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Alex nodded. “If I hear anything, “I’ll pass it on to you.”

Ian waxed sober. “Maybe you could ask your…alternate sources...if they know anything about the Scientist or PHP?”

Alex blinked, looking startled. “It’s that critical?”

“Dude, the guy’s got three coolers full of a virus that apparently is designed to kill everyone who comes into contact with it. You tell me how critical the mission is.”

Frowning, Alex pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a long number. Piper was startled when he spoke into it in rapid, apparently fluent, Russian.

She leaned over to Ian and whispered, “Our op is classified to the Moon and back. I know Alex has the clearances for it, but who’s he talking to in freaking Russian? Does that person have clearance for this?”

Ian muttered back, “He’s talking to the number three guy in the FSB. That guy has probably got plenty of clearances to hear about a few terrorists.”

Her jaw dropped. She whispered urgently, “The FSB? Theenemy?”

Alex startled her by answering as he disconnected his cell phone. “They’re not all enemies. A few of them quietly oppose the current regime in Russian and would like to see more cooperation with the West. I do my best to keep channels of communications with those people open.”

Huh?

Ian mouthed, “Later,” at her, and flashed her a hand signal out of Alex’s line of sight to stand down.

“My source will look into it from his end. If he turns anything up, I’ll pass it on directly to you, Ian.”

“Thanks, man.”

She nodded in minor shock and rose to her feet when the men did. She watched as Ian tickled Dawn into a squealing fit of laughter and made his apologies to Katie at not being able to stay for lunch. More quickly than she’d expected, he whisked her out the door and into the elevator.

“He called the FSB, Ian,” she challenged. “Is your sister’s fiancé some sort of double agent?”

“More like a liaison between us and them. A back channel for information flow that needs to stay off-book.”

She sagged against the wall of the elevator, stunned. “And Doctors Unlimited knows about this?”

“They set it up.”

Shut the front door. No wonder McCloud felt like he could waltz into her hotel room and steal her damned evidence at will. He was connected like crazy in the intelligence community. She had never felt like more of an outsider than in that moment. She’d known the good ole’ boy network would be hard to break into. But she’d had no idea a person had to be born into the bloody club.

“Have you got any other famous spy relatives I should know about?” she asked sourly.

“Well, my uncle’s the deputy director of Plans for the CIA. Does that count?”

“Charles—”Jesus.“--Charles McCloud. Of course. You McClouds are everywhere, aren’t you?” The family must be some sort of intelligence royalty.

“Fertile bunch, us McClouds.”

He certainly had the smoking hot sex portion of that proposition down pat. Her belly clenched in momentary hunger for more of the McCloud magic before her brain overruled it.

“Now what?” she asked.

He smiled quickly, throwing her off balance.

“Katie asks that exact same question all the time,” he murmured in explanation.

“So…are you going to answer it?” she prodded when he didn’t say more.

He shrugged. “Until we have some idea of where to look for the Scientist, how do you feel about getting eyes on the Patrick Henry Patriots?”

Not great. But she couldn’t exactly tell him that.