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strongly he will tell you where to go. I need him, so don’t piss him off.”
    â€œUnderstood. But I assure you I didn’t push too hard on the last two men we sent to find your sister.”
    The senator knew that also, since he had verified his lawyer’s actions every step of the way. He didn’t just spout off the former president’s words, he lived by them.
    â€œJim?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œI think I’m gonna need to ice my nuts when we’re done.”
    The senator laughed and then kicked his horse hard while letting up some on the reins, sending his horse into a quick trot. He could hear his lawyer and advisor screaming like a little girl as his gelding rushed to keep up with its mother, bringing a satisfying smile to the senator’s face.

6
    Rome, Italy
    Having caught the first flight out of Trapani, Sicily, Jake Adams was dragging slightly from lack of sleep. The Tunisian prison was terrible, but not the worst he’d ever experienced. That record went to his extended stay at a former Soviet prison, where the GRU had tortured him relentlessly and gotten nothing for their Draconian efforts. Nothing but bogus misinformation. Jake’s favorite weapon.
    But Jake’s lack of sleep the previous night came from the quiet hotel where he had stayed. That, and the fact that he had to keep one eye open for those two Greeks he had run across on the ferry, made for some marginal rest. In fact, he had gotten more sleep on the small commuter flight from Trapani to Rome, with a quick stop in Palermo.
    Now, closing in on noon, his mind drifted as the taxi he was riding in from Leonardo Di Vinci Airport to the Sapienza Università di Roma near the Roma Termini, the main train station of Rome, came to a halt at the curb. Considering it was summer, Jake thought the place looked very active, with young coeds in shorts and halter tops strolling along the sidewalks much like they did anywhere else in the world. The main entrance to the university resembled the main gate for a military installation.
    He paid the driver and stepped off toward the gate, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. Earlier that morning, before getting on the plane, he had wiped down the Glock he’d taken from the Greek and dropped it in a bathroom trash can. He could have simply shoved it into baggage, if he had more than the small backpack, but he couldn’t trust that the Italian authorities wouldn’t find it. Since he had never shot the gun anyway, he couldn’t be sure of its accuracy or reliability. However, he was quite familiar with Rome, having worked there with the Agency and after, and knew a few places to get his hands on a reliable weapon.
    The man at the gate entrance gave Jake a map of the campus, which looked like an elaborate maze. Being the largest campus in Europe, with nearly 150,000 students, he would have been lost without the map, even though he had been to the campus a few times in the past.
    It took Jake twenty minutes to make it to the building that housed the Museum of the Near East, where he expected to find Professor Carlo Bretti. According to Jake’s information, Sara Halsey Jones had been directed to Professor Bretti after her research in Athens. There was no reason to go all the way to Greece, since she more than likely had been gone from there a long time ago. As far as Jake knew, there was no report of the other two investigators getting beyond Rome. In fact, based on the map and what he had seen so far, Sara Halsey Jones could be hiding right here at the campus, blending in with students and faculty. She looked young enough to pass for a grad student.
    Jake found Professor Carlo Bretti hunched over a desk in his basement office of the museum, his eyes concentrating on an object under a magnified light.
    â€œExcuse me,” Jake said, not even bothering with Italian, since he knew the professor spoke English. He introduced himself with only his name. Not who