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been trying to seduce him for the past six months. Ever since she had been reassigned from Vauxhall.
    Without further warning, her deft little hands unzipped his pants and one hand went inside. “Let’s let the Loch Ness Monster out for some Midnight air.”
    He gasped but didn’t stop her. She was at the perfect level, and his mind had actually gone to that thought a few times. In seconds he was to his full glory and her warm mouth took it in. Now he couldn’t stop her if he wanted to. And he sure as hell didn’t want her to deviate from the task at hand.

    Central Intelligence Agency Headquarters
Langley, Virginia
    Deep within the command center, more than one hundred feet below the surface of what had been the old Andrews Air Force Base bowling alley, Kurt Jenkins swiveled in his wide chair like a starship captain, his eyes flicking from one LCD screen to the next, observing ongoing operations worldwide. He was the newly appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He had been career CIA before congress had combined the CIA, FBI, NSA, DEA, ATF, and all of the military service intelligence functions into one organization years ago. He had been the first manager of external operations, a position that controlled all covert operations away from U.S. territories, and had ascended to the top job a month ago.
    Jenkins checked the bank of clocks, which ran along the top of the wall above the LCD screens, each indicating a different time in various locations around the world. Zulu plus one to Svalbard Archipelago. Twenty-three hundred here. That would mean Zulu minus six, or zero five hundred there. Jake would call at any time now.
    He needed to get home to sleep, but guessed he would spend the night again on the sofa in his office. He should have just had a bed brought in and forget about the pretext of his current situation. Sure he didn’t really want to go home, but he needed to help his old friend, Jake Adams. After Jake had called, Jenkins had researched the current situation in Svalbard. He glanced at a briefing paper. It was more than Jake understood, he was sure of that. Only time would tell for sure what Jake had gotten himself into this time, though. His men had tried to pick up Colonel Reed for questioning, but somehow he had disappeared from Oslo. Vanished.
    Then Jenkins had wanted to contact his counterpart in Moscow to see what he knew; yet, he knew that would show his hand. No, he needed to give Jake everything he knew to date, and then keep digging. Even though relations with Norway were good, he didn’t want to talk with them directly either. This would have to be handled with great discretion. Jake would be on his own. He would give Jake technical assistance when needed. Nothing more. He looked at the brief once more before slipping it into the shredder at his side.

4
    Jake had woken early as usual, around zero six hundred, but what was not normal for the past three months is that he did not have a huge headache hangover. At some point he had come to expect the stiff neck, the throbbing pain radiating from there to his temples and eyeballs, and the dry throat. Expected the feeling of weakness that he thought he could vanquish with the early hour and some push-ups and sit-ups. Yet, deep down he knew he was fooling himself. Still, it wasn’t like he had been falling down drunk for the past three months. He had simply taken things a bit to the extreme, finding whatever comfort he could with Anna’s absence without cheating. The numbness had prevented any possible intimacy with another woman, not that he had tried to find it, but had also bled over into those times when Anna had been home. He could see that now, with his mind clear and not clouded with the after-effects of alcohol.
    In fact, he felt pretty damn good this morning. Felt like taking a run, which he did while Anna continued to sleep.
    A dark fog wrapped the town of Longyearbyen in isolated obscurity as