Page 59 of The Mouse and the Maestro

“They’ll be wondering where we are. I was supposed to retrieve you poste haste.”

They pulled away. “Let’s go then,” Jane said, stepping from the car and heading toward the building before her.

They were at Blue’s office. Jane had only been there once before, so she was still fascinated by the layers of security. She peered curiously at everything, intrigued by the rare glimpse into the underbelly of spy life. If one didn’t know what it was, it would have appeared like any other corporate office with worker bees scurrying to and from cubicles.

After they were through the many layers of security, including retina scans for both of them, they stepped onto an elevator that took them up multiple levels to a secure conference room. Jane was intent, taking it all in, staring at the elevator keypad as she tried to envision what was on all the other floors. It was a bit like The Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter, each floor providing a different function. Blue’s floor was on the twelfth level, high up but not the top. The secure conference room was on the fifteenth. There were twenty floors. What was on the top?

“I love that look on your face when you’re curious,” Blue noted, and Jane realized he’d been watching her for some time.

“The nerd look?” she guessed.

He nodded, smiling. “You should patent it.”

“I don’t think there’s a big market,” Jane replied.

“I’d buy it,” he said, his fingers brushing hers. There was something different about him, but Jane couldn’t pinpoint what it was. He seemed more intent, in some way more resolved. Before she could puzzle over it, the elevator doors opened and the rest of his team was there—Ridge, Maggie, Ellen, Babs, and Ethan. And they were all staring at Jane and Blue.

Jane froze, a deer in headlights. “I’m going to need your app,” she whispered. It was her worst nightmare, being the center of attention among a group of strangers who all knew each other. Though she wasn’t exactly a stranger, a fact proved when Ridge offered her a friendly smile and greeting and his wife, Maggie, stepped forward to hug her.

“Did Blue warn you Maggie’s a hugger?” Ridge asked.

“Eventually you stop fighting it and begin to enjoy it,” Babs promised as Jane awkwardly returned Maggie’s hug. Whether it was the hug or the warm welcome, her tension dissipated enough not to make her blurt something stupid or offensive.

“Hi,” she said, smiling like a normal person as she added a little wave for the group.

“I think we’re all here,” Ridge said. “Let’s get started.” He led the way to the conference room and held the door for everyone as they filed past him. Once seated, he ascended to the front of the room and picked up a remote.

“Thanks for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice, Jane,” Ridge said.

“No problem,” Jane said, though she still wasn’t sure what she was doing there.

“I’m sure Blue explained our situation,” Ridge said.

“Eh, no,” Blue replied.

“Why not, Blue? What were you doing instead?” Ethan prodded, grinning in a way that reminded Jane strongly of Nick. Across from them, Maggie reached for her phone and fired off a text. Blue’s phone buzzed. He picked it up, snickered, and shook his head.

“Right, okay, then let me get you caught up. After we captured the smuggler, we were able to apprehend the terror cell he’d been working with. Some things were prevented, and it was a happy ending all around, except we were never able to find the forger. Our smuggler blabbed a lot, but the forger had been careful, covering tracks and leaving blinds and bluffs that, frankly, have kept us on a wild goose chase all this time. Things have been quiet until two days ago. Another transaction was made, this time with the proceeds going to a new terror cell. We’ve revised our earlier opinion and now believe the forger is actually the mastermind, and not merely a pawn in the scheme. We intercepted a picture of the artifact.” Ridge clicked a button on the remote and a canopic jar sprang to life on the screen. Jane stood and walked forward to inspect it, tilting her head.

“This one’s a fake,” she declared after only a few minutes of looking at the picture.

“You can tell this easily and from a picture?” Ridge asked.

“Definitely. And this was not done by the same forger as before. This work is sloppy, amateurish. You would only need the barest knowledge of the field to be able to spot the ineptness of this work,” she said.

“That’s our problem,” Ridge said. “You’re the second person to tell us that information, but it complicates things for us. The original forger is still the one driving the sales, still the one pumping money into our terror cell. Why he’s brought on an amateur is what has us baffled.”

“I think it might be because of me,” Jane said. She perched on the edge of the table, staring at the picture on the screen.

“How so?” Ridge asked. He crossed his arms over his chest, awaiting her answer. It was easy to forget the other people in the room, to pretend they were the only two there having a discussion. The topic was familiar and comfortable to Jane, bypassing her normal social anxiety triggers.

“He or she knows the fakes are being authenticated, that I’m looking into them, keeping an eye on the market. Last time he ordered my kidnapping, and his smuggler was caught before things could advance further. Maybe this time he reached out for help to flood the market, to keep me so busy I don’t have enough time to authenticate everything. That way the sophisticated fakes can slip through unnoticed, thereby covering his tracks.”

“That’s what we thought, too. It’s why we brought you back. With your agreement, Jane, we need you to help us flush him out,” Ridge said.

“What did you have in mind?” Jane asked.

Ridge smiled. To Jane it looked a little calculated. “How would you feel about becoming a full fledged spy?”

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