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why I’m here, Darren. I need your help.”
    “The Selpe Intelligence Network, my employer , considers you a criminal. I’m supposed to apprehend you. Or shoot you on sight. They’re not too particular about it. I’m most certainly not supposed to help you. Just by talking to you here, I risk being labelled as an accomplice and having my poster stuck to the board right next to yours.”
    Leonidas swore that when this was all over and his name was finally cleared, he would track down Lady Cassandra and shoot that vile harpy in the head. She’d played them all like puppets, and when her scheme was thwarted, she managed to escape her prison cell, leaving her few remaining loose ends to rot or to die. She’d even had her lover’s head blown off, which made Leonidas thank his lucky stars that he’d never slept with her. You don’t dance the horizontal tango with someone and then turn right around and have him blown to bits. That’s just not good manners.
    “You owe me on account of that nasty shooting incident in Timberland,” Leonidas told Darren.
    “You’re not going to bring up that now, are—”
    “I saved your life.”
    “You bastard.” Darren showed his angry face, which made him look more constipated than scary. “What do you want?”
    “I need to borrow an airplane.”
    Darren looked as though he’d just asked for the moon. “Don’t ask for much, do you?”
    Leonidas shrugged. “I wouldn’t waste that favor you owe me on just anything.”
    Darren stared at him for several seconds, all the while scraping his teeth together. Finally, he said, “I don’t have an airplane to give you.”
    “There’s one sitting at the docks with gigantic garish SIN logos plastered all over its bright and shiny hull.”
    “Again, I say it. I don’t have an airplane to give you.”
    “Fine, you don’t have to get me the keys. Just tell me the code to turn off the security system. I can hotwire a stupid plane.”
    Darren gave him a hard look. “And how exactly do you think stealing from the Selpe Intelligence Network will help you clear your name?”
    “It’s all part of the plan.”
    “Dare I ask what this plan is?”
    “Better not. You don’t want to incriminate yourself,” said Leonidas.
    “Probably too late for that anyway,” he grumbled. “Ok, Leonidas. Fine. I’ll help you.”
    Finally, a bit of luck.
    “But I can’t give you the codes. Each of us has a different code to unlock the plane. If I give you mine, they’ll know. And it will all come back to me.”
    Trust it to spies to be so paranoid. If only Marin were here, Leonidas wouldn’t need any stinking codes. She would just hack the damn thing. Of course, if Marin were here, he wouldn’t need to be.
    “Give me her code,” Leonidas suggested, nodding toward the redheaded spy. She was still absorbed with whatever was on her screen and didn’t seem to notice.
    “Sadly, I don’t know it.” Darren actually did look genuinely disappointed.
    “You’re slipping, my friend.”
    “Spare me,” he retorted, picking at the worn edges of his book.
    Leonidas watched him, and then it hit him. “You like her.”
    “What?” Darren straightened. “No. Absolutely not.”
    “Yes, you do.” Why didn’t I see it right away? He, too, was slipping. “You bring out that stupid book whenever a new infatuation hits. And you always read it in front of the girl you like, thinking it makes you look like an intellectual.”
    “I am an intellectual.”
    “Sure, sure.” Leonidas chuckled. “Then, tell me. What’s your favorite part of the job, Darren? Sitting in your office? Or being out in the field, really living it?”
    Darren frowned. “That doesn’t prove anything. And if you want my help in your misguided scheme, you’ll stop teasing me.”
    Leonidas intertwined his fingers together and set his hands on the table. He gave Darren a congenial smile and began to hum a tune under his breath.
    “That’s better. So, I can’t get you that