The Stone of Archimedes by Trevor Scott Page A

to come inside the yacht because of the speed they had reached and the rocking of the boat. He sat now in the lavish sitting room with a cigar in his left hand and a satellite phone against his right ear. Zendo was giving him an update.
    â€œSo Jake Adams went directly from the professor’s office to the train station?” Petros asked him.
    â€œYes, sir. I had three of my men keep track of him until I arrived in Rome. I just stayed at the airport waiting to see which flight he would get on.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œAs suspected, he caught the first flight to Valletta. Flight leaves in about an hour.”
    â€œWill the four of you fly to Malta on the same flight?”
    â€œThere were only two extra tickets, so I’ll take Demetri with me and have the other two catch up to us on the next flight. That makes more sense tactically anyway. Adams would have seen Niko and might make the connection. Besides, we’re still just following, right?”
    Petros thought about that. He needed to find the American professor and Jake Adams was their best lead. “Just follow for now. Once we find this Sara Halsey Jones we can get rid of him. Call me when you get to Malta. We’ll be there by morning.”
    â€œThat fast?”
    Laughing, Petros said, “This is the fastest yacht of its size in the world. We can cruise at over forty knots. My captain assures me we will be there before brunch.”
    â€œGreat. I’ll let you know if he leaves the capital city.”
    Without saying goodbye, Petros simply clicked off the phone and threw it onto the leather sofa next to him. He considered the progress of this case and felt like everything was progressing as planned, except that his men should have really found this American woman weeks ago. How in the hell can they not find one woman in Europe? Especially now, where everyone must use credit cards to fly. He also wasn’t sure he fully trusted that sloppy Czech slut who was probably sleeping by now in her stateroom. She better be after all the drugs he’d put in her Ouzo. He wasn’t sure he wanted to screw her again without strapping a board to his ass to keep him from falling in. God, she had the biggest vagina he’d ever experienced. Maybe he should go to her room right now and take her up the ass. That was bound to be tighter, since she had refused him access to that hole so far. No, near necrophilia was no fun. He preferred willing accomplices, especially when he could reach around and grab onto a hard cock.
    â—
    Elisa Murici shoved her phone into her purse and glanced across the airport terminal at the man sitting in the leather chair, his eyes closed. She had been tasked by her boss at AISE, Italy’s External Intelligence and Security Service, to track the movements of this man since his arrival in Rome. But now, after her conversation with her agent undercover in Greece, she felt like she needed to warn this man. Checking the clock on the wall, she knew his flight would leave for Malta within the hour. It was now or never.
    She walked casually toward him and took an open seat next to him.
    Without opening his eyes, the man said, “Let me guess. DIS? AISE? Or perhaps AISI?”
    â€œ Mi scusi ?” she asked.
    The man opened his eyes but still didn’t look at the woman. “You heard me.”
    Frustrated, she said softly, “My name is Elisa. External. You are Jake Adams.”
    He turned to her now, smiled and gave her a full kiss on the lips, which she accepted without reluctance.
    He pulled away and smiled. “If you look over my right shoulder, you’ll see a man in a white linen suit with dark hair to his shoulders. I’m guessing he’s not with you. But is with the man he’s trying his best not to look at, the guy across the corridor wearing the black jeans and the muscles bulging his gray shirt.”
    â€œI heard you were good. Anyone else?”
    â€œNot at this time. There