Page 90 of The Atlas Maneuver

“Cotton. Kelly Austin is on the way to Morocco. The bank has her. But he’s learned that the Japanese have no operation ongoing relative to Moby Dick out there in the lake. This is all his, and I suspect Langley’s, doing. He’s got to be working with Neverlight. That other boat appeared right after you went into the water. Citrone popped me on the neck from behind. But not before I saw the divers.”

“I will tell you everything,” Citrone called out.

“I’m listening,” Koger said.

“Get me out first.”

“No way in hell. Talk. Then you get out. I figure you have maybe ten minutes before hypothermia sets in.”

Citrone kept treading water. “Operation Neverlight. They are serious about this. They want you to disappear.”

“And your involvement?”

“I know the bank. Langley wants the bank neutralized. They decided the two of you were problems. They were going to take Ms. Vitt out, then you.”

“And you went along with that?” Cassiopeia asked.

“I… had no… choice.”

“Keep talking,” Koger called out.

Citrone was drifting away from the boat in the rough water. “They were going to prosecute me, even though everything I ever did was with Langley’s okay. The bastards were going to put me in jail. You need to get me out.”

“I’m still listening,” Koger said.

“Langley wants you dead, Koger. Her? She’s just in the wrong place at the right time. My task was to make it easy for them to take you both out.”

“What about yesterday?” Cassiopeia asked. “What was that about?”

“A staged event, for your benefit,” Citrone called out. “We wanted you to think the Japanese were the culprits. So we tossed the house and made an escape, wanting you to follow. You did.When you appeared with the map we gave you what you expected. The idea was to kill you then. Of course, Ms. Vitt appeared and was quite brutal.”

“You really want to insult me?” she called out. “I just killed three people.”

Citrone continued to tread water. He had to be getting tired.

“We need to bring him in,” she said in a low voice.

“Another minute,” Koger replied. “Rob, do you actually have the real map?”

“I do.”

“Do you know where the bank’s gold is?”

“I think I do.”

“Are you going to share that information?”

“I will. I swear.”

“Are we still in the crosshairs?”

“Absolutely.”

“Can you get them off us?”

“I’m afraid not. But thanks to Ms. Vitt, I will now be joining you in those crosshairs.”

Citrone had drifted about twenty meters from the boat in the choppy water.