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"See"--she glanced up at hi to build up the miles"

"Oh, well, when you put it that way…" A split second later, Kat saw her passport appear in Hale’s hands as if by ic "So, hoas Moscow, Ms…McMurray" He eyed her "You don’t look like a Sue"

"Moscoas cold," Kat answered

He flipped the page of the passport and examined the stamps "And Rio?"

"Hot"

"And--"

"I thought uay?" She stopped suddenly

"Paraguay," he corrected "And it was retfully declined Besides, I really wanted to do a Save a long sigh "Too bad I never got that invitation"

Kat looked at him "It was more like a Gab and Grab"

"That’s too bad" Hale sesture "You know, I’ve been told that I can really wear a tuxedo"

Kat did know She’d actually been there when her cousin Gabrielle had told him But tuxedos, Kat kneeren’t really the issue

"It was an easy job, Hale" Kat remembered the cold wind in her hair as she’d stood in the openShe thought about the e, and she had to laugh "Totally easy You would have been bored"

"Yeah," he said "Because easy and boring are tords I frequently associate with the KGB"

"I was fine, Hale" She reached for him "I’m serious It was a one-person job If I’d needed help I would have called, but--"

"I guess you just didn’t need the help"

"The fauay," he corrected

"The fauay," Kat said louder, but then she felt herself go quiet "I thought you ith the family"

He stepped toward her, reached out, and slid the passport into her jacket pocket, just above her heart "I’d hate to see you lose this"

When he started outside, Kat watched the big glass doors slide open She braced herself against the freezing wind, but Hale seemed immune to the cold as he turned and called behind hiers inches apart "Just a little one…Weatherby?" she guessed, but Haleblack car pulled to the curb "Wendell?" Kat guessed again, hurrying to catch up She slid between the boy and the car, and standing there, with his face inches from hers, the truth about what the W ’s in his name stood for didn’t see all winter were blowing aith the breeze

Hale’s here

But then he inched closer--to her and to a line that couldn’t be uncrossed--and Kat felt her heart change rhythms

"Excuse me," a deep voice said "Miss, excuse me"

It took a moment for Kat to actually hear the words, to step back far enough to allow the ray eyes, and a gray wool overcoat, and the effect, Kat thought, was that he was part butler, part driver, and part literal man of steel

"You s and carried theraceful ease

"Indeed," he said in a thick British accent, the origin of which Kat had long ago stopped trying to pinpoint Then, with a tip of his hat, he finished, "Welcome home, miss"

"Yeah, Kat," Hale said slowly "Welcome home"

The car, no doubt, arm The roads to Uncle Eddie’s brownstone or Hale’s country house were all free froht have been settled someplace dry and safe within the hour

But Marcus’s hand lingered on the door handle a second too long Kat’s fifteen years as Uncle Eddie’s great-niece and Bobby Bishop’s daughter had left her senses a bit too sharp And the as blowing in just the right direction, perfectly calibrated to carry the word on the air as a voice screamed, "Katarina!"

In all of Kat’s life, only three people routinely called her by her full first naruff, and he was currently giving orders in Paraguay Or Uruguay One had a voice that was soft and kind and he was in Warsaw, exa plans to take it home But it was the last voice that Kat feared as she spun away froed to the man who most likely wanted to kill her