade on the inside of the door, but there were only gouges in the walls where it had been crowbarred off. Normally, there would be a table and chairs, for comfort during what could be long conferences or debriefings, but any potential weapons had been taken out as well, so three of the four prisoners were left to sit on the floor.

The fourth was Keri Sing.

Even though her arms were tied behind her back, Keri stood protectively over a man and a child, legs braced, expression angry. Her dead-straight black hair was tangled in its loosening ponytail and her once immaculate grey skirt-suit was rumpled and stained. She’d cast aside her low heels in favour of going barefoot.

Behind her, the Asian man on the floor was dressed in business casual. If he’d had a dark-blue jacket to match the pants, it wasn’t in evidence now. They’d left him his black-rimmed glasses, but the smudged lenses didn’t do much to dilute the simmering mix of anger and fear in his dark eyes. The little girl, dressed in a white blouse, blue skirt, white knee-high socks and tiny black Mary Janes, huddled on his lap, her thin arms locked desperately around his neck. Big, tear-filled, brown eyes stared at Jack, a lock of her black hair tucked between her trembling lips.

“Reardon.” The slightest amount of tension left Keri’s shoulders.

“Sing,” he returned mildly as the door was shut behind him. “I’d like to say I’m surprised, but . . .” He shrugged, showing off his own bound hands.

Keri stiffened again. “They had people on my family,” she snapped, taking a step forward. “I had to do what they wanted or they would have ki—” She visibly clenched her teeth from blurting the rest out in front of her husband and daughter.

Not that her husband didn’t know what was hanging over their heads as well as Keri did, but hopefully the girl was too young to understand. The man was struggling with his ties, clearly wanting to hold his little girl. Christ, if he could, Jack would have cuddled her, as well. No kid should have to go through this.

“I get it,” Jack said, tone soft. “I really do. When I worked out what was really going on this morning, and we couldn’t get hold of you, we suspected something like this.”

As if she was too tired to stay angry, Keri sagged, stepping to the side so she could sink down the wall and lean on her husband’s shoulder. “Please tell me this is all part of your plan to get us out of here.”