Bare Nerve by Katherine Garbera Page A

the multi-camera view. It was complex, and it took her a moment to orient herself with the airport she’d flown in and out of many times during her life. Finally she identified terminals one, two, and three. Terminal one was undergoing major construction right now, so she minimized those windows. She wished she’d put the GPS tracker on Andreev’s smartphone. Ticked off at herself for not thinking of adding that feature, she was determined to find Andreev and apprehend him before he got to Africa, if they could.
    “Justine, contact Sam and see if we have any operatives at Charles de Gaulle. Maybe we can nab Andreev there….”
    “I’m on it.”
    “There are two flights he might be on,” Kirk said, “They both landed in terminal two. One is Air France flight AF49, which is in terminal two-A. The other is a Delta flight Air France…. Never mind, they’re the same flight. So it should be two-A.”
    Anna zoomed in on the terminal Kirk had indicated and Jack crowded in behind her on the left as Charity moved in on the right. Anna could see the passengers disembarking from the flight Kirk had indicated.
    She hit a button to record the video they were streaming and then maximized the window so she could zoom in on the passengers. Charity held next to the screen a photo of Andreev as they’d last seen him.
    Anna felt the tension in everyone as they watched, searching though the crowd. She didn’t see anyone who fit Andreev’s body image. She didn’t bother searching for someone who had his looks. Andreev hadn’t evaded capture as long as he had by being stupid, so she knew he’d have a disguise.
    “I wish we knew how he moved,” Charity said.
    “Me, too. I can’t quite figure out if that was him or not.”
    “Where?” Jack asked.
    Anna pointed. He was huskier than Andreev had been when they’d seen him last.
    Jack put his hand on the desk next to hers and leaned over her. His body heat wrapped around her, and for a moment she closed her eyes to try to deal with the dizzying sensation of Jack.
    “I’m not sure. We have some film of him from eighteen months ago that’s kind of grainy. We can compare it.”
    She nodded, and he leaned back.
    The new dynamic isn’t working , she thought. Jack is too much of a distraction. It didn’t matter that he was making Anna and Charity and Justine up their game at the same time that this stupid attraction was making her crazy.
    She’d never been distracted by a man before. Why him?
    “Anna?”
    “Yes?”
    “I said Sam has two agents at the airport. Just send them the video clip, and they’ll detain whomever we identify,” Justine said.
    “I’m on it.” She forwarded the clip. “Anyone else?”
    “I thought this guy looks a bit like him,” Charity said.
    Anna sent the next clip to Sam, and then she looked at Jack.
    “You’re going to think I’m crazy but…that woman,” he said.
    She watched the movements of the woman and had to agree that something wasn’t right with the way she was moving. Anna sent it on to Sam.
    “Now we wait. And watch the tracking signal.”
    Anna sat back in her chair, realizing she might have been wrong about Jack and his team. They were actually good to work with, and though she’d never find it easy to trust mercenaries, she was starting to trust them.
    And that didn’t bother her as much as she thought it should.
     
    Sam’s agents detained and interviewed all three suspects, and none of them were Andreev, which was frustrating not just to Jack but to the entire team. His men were on edge, unused to inactivity or the quiet background chatter of the women.
    They usually used the travel time to a mission to build up their aggression. They bonded by slinging insults and curses at each other, and usually there was at least one bare-knuckled fight on the flights.
    But the presence of the women was keeping his men in check. And Jack wasn’t sure how long it would be before one of his guys went off.
    Anna signaled him, and he