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TWO DAYS LATER, MÉLANGE exited the dark limo and entered the three-storied building. After walking through the metal detector and clearing a mediocre security check she headed toward the bank of elevators.

Dressed in a snug fitting, sleeveless short black dress with six-inch heels, heads turned to watch the small delectable package wait. She draped her waist-length hair across her chest and pushed her sunglasses up her nose.

The elevator rose to the third floor. She was met by an older woman with a cool smile who no doubt doubled as security.

“This way, please.”

Mélange followed, taking in the empty desks and chairs they passed. When they arrived at the end of the hall, the woman opened the door and allowed Mélange to enter.

“Thank you,” Mélange said over her shoulder without taking her eyes off the lone man in the room.

The woman nodded and closed the door.

Mélange stared at the older man. He had aged quite a bit since she saw him, more girth around the middle, lines bracketed his mouth. When the opportunity arose to meet with him again, she’d been apprehensive but, in the end, agreed.

“You’re looking well,” Admiral Bents said. “It’s been a long time.”

Mélange nodded as she looked around his office and his desk. “I confess I’m curious why you asked to meet with me. Surely you know the Liege has disbanded. I don’t work for them anymore.”

He nodded. “Bad mess there. Sorry to see them go, we worked well together for many years. Had a good thing going.” He paused and looked at her. “Things have changed. I’m on the Joint Chiefs now.”

“Really?” she chuckled.

He smiled. “Are you still in the business?”

“It depends.”

He nodded.

“I need someone located.” He waved his hand. “Not really. What I need is the information he stole from me. It’s important I get them back.”

Mélange looked around the room and moved closer until they stood an arm’s length apart. Using the flat of her palms, she braced herself on his desk.

“I don’t do lost and found.”

He frowned. “My contacts said you were the perfect person for this job. I only contacted you because I remembered you from The Liege and General McNeill used you a couple times for our work.”

She shrugged. “I haven’t done anything like that in a while.” She met his gaze. “Is that all?”

His gaze flicked down to her lips and back to her eyes. “Right now I need that information from a project Lee was working on, find that and I’ll have more work for you when you’re done. In fact, I’ll give you more work than you can handle.”

Her brow rose and she stared at him for a few seconds. “Okay. But I’ll only take jobs that interest me. Is that clear?”

Relief spread across his face as he nodded. “Is your account information the same?”

Frowning, she crossed her arms and nodded. “You shouldn’t have kept that.”

“I didn’t realize I had it until you were recommended again. I thought you retired.” He looked at her expectantly.

“Why would I do that?” She sounded confused.

“I haven’t heard anything about you in years,” he said.

She tilted her head and looked at him. “If you had, I wouldn’t have been doing my job.”

He nodded and released a breath. Picking up a plain folder, he opened it and handed it to her. “This is the information I have on him.”

She flipped through the pages. “What if he’s dead?”

“I don’t care. I need the data, any drives, files, find those.”

Mélange nodded and pulled out her phone. She looked at him with a raised brow.

He walked to his desk and started typing. “If I remember correctly the down payment is always the same, with the balance due at delivery.”

She nodded.

“Should be there in a second or two,” he said.

She shoved the phone back into her pocket and flipped through the file again. “Is this photo current?”

“I believe it is.”

Her gaze flicked to him and then back to the file. “Do you have a current picture?”

“What I have is in that file.”

She pulled out her phone, made a few taps and looked at the screen. The money had been transferred. After shoving her phone back into her pocket, she went over each page in the file, memorizing them. When she was finished, she returned the file to him.

“Five days. If I don’t find the contents, we’re even.” She waited for him to accept her terms.

“Find the contents no matter how long it takes,” he countered.

“No. I have other jobs scheduled.” She crossed her arms.

“That’s okay, just keep looking until you find it.”

She stared at him, took another look around, nodded and left the office. The same woman stood when Mélange exited the office and walked her to the elevator. They waited in silence. Once Mélange was on the first floor, leaving the building the woman spoke. “Have a nice day.”

Mélange nodded and headed toward her car. The drive to the condo she used for occasional assignments wasn’t that long. Her thoughts raced on what she needed to do. Timing was everything. She went upstairs, changed into a pair of cargo jeans and oversized shirt and hiking boots before gathering her supplies and tools. Within an hour she was in her car headed to the cabin Major General Lee had last been seen.

###

MÉLANGE ARRIVED AT the cottage and took several deep breaths. Someone had cleaned the place really well. She started searching for places information could’ve been hidden in the living room and found nothing. Then the kitchen, and other than rotted food, once again nothing.  She barely picked up any trace except in the bathroom.

Standing at the entrance she looked around. Had Lee hid in here? Or was there something more? She stood and stared at the compact place before tapping the walls, ceilings, and floorboards.

Kneeling, she grabbed a tool from her bag to pull up two boards and looked beneath. A waterproof canvas bag had been stuffed under the floor. She pulled it out and searched for anything else.

Nothing.

She stared at the bag and frowned. Hadn’t someone searched this place already? How had they missed this? She stored it in one of her pockets, replaced the boards and continued to search the bedroom.

Finished with the inside, she stood on the back porch and stared across the way at the other homes in the distance. Had any of them seen anything? Heard anything? She drove over and interviewed everyone who had been at home. Two homes were vacant and according to the neighbors hadn’t been rented or lived in for a long time.

Mélange wasn’t surprised that no one saw or heard anything. What did surprise her that they had seen Lee out and about. For someone on a short leash in hiding, that had been extremely careless.

As the sun set, Mélange approached the first empty house, did a quick search. The neighbors had been correct, it had been empty for a long time. She headed to the other empty house and slowed before reaching the front porch.

The house wasn’t empty although someone went to great lengths to make it appear as if it was. She swallowed down an impatient sigh and continued to the porch. After a polite knock, she looked in the windows, saw nothing out of the ordinary. She walked around the back, counted two heartbeats before trying to open the door. It didn’t budge. She looked in more windows while deciding if she would push the issue or not.

While in the back, a car pulled up out front. She ran to the side and saw a man in his early 30’s stepping out with bags of food. He stared at her as she walked toward him.

“Need help with that?” she asked.

“Who are you?” he looked around. “What are you doing here?” He shut the door with his hips while holding the bags loosely in his grip.

“I’m looking for a friend of mine, the neighbors said he might’ve come over here. Have you seen him? Older guy, short white hair. Little shorter than you?” She shifted to the side as she sensed the other two heartbeats drawing closer.

“No. I haven’t seen anyone like that, not around here.”

“How long have you been here?” She asked looking away from the house toward the cabin where Lee had stayed.

“Just a couple days.”

She glanced at him and the dark house. “No power?”

He looked at the house and then at her. “Not yet.” Stepping around her he headed to the porch, fumbled with his keys and opened the door.

“Thanks,” she said as he disappeared. She leaned against his car for a few seconds looking toward the cabin and wondering what these three were up to. She pulled the small tracking device from her pocket and pressed it against the car until it heated beneath her touch. Now it was activated and merged with the color of the vehicle, undetectable to the eye.

The door opened. The guy stepped on the porch. “Did you need something else?” he walked to the car, grabbed a backpack, box, and another bag.

“No, just thinking where else to look.” She continued staring at the cabin down below.

“Maybe they went to the store or something and will be back soon,” he said locking his car.

She snorted. “Three days is a long time to be at the store.” She shook her head and walked off. “Anyway, thanks.”

“No problem.”

Waving, she glanced back with a smile and memorized the license plate. When she returned to the condo, she pulled up the information on the rental car at the house and sat back.

A member of the military had rented the car and possibly the house as well. She checked the utility records; the power was scheduled to be turned on tomorrow.

That crew hadn’t been there long, a day short of the three days the guy claimed. That cleared them of dealing with Lee but she included their presence in her report. She placed a call to schedule another meeting with Admiral Bents. He sent a text wanting to meet that night to see what she found.

There was no reason to delay, so she agreed to meet in three hours.

At midnight, the car pulled to a stop in front of the same building she had met the Admiral earlier that day. Most of the building was dark with the exception of a few lit offices on each floor. With the pouch secured beneath her dress, she entered the building. The same older woman waited, signed her in, allowing her to bypass security and escorted her to the third floor. Neither spoke.

The Admiral rose from his seat when she entered. “What do you have?”

“I don’t know what’s inside. I found it beneath the floorboards of the cabin. Strange no one found it before,” she said looking at him.

Their gazes met for a few seconds. “I haven’t sent anyone to search for him. I know of one other person who looked for Lee. Hard to believe he didn’t look beneath the floorboards.” He stroked his chin and stared at her. “You didn’t open it?”

“No. It’s sealed. You’ll need to break it to see what’s inside.” She reached beneath her dress, pulled it out and dropped it on his desk.

His brow rose. “That’s Lee’s seal. One he used before.” He grabbed the bag, broke the seal and opened it. Grinning, he dumped the contents on his desk and hurried to sit down. “This might be it,” he murmured and inserted a flash drive.

Mélange sat in the chair in front of his desk, crossed a leg and waited.

His eyes gleamed as he read the monitor. “Perfect. This is what I need.” He inserted another flash drive and read through the data, murmuring and nodding periodically.

Mélange wrote a number on a piece of paper and slid it to him. “The balance of my fee.”

He glanced at it, nodded and continued reading the information on the screen.

“Did you have someone watching Lee?” she asked idly.

He stopped and looked at her. “What?”

She told him of the man she’d met while searching for Lee, making sure not to mention the two hiding inside. “I ran a check on their rental.”

He frowned. “You talked to them?”

“I questioned them,” she corrected.

He nodded slowly and returned his gaze to the screen.

“Is that the information you needed?” she asked.

“Yes, it looks like it. Security tags are in place.” He nodded.

“Send the rest of my fee now, please.”

He looked at her as if he just recalled she was in the room with him. “Yes. Great job.” He entered several keys, glanced at the number she’d given him and continued typing. “You’re good.”

She pulled out her phone, made a few clicks and waited. “Two things. That’s the last time that deposit information will be valid, erase it. Second, if I were you I’d watch my back. Someone had been in that place searching for Lee, it’s possible they killed or removed him to get what you now have.”

“I see.”

She stood. “I don’t know who had access or knew the location, but this seems like an inside job.” She walked to the door and looked over her shoulder. “You know how to reach me.”

###

ADMIRAL BENTS STARED at the screen and ran another series of tests on it for bugs and viruses before sending it to General Strait. Did someone other than him and General Strait know of Lee’s hiding place? He didn’t think so but wasn’t a 100% sure. Inside job? Who?

When his assistant returned from escorting “M” off the premises, he questioned her.

“Did you watch her at the cabin?” The moment he discovered Lee had gone missing, he had dispatched a small team to search the place and install cameras.

“Yes. She left here and was there within an hour. Would you like to see the footage?” she asked.

He thought about it and then agreed. “Yes.” She pulled up another screen on his computer, entered the information and then replayed the recording.

“See the time stamp, this is when she entered.” They watched Melange take her time looking around, pulling out a magnifying glass, sniffing and conducting a very thorough search. He fast-forwarded to the bathroom.

“This is where she found it,” his assistant said watching as Melange tapped the walls, ceiling and the floor.

“Okay, I see her point.” He turned to look at his assistant. “Question is, why didn’t our team find it when they searched that place?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I was there and it seemed they were as thorough as she was.”

Admiral Bents raise his brow. “She knocked on every wall, did our team do that?”

“No, they did not.” She met his gaze.

“I’m running checks on the disks to make sure they aren’t compromised and then I’ll send them to Strait. I have another meeting with the Chiefs later this week and need to present this information.”

“Yes, Sir.”

He studied her briefly. “What did you think of “M”.

“An initial for a name sounds like James Bond.”

He smiled. “Perhaps, but what did you think of her?”

“Watching her work, I’d say she’s efficient, focused and deadly. She’s the type you won’t see coming or expect. She looks like a young, fragile thing.”

“Knowing the people who hired her in the past, and that she survived those jobs makes her one of the best in the business. The type of work she does is hard to find. She’s extremely deadly. We only use her when no one else will do. This was just a test to see if she was still on her game.”

“Yes, Sir.”

###

MÉLANGE TOOK THE ELEVATOR to her condo and continued listening to Bents and his assistant talk through the bug she’d left beneath the chair seat. Entering her bedroom, she pulled off the dress she’d worn and replaced it with black pants and a form-fitting black turtleneck. She pulled her hair up into a pony-tail, wrapped it around several times until it formed into a ball, securing it with two long combs. Her bags had been packed and were stored in the trunk of her car.

She slid on a pair of worn black boots, added her dark hoodie and left the condo through the private elevator.

In the car, she checked her equipment while listening to Bents discuss her. They were finally leaving. Mélange pulled out and headed north on the loop. She arrived at her destination ahead of her target and made her way to the roof. Her security scanner showed the small attic window wasn’t wired. It took a few moments to cut-out the arched shaped glass and slide through.

In the attic, there were a couple planks of plywood covering a small portion of exposed beams and insulation. Mélange leaped forward to land on the board and made her way to the small crawl space opening. Using the security scanner, she disarmed the system and dropped to the floor in the closet. It took a moment to reseal the attic door before heading to a second bedroom, and sliding into a corner of the closet, reactivate the alarm, and wait.

When Bents assistant arrived home half an hour later, she was surprised by an intruder.