Vision Impossible by Victoria Laurie Page A

past the encryption should you be required to demonstrate that you do in fact possess the real software. But be forewarned, Agent Rivers: We’re certain that Boklovich will require proof that you possess what you claim to have, but by no means should you give him your password or an unencrypted copy. He’ll kill you the moment he thinks he doesn’t need you anymore.”
    “Noted,” Dutch said.
    Tanner nodded like she was satisfied with his answer; then she said, “Your mission will be to determine if Kozahkov has the drone. If he does, your part is largely over. If he doesn’t, then you’ll need to get Kozahkov to set up a meeting with Boklovich, have him agree to offer your software at the same time he’s offering to auction off the drone and Intuit, and at the auction either steal Intuit back or destroy the device.”
    I noticed she left out the part where she told us we’d also need to make it out alive. . . .
    Tanner continued. “We’ve received two more pings from Intuit, and our best guess is that the device is still hidden somewhere near the Greater Toronto metropolitan area. By having Agent Rivers pose as Des Vries and live at the condo, we have access to a ready-made command center to run our operations out of without causing any unnecessary suspicion. It also helps us greatly that the condo building itself is currently unoccupied. Des Vries hadn’t offered any of the units up for sale yet, so it’s the perfect place to set up shop for us.”
    I thought of something that worried me. “Do you know if Kozahkov and Des Vries have ever met?”
    Tanner’s eyes swiveled to Gaston, and I didn’t like the look they exchanged. “We don’t know,” she admitted. “If they have, it was likely only briefly. We know that Des Vries has spent considerable time in Toronto, but on many levels Kozahkov is his competition, so it’s unlikely that the two would have spent much time mixing together in the same circles. It’s far more likely that they would have attempted to avoid each other.”
    I glanced at Dutch, convinced that the uncertainty of her answer would set off alarm bells for him too, but he merely shrugged. “I know you’re worried,” he said, “but we’ll just have to take our chances with it.”
    I didn’t like that one bit, but didn’t argue. Instead, I asked another question. “So what’s my cover going to be?”
    Tanner clicked the remote again and a photo of Rick Des Vries popped up with his arm around two beautiful women, scantily clad. “Des Vries likes the ladies,” she said. “Especially blondes. We’re going to send you in posing as Des Vries’s newest girlfriend.”
    “Does he have an old girlfriend I need to worry about?”
    Agent Tanner smiled. “I’m sure he has several,” she said, flipping to another image of one particularly busty blonde dressed in a peekaboo halter top that was less peekaboo and more peekaboob. “This woman seems to be his most steady girlfriend. We did a thorough background check on her, and what we’ve found isn’t impressive. Both her parents were drug addicts, so she spent most of her youth in foster care, and repeated the tenth grade twice before dropping out of high school. She tried modeling, acting, and was a makeup artist on the set of Canada’s Flashpoint , but lately she’s been flying the friendly skies for Air Canada working the Prague-to-Amman junket to be closer to Des Vries. We’ve arranged it so that her flight schedule is booked with back-to-back trips for the next week, so you’re not likely to bump into her if she begins to worry about Des Vries’s absence and comes looking for him.”
    “Does she know that Des Vries has been taken in by the Mossad?” Dutch asked. “I mean, she could have been working the flight he was on.”
    Tanner shook her head. “We checked, and she wasn’t. Her work itinerary showed us that she was working her regular flight to Amman the day Rick was taken in by the Mossad.”
    “Does anyone else